[Durban] Game Day – 14 November

Once again, I’ll be hosting another game day in Durban.

Venue: Destiny Bookstore, Windermere Centre, Durban

Time: 10:30 am for 11:00 am

Price: Free!

I met some potential new RPG players at a Halloween party… on, um, Halloween. I promised them that I’d run a simple RPG session for them at the next game day. So, I’ll be running a short Pathfinder adventure for them (module, level etc. still to be determined). Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a second GM to run a second table, so, instead, PB will run a few Dominion games for those that don’t get a chance to RP. Unfortunately, the RPG table only has 3 spots left, so bookings are essential.

As always: No gaming experience required.

- jatori

Dominominominom

Another day, another board game.  I mean card game.  Normally I do not like games made up entirely of cards (especially collectable card games aka CCGs).  I want harder cardboard bits, miniatures and maybe a dice or two, to throw at offending opponents.  (Disclaimer: I do not actually throw board game around, but sometimes it is very tempting).  Luckily Dominion is Not a CCG.  It is a stand-alone card game.  Buy once and play forever. Though it does have a few expansions in the works, but which good card game/board game doesn’t?

Dominion  is a unique card game in which the players spend the actual game building up their deck of cards.  That might sound a bit strange.  Surely one would build the deck of cards before playing? No. Here one starts with a small number of cards and builds up a (sometimes) massive deck of cards…

[Report] Progress; Query; Edition/Play-Style Wars; Blogging Pipeline

I don’t think I’ve ever tried this before: I’ve seen several of my favourite blogs pose the following question recently:

What do you like about the blog? What don’t you like? What type of content would you prefer?

I tend to ask the above questions on a small scale, when looking for direction on one particular topic, but gauging by the average response rate on other blogs to these questions, I think it may be a good idea to ask my readership the same questions.

So, what do you like/dislike about tenletter? Is there some specific topic you’d like me (or one of the authors) to approach?

I don’t intend to write anything about the ongoing edition/system or play-style/school wars. We are all evolved beings, that are all above such petty bickering.

In other news, my company confirmed, should the client be continuing with the current project (given the still volatile nature of the world’s economies), I will be returning to the EU in time for SPIEL, with PB in tow.

Finally, let’s see what I managed to complete since last month’s pipeline, what’s getting discarded and what’s still to come:

• Travel:
  • Gaming/Shopping in Cape Town, South Africa
  • Gaming/Shopping in Durban, South Africa
  • Gaming in Utrecht, the Netherlands
  • Shopping in Utrecht, the Netherlands (Complete)
  • Shopping in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Complete)
• Board/Card Game Reviews: I’ll be reviewing the following games in the near future:
  • Last Night on Earth
  • Fluxx (the Monty Python edition) (Discarded)
  • Runebound 2nd Edition
• Gaming Reports:
  • My first forays into Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures tournament play.
  • Worldwide Dungeons and Dragons Game Day (Monster Manual 2) in Utrecht. (Complete with some extra)
  • Worldwide Dungeons and Dragons Game Day (Monster Manual 2) in Cape Town. (Discarded)
• Miscellaneous:
  • My pet 3.X monk project. (Ongoing)
  • Growing Pleasantdale into a full campaign setting.
• Possibly Pretentious:
  • An examination of race, racism and racialism in RPGs.

- jatori

A taste of things to come

In the future, there shall be board games.  Well, board game reviews at least (and I use the term loosely).  Time allowing, I intend to have a look at the following board/card games (In no particular order):

• Pandemic – Co-operative game of finding cures for diseases before the diseases find you.
• Arkham Horror expansion: Black Goat of the Woods – There can never be enough horror.
• Dominion – Non-collectable card game…perhaps the game of the year?
• Titan – Epic war game is epic (Which means “long”).
• Twilight Imperium expansion: Shattered Empire – Making a great epic game better.
• Aye, Dark Overlord – Fun non-collectable card game of minion bumbling evilness.

Expect them when they arrive…

Hastur Hastur Hastur

Yes, it’s once again time to talk about Cthulhu (still the number one source of tenletter traffic (Cthulhu Fhtagn!)) and all his Great Old buddies. This past Friday, PB, myself and two other acquaintances got together to play Munchkin Cthulhu for the first time. As per usual, I won (coming from far, far behind to make an amazing out of nowhere victory (not winning any friends along the way and earning some couch time too)).

