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Divinus Board Game Review - Lucky Duck Games

Demigods eh? You think every thing is going well and life is nice and quiet, then all of a sudden you're reminded that you've actually got to go and prove yourself and show how powerful you are in order to ascend to some kind of Pantheon type thing. Well, in Divinus you need to. Now, I don't want you to cringe when I mention this game, but Divinus from Lucky Duck Games seems to have crawled from the same evolutionary pool as Charterstone. Now that might be enough to have some of you wince slightly but hang fire. I'm very aware that not everyone had the best time from that game and time has seen it as more an experiment in gameplay than a direction to forge ahead with. What if I said that Divinus also seems to have inherited its mother's love of Carcassonne. Does that make you feel any better? I hope so. I really do.  Divinus is another entry in the application based games that Lucky Duck Games are quietly and regularly producing from their studios. They seem to have

Loke BattleMats - Giant Book of BattleMats - Playtest and Guest Review

When Loke BattleMats were kind enough to reach out and offer me a chance to try out their Giant Book of BattleMats, I had to concede it would be unfair for me to even attempt to look over their fantastic offering without coming across as some kind of ignorant buffoon. Luckily for me, all round good egg and excellent DM,  Neil Alexander, who runs RPG campaigns regularly in Dunfermline and Edinburgh was happy to take a look on my behalf.  So I took the chance to outsource this review to him so he could try the Battle Mats out on some active campaigns.    The Giant Book of BattleMats certainly live up to their name, coming in a ring binding of A3 size  and 62 pages of various style maps and possible scenarios for you to live out your campaign. You can either use the pages separately or open them up so that you can create an entire A2 scene which will allow you to easily place additional items on the map to enhance the experience.  The Laminated pages serve two purposes i

You're Doing it Wrong!. - Janice Turner - Wren Games

Disclaimer: No gamers were harmed during the writing of this blog post. So, you’ve designed a game, you spent many hours, days, weeks even designing and/or finalising the artwork and writing the rule book, you successfully fund on Kickstarter and your game goes out into the wilds. You start to see photos of people not only playing, but enjoying your game on social media and you feel great. Those hours, days, weeks were worth it. Your creation is bringing joy to other people’s lives. And then you see a photo where someone isn’t playing your game quite right.   I mean, it’s not like I’ve played this game hundreds and hundreds of times and the gameplay is now muscle memory and ingrained into me on how it should, MUST be played. But you look at the photo and all you can see is THEY ARE PLAYING IT WRONG! You want to reach into the photo and correct it. But they are having fun. What they are doing wrong doesn’t actually affect gameplay. In fact, it has exactly zero impact

Hey Kickstarter, Lets make some noise

It's been an interesting year for the crowdfunding platform, with its share of multi-million dollar successes, controversies surrounding outright potential fraud and plagiarism, and continuing dramas centering around project fulfillment or lack there of. We have our first taste of Kickstarter as an actual pre-order store and our stalwart Big Name behemoths seeing push backs against some of their expected successes. At the centre of it all, the old debates surface and swirl and disappear only to surface again. For those jumping on the platform for their first time, with their game clutched tightly to their chest, they'll often hear the echoes of previous creators ringing in their ears. 'Kickstarter isn't fair' 'Kickstarter has raised the bar for everyone' 'Kickstarter makes it impossible for those without a budget' 'Kickstarter isn't for those who aren't prepared to make an effort' 'Kickstarter won't help those who don't do

Gladiatores Blood For Roses - Kickstarter First Thoughts

With the blood pounding through my ears and my vision dazed and confused, I check my bearings once again, ready to strike my hands down and make my mark. With one question burning in my head, I look towards the sun, sweat dripping slightly from my brow. And that question is a simple one.. When you are asked to give your first thoughts on a game about Gladiatorial combat, is it against the law to not start the piece without some kind of combat reference? Should I be asking if you are entertained? Should you clap after reading this? Should I be getting on with piece? Probably yes.   So let’s start with something that might get a thumbs down and the crowd baying. The combat mechanics in most of the games I’ve played are rather slow and long. This is down to you normally having to deal with the consequences of that one attack and that one attack only. Tension gives way to rounds and everyone being polite and taking their turn. It’s almost civilised in its nature. You backup your char

Tabletop Scotland - We Went a Wandering...

