Club409
The best damn waste of time!
409 game night
acelxix
Total posts: 2398
9/30/2015 11:10 AM
barbie needs to turn them gameboard hax off! hackerban!
Drew
Total posts: 5115
10/1/2015 3:59 PM
update: i was the dread pirate for most of the game last night plundering at whim then she raided me and took my booty (IYKWIM) and won
Drew
Total posts: 5115
12/30/2015 12:11 PM
Christmas 2015 additions to the E-Casa game closet:
XCOM - Players 1-4 Play time 1 hour Medium-steep learning curve
FFG made a board game based on the XCOM video game. The video games were like 50% mgmt and 50% combat but this is pretty much 100% mgmt. It's all co-op and requires the app to play along and some parts are timed. Looking forward at frantically yelling at each other.
Tsuro - Players 2-8 Play time 15 min Low learning curve
As I understand a you have to put down tiles to make your path longer than everyone else's.
Shawn
Total posts: 1367
3/17/2016 1:29 PM
I'm itching for a 409 bro trip again or a game night in the mountains.
Drew
Total posts: 5115
3/17/2016 4:36 PM
Steven mentioned a halfway point winterfell rendezvous for some DG...
Drew
Total posts: 5115
3/19/2016 12:02 PM
Barbie and I are doing ultimate game night 2016, keeping tally of the wins/losses for every game we play, if she wins we go on an all day do whatever she wants date, if I win she has to watch me play through chrono trigger, I'm down by 2 right now
acelxix
Total posts: 2398
7/11/2016 4:30 PM
Aryn and I wanted some new board games, and ended up at Books a Million. They actually have a great selection.
We ended up settling on Mysterium. It's kind of a mix of mastermind, clue, and DiXit. One person plays as the Ghost, and the rest are mediums. The mediums are supposed to interpret visions (in the form of cards that have colorful drawings on them) to determine the person, place, and thing that killed the ghost. Depending on the number of mediums playing, you can have 4-7 possible suspects, and similar number of places and weapons. The mediums have 8 hours to determine all 3 things, and you guess them in order. Each hour, the ghost gives you a vision card, and the medium guesses by placing their crystal ball on the person (or place, or thing, depending on what you've already guessed correctly). If you get it correctly, the ghost knocks once, twice for wrong. If you get it right, you take the person card, discard the vision card, and move on to the next round, to determine the place. If you get it wrong, you keep the vision card, and get another one the next round, and guess the person once again. The ghost only gets 7 vision cards to choose from. Depending on the number of players, they have 1 or more times that where they can redraw all 7 vision cards, in the hopes of getting better cards.
By the end of the 8th hour, all mediums that have correctly guessed the person, place, and thing, go into a second phase of the game, where the ghost provides 3 final vision cards. Those cards need to be interpreted to determine the true culprit. There's another element to the game. During the guessing phase, each medium can place an intuition card on the crystal ball for other mediums. They can either agree or disagree with the other medium. If you get it correct (meaning that if you agree with the other medium, and the medium was correct, or if you disagree, and the other was incorrect), you gain intuition points. Based on the number of intuition points earned during the guessing phase, you get to see 1, 2 or 3 of the vision cards to determine the true culprit. So the better you are at interpreting all of the visions, the better odds you have of determining the true culprit.
At the end, the ghost reveals who the true culprit is, and the mediums who guess correctly win the game.
The first time we played, Aryn was the ghost, and I was able to interpret her visions correctly to guess the person, place or thing. The next time we played, I was the ghost, and Aryn played as two mediums. Unfortunately she was only able to figure out the right combination for one of the mediums.
When you play with 2 players, the intuition element of the game doesn't come into play, and also the "true culprit" phase isn't played at all. So the game isn't quite as interesting. It'll be interesting to see how it plays with more players.
It's a decent game. Sometimes the vision cards don't really match any of the persons, places, or things, so it's kind of awkward. But visions are vague sometimes, so it's part of the game I guess.
Anyhow, I'd give it a 3/5 vaguely related visions.