For those that don’t know, Munchkin is a series of card games created by Steve Jackson Games. I love the game and its ability to highlight the Machiavellian politics of any role playing game and group and turn it into fun game of backstabbing and betrayal. Game play is simple: to win, you must be the first player to reach level 10 (killing monsters is one way to gain the necessary levels and valuable loot aids in killing monsters) whilst preventing your opponents from reaching level 10 through stealing their loot, jinxing their fights or  trying to bully them with vague threats into using all their resources on each other instead of you. The original Munchkin made fun of traditional heavy fantasy RPGs, while Munchkin Cthulhu adds a bit of tentacliness to the mix. If you like Munchkin, I recommend that you check out Munchkin Cthulhu.

- Jatori

Magic Trad(ing/ers)

Magic:the Gathering in South Africa is kinda dying.  I’d like to know from any international readers (or SA readers who disagree – or just want to lay an egg) if it is looking to be the case there too?

I’m kind of going out on a limb here, but Magic in SA was never cheap.  However it’s now costing the clients more to buy it (used to be about 2.5 bigmacs), and are now up to above 3 bigmacs.  Also, the cards have a limited lifecycle.  So looking at it from a retailer’s perspective, it’s not attractive.  The price went up drastically (maybe not so much in comparison to other things in the slowing SA economy), enough to make the stock flow slower out of the store, making the return on your investment less profitable (if at all?!).

But what’s driving this?  Well, my guess (and I’m going out on a limb that I got due to working in retail) is that Hasbro said… oh!  You’ve grown in revenue 20% last year (that was probably 3 years ago… Mirroden anyone?), so your target for next year is revenue growth of another 20% (or more).  So the guys at WotC thinks… ah 20% growth… our market is pretty fixed, so let’s just up the price a bit.  Forecast about the same amount of units sold, and up the price by 20% and Bob’s your uncle!

So my guess is, that it’s the beaurocracy that’s killing the game (in SA), and had WotC stayed independant they’d have the freedom to keep things going where they wanted to go, rather than go where other’s want them to go.  Maybe things will pick up, but for me, the game was always, and will continue to be, too expensive to play.

A deck of bicycles playing cards costs <R20 at Pick and Pay/Checkers… and you can play a gazillion games with it.

A public request

This is not truly a post – just a public request to f00 to get this: DnD Inn Fighting

I must admit that sounds like a massive blast of a game.

…I wonder if being sober confers any bonuses/penalties…

Card game with violence and nudity?

There is no violence or nudity in this post. There may be some in this card game. That is if you have a magnifying glass and have a lucrative career of picking nits. But enough of that, on to the game: Citadels.

All bets are on

After looking at quite a few board games, I have come to the conclusion that most of the really good ones take a whole afternoon/night to play. (Arkham Horror and Descent being the most played).  But what if one finishes early?  One can’t simply start another loong game and hope it finishes within an hour.  This is when the short and sweet games (Carcassonne and Ingenious) really shines.  But as always, I am greedy.  I want more short and sweets, table top games that are finished in around 30-45 minutes.  So down to the local gaming store I went and picked up another Reiner Knizia card game of goodness:

Quest Completed: Looking For Group

It’s been a long 9 months since we relocated to Durban. In that time, We had a few false start gaming sessions that never led to anything concrete (Lia, Willow and Raistlin have unfortunately passed onto the unfinished campaign PC heaven in the sky). This past Saturday, however, I think that Peasantbutcher and I found a gaming group that we can roll some serious dice with (in between the role-playing, of course).

I’ll be playing a 4th level 4e half-elf paladin this coming weekend (thesis workload allowing). I’m going to try and build the character (mechanically) without looking at the builds floating on the internet and see what I can come up with. I’ll report on my character’s performance (both roll and role) after the event.

PB is playing an Eladrin ranger and I’m sure she’ll be posting a few stories too.

The group is an interesting ensemble of individuals and I’m sure a few stories will creep onto this blog in the near future, especially since we have one of those players. Placing players into player archetype boxes is a horrible habit of mine, which I picked up from Mark Rosewater during my Magic days, but still a somewhat necessary habit when it comes to GMing (at least I think it helps me). When I refer to those players, I am referring to the ones that always place the rest of the players into a bit of a pickle when ever the opportunity arises, because they tend to shoot first, loot later.

Till later, remember that hacking up the corpses nets you more expees.

-j

P.S. For those interested, I’m a Johnny-Spike Magic player (more Johnny than Spike), favouring a blue-green approach to the game.