Wonder Woman

I just saw the first trailer for the upcoming Wonder Woman movie. Especially given that I had just moments before seen the trailer for an upcoming King Arthur movie, I am full of thoughts.

Again, even though it's not directly gaming related, I'm going to take a little bit of a detour and talk about something else nerd-related. Hold on to your hats, people, here we go.

Thoughts on Movies in General

I used to like watching movies. I really did. I watched quite a few of them. Then one day, when I was working at Blockbuster Video (many years ago, obviously), I looked out over the many shelves of films on both VHS and DVD, and found myself wondering how many different titles there were. I did a little calculating and estimated that there were probably around 700 titles in that specific location alone.

Just that one store.

Board Game Review: Eclipse

Longtime readers of this blog may notice that I've already written an entry entitled 'Board Game Review: Eclipse.' That entry was not about Asmodee's space conquest game.

This one is.

The two games are very very different. This one (the Asmodee version) is a very heavy game. It usually takes around two hours or more, and has a lot to keep track of.

Speaking of keeping track, let's look at the stats, shall we?

Strategy: 5
Randomness: 2
Complexity: 5
Humour: None
Attractiveness: Pretty
Average Length of Game Play: 2 hours

An Overview of the Original World of Darkness (Part 3)

(continued from part 2)

Other games in the original World of Darkness

I never played any of the games that came after Changeling. The first, Hunter: The Reckoning, went against everything I loved about the first five games. Mummy: The Resurrection was a reworking of an earlier supplement, and I felt that it ruined everything that was wonderful about the original version. Demon: The Fallen brought into the World of Darkness a religious aspect that had been absent from previous games, and I was very disappointed by that fact, so I never looked into it. And although I owned a copy of Kindred of the East, I never got to play it. In fact, I never got to read it, primarily because I knew I wasn't likely to get to play it.

They did also release historical versions of most of the original five. It began in 1996 with the release of Vampire: The Dark Ages. It was essentially the same as the original Vampire: The Masquerade, but it was set in 1197 CE. The primary vampiric sects (the Camarilla and the Sabbat) had not been created yet, and there were some other differences reflecting the state of the vampires at that time. The following year saw the release of Werewolf: The Wild West. As with Dark Ages, it reflected the state of the Garou in the late 1800s. The next year, they released Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade. It had more changes than the other historical versions, as the mages had changed far more in their history than the vampires or werewolves. But it still reflected the state of the mages in the year 1466 CE. The year after that, they released Wraith: The Great War. This game reflected the status of the dead in the wake of World War I. It was the first of the historical games that was not a stand-alone game. It did not include all the rules needed to play; new players would have to already know the rules if they didn't want to buy another core rulebook in the World of Darkness line.

An Overview of the Original World of Darkness (part 2)

(continued from part 1)

Mage: The Ascension: 

Players take on the role of a powerful wizard. There are three primal forces that work together to form the universe: Dynamism (creation and unbridled possibility, often seen as pure chaos), Stasis (order and lack of changeability), and Entropy (destruction and cessation of existence). There are four factions of mages: the Technocracy (representing Stasis, champions of safety and dependable mundanity; they see themselves as stewards shepherding the Sleepers — those humans who've not awoken to the true magical nature of the universe — into a paradise of technology and security), the Mauraders (those mages who have given themselves over to — or been overtaken by — the pure chaos and insanity of Dynamism), the Nephandi (mages representing Entropy who have 'sold their souls' to ancient demonic beings from other planes of existence, serving them in exchange for vast power), and the Tradition Mages (those who represent some level of balance between Stasis, Dynamism, and Entropy). Tradition mages run the gamut from traditional Hermetic magi (think Merlin or Gandalf) to shamans to Wiccans to the mentalist Buddhist-monk type, and even mad scientists or those who use computers to try to free the minds of the Sleepers.

Board Game Review:Ghost Stories

Today is the day when I review another board game. For this outing, we'll look at a fun little co-operative board game. The name of this game is Ghost Stories, but don't be fooled by that name: it has nothing to do with sitting around a campfire trying to scare your friends. Instead, players are taking on the role of Taoist monks trying to defend a village that is being besieged by demons. It's hard, and it's maddening, and it's oh so much fun. But let's do this properly: I'll start, as always, with the numbers.

Strategy: 4
Randomness: 3
Complexity: 3
Humour: None
Attractiveness: Pretty
Average Length of Gameplay: 1 hour

An Overview of the Original World of Darkness (part 1)

In 1991, Mark Rein•Hagen's game Vampire: The Masquerade was released. This game took the roleplaying community by storm, and soon was one of the most prominent RPGs in the hobby. It was the first of five games planned by Rein•hagen, who intended to release a game about werewolves next, followed by one about wizards, one about faeries, and one about ghosts.

The order and specifics changed a bit; the game about wizards came to be known as Mage: The Ascension, the one about ghosts was named Wraith: The Oblivion and was moved up to be released before the one about faeries, and that final one came to be known as Changeling: The Dreaming. But all five of those games were released:

• Vampire: The Masquerade (1st edition 1991; 2nd edition 1992)
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1st edition 1992; 2nd edition 1994)
• Mage: The Ascension (1st edition 1993; 2nd edition 1995)
• Wraith: The Oblivion (1st edition 1994; 2nd edition 1996)
• Changeling: The Dreaming (1st edition 1995; 2nd edition 1997)

Large Group Games

The Dork Spouse and I haven't had a board game night at our house in several months now (with the exception of that dinner party the Dork Spouse hosted some weeks ago as a thank you to some people who helped her out at a big event). There are many reasons for this; we're super busy with other things; we're currently on Smart Hours for the summer which makes timing difficult, many of the people we invited often don't show up, etc). But one thing that always bothered me about Board Game Night when it did happen was that, on those few occasions in which more than a couple of people showed up, there are not very many games that accommodate a large number of players.

In our current inventory, the following games are the only ones that permit more than six players:

• Bananagrams (2 or more)
• Cards Against Humanity (2 or more)
• Citadels (2 to 8)
• Gloom (2 to 7, if you don't mind slow game play)
• Tsuro (2 to 8)
• Uno (2 to 10)
• Pictionary (3 to 16)
• Slap .45 (3 to 7)
• Superfight! (3 to 10)
• Winter Tales (3 to 7)
• Apples to Apples (4 to 10)
• The Resistance (and Avalon) (5 to 10)
• Guesstures (4 or more)
• Werewolves of Miller's Hollow (8 to 18)