We ended up settling on Mysterium. It's kind of a mix of mastermind, clue, and DiXit. One person plays as the Ghost, and the rest are mediums. The mediums are supposed to interpret visions (in the form of cards that have colorful drawings on them) to determine the person, place, and thing that killed the ghost. Depending on the number of mediums playing, you can have 4-7 possible suspects, and similar number of places and weapons. The mediums have 8 hours to determine all 3 things, and you guess them in order. Each hour, the ghost gives you a vision card, and the medium guesses by placing their crystal ball on the person (or place, or thing, depending on what you've already guessed correctly). If you get it correctly, the ghost knocks once, twice for wrong. If you get it right, you take the person card, discard the vision card, and move on to the next round, to determine the place. If you get it wrong, you keep the vision card, and get another one the next round, and guess the person once again. The ghost only gets 7 vision cards to choose from. Depending on the number of players, they have 1 or more times that where they can redraw all 7 vision cards, in the hopes of getting better cards.
By the end of the 8th hour, all mediums that have correctly guessed the person, place, and thing, go into a second phase of the game, where the ghost provides 3 final vision cards. Those cards need to be interpreted to determine the true culprit. There's another element to the game. During the guessing phase, each medium can place an intuition card on the crystal ball for other mediums. They can either agree or disagree with the other medium. If you get it correct (meaning that if you agree with the other medium, and the medium was correct, or if you disagree, and the other was incorrect), you gain intuition points. Based on the number of intuition points earned during the guessing phase, you get to see 1, 2 or 3 of the vision cards to determine the true culprit. So the better you are at interpreting all of the visions, the better odds you have of determining the true culprit.
At the end, the ghost reveals who the true culprit is, and the mediums who guess correctly win the game.
The first time we played, Aryn was the ghost, and I was able to interpret her visions correctly to guess the person, place or thing. The next time we played, I was the ghost, and Aryn played as two mediums. Unfortunately she was only able to figure out the right combination for one of the mediums.
When you play with 2 players, the intuition element of the game doesn't come into play, and also the "true culprit" phase isn't played at all. So the game isn't quite as interesting. It'll be interesting to see how it plays with more players.
It's a decent game. Sometimes the vision cards don't really match any of the persons, places, or things, so it's kind of awkward. But visions are vague sometimes, so it's part of the game I guess.
Anyhow, I'd give it a 3/5 vaguely related visions.
acelxix
Total posts: 2398
7/11/2016 5:22 PM
During 4th of July, our friends Arnie and Twilley, and Aryn, and I played Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Each person plays a character that has unique traits (speed, might, sanity, intelligence), and are playing together to discover the haunted house. Depending on your speed, you can move X spaces through the house. The house is dynamic, so as you walk through a door, you pull a tile for the floor you're on (basement, ground, upper). As you enter a room for the first time, there may be one or more things that can happen. You can have an omen, trigger an event, discover an item, or nothing may happen. Sometimes there are special rules for exiting the room. When an omen is discovered, the player must roll 6 dice (The dice for the game are 6 sided, but the sides are 0,1 or 2) to see if a haunt is triggered. A haunt is triggered if the player rolls less than the number of omen cards in play. Once the haunt is triggered, depending on rules defined in a table, one player becomes the enemy (possessed, or something, I don't remember the term). That player controls a monster that spawns during the haunt, and works to complete the prophecy, making them the winner. All the other players work to end the haunt by completing specific tasks, which making them the winners. The objective for the enemy is only known to him (separate rule book). The objective of the good guys is only known to the good guys (separate rule book).
The items you discover may increase, decrease, or do a mix to your attributes. Or some of the items can give you other perks (like roll more dice to meet a challenge). If an omen or event is triggered when you enter a room, that ends your turn. If not, you can continue moving until you've used all your speed (1 tile = 1 speed).
Events can be any number of things, which can move your character to another room, or cause you to take damage if you don't meet a roll challenge, etc. For a roll challenge, you roll X number of dice, where X = the trait stated for the challenge. So if you have to do a might challenge, and you have 5 might, you roll 5 dice. Then the card would state things based on the roll. E.g.: 4 or more, take no damage; 1-3: take 2 physical damage; 0: take 3 physical damage. If you take physical damage, you have to decrease either your might or speed, or a combination. If you take mental damage, you decrease sanity, intelligence, or a combination.
When the haunt is triggered, if any of your traits are at 0, you die.
There's some other elements, like rules for attacking other players, but that's pretty much it. It's a lot of rule reading, and sometimes the rules are vague, or unclear, so you have to just agree upon it.