Friendly, Busy, But Never Overcrowded.. I’m in the unusual position that I first heard about Tabletop Scotland long before the Media Coverage and press releases hit, as I’ve known David, Simon and John for the last three years, as they are regular attendees at the local gaming club I go to in Dunfermline (DWARF). We’ve played some games together and in fact both Dave and John were guests on the podcast in the past. It was really interesting to hear the snippets of information as the planning progressed. The excitement of reaching 250 ticket sales and the nervousness of how far it would climb before the big day. How much of the Dewar Centre was going to be taken up by cardboard? and the proud moments when the partnerships were announced tentatively. In the background was always whispers of ‘this is going to happen isn’t it?’ As the days rolled ever onwards and the ticket sales increased, the next question that arose was ‘I hope this is good’. And not meant in a way to be cruel but more

Dice Summoners - Decking Awesome Games - Kickstarter First Thoughts

So with the combination of several melee and magical attacks that were achieved on the back of a rather lucky dice roll I removed the last of Ciara’s Hit Points. I raised my arms in a V and cheered out loud, so those gathered around in the hall would have no doubt that I achieved a fantastic victory. I’m a hell of a sore winner, gloater and the type of person who believes that there is nothing better in victory than reminding your opponent that you did indeed win. Especially when it is one of the architects of the game itself. And where better than in front of a crowd? That however is not the reason that I like Dice Summoners. One of the things that struck me was the simplicity and purity of the core mechanics, so that when Simon from Tabletop Scotland asked me what I thought of the game, I wasn’t only able to give him a grin and exclaim once again I had won, but I was able to in a period of less than five minutes explain to them how to play the game. That to me is a GOOD THING.

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island 2nd Edition - Solo review - Steve Mcgillivray

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island places players on a deserted island, shipwrecked there and in dire need of food and shelter. Here I'll talk about Solo mode using the beginner scenario Castaway, which is a great introduction to the game. The game is played over 12 rounds, with the aim being to build a log pile and light a fire to signal a passing ship. The ship is scheduled to pass on rounds 10, 11 and 12 so time is of the essence. To further complicate matters, the woodpile must be added to only once per turn, prior to the Action phase, adding another level of complexity and difficulty. This isn't even taking into account the day to day task of actually surviving, which can be very challenging. Each round is comprised of 6 phases. The Event (skipped in round 1), Morale, Production, Action, Weather and Night phases. The Action phase is, unsurprisingly, where most of the key decisions are made. Do you explore your new home and seek ou

MYnd Kraft by Tharini Rajamohan - First Thoughts

MYnd Kraft by Tharini Rajamohan is a more of a games system then an actual game, combining some basic programming knowledge in order to create a series of mini games that can be expanded upon and even altered to increase or decrease the difficulty. Look on it as something similar to what Bez did with Wibbell ++ or Karen Rubins achieved with Comic Turns, both of which are brilliant fun in their own right and continue to offer additional hours of entertainment as you experiment and explore with the foundations provided in their respective core sets. Let us start with the encouraging first observation that you can sit down and know the basics of how MYnd Kraft works in little under four minutes, regardless of how much or little programming knowledge that you have, and that if you can’t tell your switch from your loop, or your function from your data structure then worry not, as the instruction booklet is laid out in a clear series of tables that explain exactly how each of the card

Unreserved - Physis Games - Some First Thoughts

"Oh and next up we have Physis Game’s auction type game, Unreserved. We’ll start the bidding on £3 to get us going... And that’s £4 with you madam? Now who’ll give me £5..?” You might imagine that in the voice of David Dickinson, but in truth, he’s never actually held a gavel anytime I saw him. He was never mechanically that important, just the cheeky glue that held the entire show together and made the contestants feel at home. The auction themselves only got exciting when you get one of those hidden gems that shoots off like an unexpected firework, causing everyone to run and hide and a bidding war to kick off. The truth of the matter is that most of the auctions are straightforward affairs and normally either end up slightly above the asking price, or at worse a touch below, leaving the contestant running away with winnings in the region of tens of pounds instead of a fortune. It’s the anticipation of the ‘hidden gem’ being found that compels us to continue watching as oppose

Ruthless Card Game Preview - First Thoughts - Iain McAllister

This Review is based of a first playthrough of the game at UK Games Expo. I do not own it, though have pre-ordered, and have not read the rulebook. Arr matey that be a fine deckbuilder that you have there. Be a real shame if some plucky young game set sails on the choppy seas of game releases and blew a hole in your bloated side, making off with all the best loot and leaving you with naught but an accordion playing parrot and a memory of how good you used to have it. Ruthless folk would do that to you and those scurvy dogs from Alley Cat Games might be the crew to carry it off. Now get up in that crow's nest and see if we can't tell which way the wind is blowing. Cards are final, components are not and it will not come with metal coins. But it’s already a damn fine looking game Batten Down the Hatches!! Deckbuilding has become a rather overused mechanic in the last few years, being forced into every genre under the sun. I’ll admit that it does lend a sense of replayabil

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