The first time we played, Arnie ended up being the enemy. During the haunt, a mummy was spawned, and arnie had to find a girl (which is a special item/character in the game), find a ring, and take her to the mummy's sarcophagus, and marry her with the ring. We had to find a book to discover the mummy's name, and use that to cast a spell to then attack and kill the mummy.
Unfortunately for Arnie, Twilley's character became really powerful early on (due to the omens he triggered, and items he discovered). So on Twilley's first turn after the haunt triggered, twilley killed Arnie's character. That made it very difficult for arnie to fulfill his objectives, because monsters have certain restrictions (like not be able to enter undiscovered rooms). So we were able to find the book, learn the mummy's name, cast a spell, and then kill the mummy.
We played for about 3 hours with 4 players. The game was definitely interesting, and it will be fairly unique every play through. The rule reading can become a little tedious, and because the rules for each haunt is different, the game will always take a long time to play through. However, things started moving a little quicker once we all understood the mechanics of the game.
I give the game a 4/5 magic elevator to escape mummies!
Each person plays a character that has unique traits (speed, might, sanity, intelligence), and are playing together to discover the haunted house. Depending on your speed, you can move X spaces through the house. The house is dynamic, so as you walk through a door, you pull a tile for the floor you're on (basement, ground, upper). As you enter a room for the first time, there may be one or more things that can happen. You can have an omen, trigger an event, discover an item, or nothing may happen. Sometimes there are special rules for exiting the room. When an omen is discovered, the player must roll 6 dice (The dice for the game are 6 sided, but the sides are 0,1 or 2) to see if a haunt is triggered. A haunt is triggered if the player rolls less than the number of omen cards in play. Once the haunt is triggered, depending on rules defined in a table, one player becomes the enemy (possessed, or something, I don't remember the term). That player controls a monster that spawns during the haunt, and works to complete the prophecy, making them the winner. All the other players work to end the haunt by completing specific tasks, which making them the winners. The objective for the enemy is only known to him (separate rule book). The objective of the good guys is only known to the good guys (separate rule book).
The items you discover may increase, decrease, or do a mix to your attributes. Or some of the items can give you other perks (like roll more dice to meet a challenge). If an omen or event is triggered when you enter a room, that ends your turn. If not, you can continue moving until you've used all your speed (1 tile = 1 speed).
Events can be any number of things, which can move your character to another room, or cause you to take damage if you don't meet a roll challenge, etc. For a roll challenge, you roll X number of dice, where X = the trait stated for the challenge. So if you have to do a might challenge, and you have 5 might, you roll 5 dice. Then the card would state things based on the roll. E.g.: 4 or more, take no damage; 1-3: take 2 physical damage; 0: take 3 physical damage. If you take physical damage, you have to decrease either your might or speed, or a combination. If you take mental damage, you decrease sanity, intelligence, or a combination.
When the haunt is triggered, if any of your traits are at 0, you die.
There's some other elements, like rules for attacking other players, but that's pretty much it. It's a lot of rule reading, and sometimes the rules are vague, or unclear, so you have to just agree upon it.
The first time we played, Arnie ended up being the enemy. During the haunt, a mummy was spawned, and arnie had to find a girl (which is a special item/character in the game), find a ring, and take her to the mummy's sarcophagus, and marry her with the ring. We had to find a book to discover the mummy's name, and use that to cast a spell to then attack and kill the mummy.
Unfortunately for Arnie, Twilley's character became really powerful early on (due to the omens he triggered, and items he discovered). So on Twilley's first turn after the haunt triggered, twilley killed Arnie's character. That made it very difficult for arnie to fulfill his objectives, because monsters have certain restrictions (like not be able to enter undiscovered rooms). So we were able to find the book, learn the mummy's name, cast a spell, and then kill the mummy.
We played for about 3 hours with 4 players. The game was definitely interesting, and it will be fairly unique every play through. The rule reading can become a little tedious, and because the rules for each haunt is different, the game will always take a long time to play through. However, things started moving a little quicker once we all understood the mechanics of the game.
I give the game a 4/5 magic elevator to escape mummies!
mwinter
Total posts: 4327
7/12/2016 3:16 PM
[you can ride my] magic elevator FTW!
Shawn
Total posts: 1367
7/12/2016 11:11 PM
Can we please make a return trip to Vegas?