Rest in peace sir.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

I had a couple of friends try it and they got the same results. Massive, free boosts to their Dropbox accounts.  It worked so well in fact I decided to put it into a document and publish it. Here is the result; “The Gratis Guide to Free Dropbox Space.”

Normally I sell the Gratis Guide for $2.99, but I am attending the Game manufacturers Trade Show in March in Las Vegas and need a fundraiser.  So, I am selling the Gratis Guide  for .99! Sorry, the sale is over, but the e-book on getting free dropbox space is still available.  If you enjoy my  GAMA Trade Show coverage, please consider picking up this e-book to help offset my expenses.

Oh, if you have a website and are willing to link put this link on your site (Guide to Free Dropbox  Space), drop me a line. I will be happy to send you a free copy.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

So, tomorrow Livingdice goes black. You can still get to the content by clicking through the black banner, but I hope you will at least take a moment to consider the value of the Internet in its current state. Get educated. Otherwise the freedoms we all enjoy on the net now will disappear in a swirl of copyright legislation favoring media conglomerates.

Anyone else care to join me? There is a handy WordPress plugin to get the job done with minimal effort.

Trask

I just booked my flight and hotel for the GAMA Trade Show 2012 and noticed something odd. Assuming you are staying at the site of the convention (Bally’s), you can use the convention code (SBGAMA2) to get a $114.00 per night rate. All well and good, but the rate discount does not seem to work when you use the code on the Bally’s website reached from the GTS hotel page. It defaults down to rack rate for the hotel and says no rooms available at that rate for the week of the trade show.

The Calendar of Misinformation

Save yourself some major cash and call Bally’s directly. The reservation agent happily applied the code to my room for the week and I got the $114.00 rate. Otherwise my stay was $199.00 per night! This completes my good deed for the day.

See you in Vegas!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Erik and his merry band of cultists over at Gaming Paper have a Cthulhu Wrapping Paper project up  on kickstarter that needs supporters.  I am doing my part to publicize Great Old Cthulhu and earn his favor. By favor I mean being eaten last. ;-)

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Trask shall rise again!

Stuart and I got in a nearly complete game, save for a ship combat mechanic that was not ready just yet (the Clix bases were non-functional on the ships).

Here is a shot of the board.

The “Enterprise” image at the top is the central transit site for transporter movement. Players may beam up once during their turn and then beam down to any place on the planet (the cards with tokens on them). Alternatively, players move one space for each action expended. Players get a random number of actions for each round based on the event card draw (these cards are under the hand on the image’s left side.) Besides actions, there are events on the cards that resolve immediately if applicable. The top of the board has the ship combat tracking path. Various events and actions move the ships and bad things happen if the Klingons advance too far. The track at the right is the turn tracker. Some events take place after a certain point on the track, so moving faster is better.

During a turn players may exchange items, beam up/down, pick-up items (the square tokens on the board), attempt to complete a challenge (visible on the board as the cards with red, blue or gold numbers), draw cards or use a special ability. I played “Uhura,” so my special ability was drawing a card and then giving to a nearby player in one action.

The main resolution mechanic are the various challenges on the board. In the image there is a “24″ command challenge at the center (its gold, blue for science, etc) that I will use as an example. To beat the challenge, one or more players enter the square, add whatever bonuses from cards or crewmen (red-shirts that give bonuses for various actions) and their own skill to a dice roll. All the characters have comparative advantage in the various skills. While everyone has the same skills, if you want to beat a command challenge, send James Tiberius Kirk. Need something analyzed? Send Spock. That said, given a little luck and the right combination of bonuses anyone can defeat a challenge. Our Captain Kirk player successfully cured a plague, so anything is possible. Players do take damage from cards or challenges. You cannot die, but as you take damage the Clix base reduces your skill numbers until you finally drop and retreat to the Enterprise for some Dr. McCoy quality time.

The challenges often have two levels of success. You can get by with a 20 dice roll, but a 24 gets you better results. Specifically, there is a chart (just visible at the top of the board and to the right) that tracks success. The low success gets you one point on a track, while the higher gets three. This is something of an issue because organizing challenge attempts takes time and some time just getting it done is more important than the larger point benefit. The lesser success also changes how you draw event cards for the various tracks. A low success on a “command” challenge might mean that the command plot line (deck) increases in difficulty or the rewards go down. Choose wisely.

The success tracker also indicates how you did at the end of the game. To win, you must move all three tracks as high and as fast as possible. You could focus on only one track, say the Klingons and defeat them, but the planet descends into anarchy because the rebels won.

If you have not already guessed, this is a cooperative game, so team work is essential to success. Ego by players will result in defeat.

The mechanics are fun and the game quite fast (under one hour). The cards, board and Clix miniatures all were of good quality. Most importantly for me though was the “feel” of the game. The Wizkids! representative indicated that Reiner wanted the game to play like an episode. I thought he was just trying to sell us on the game, bu it actually is true. As you play the game, you almost have “acts” like a TV show. Things start going well and then BAM!, the plasmatic ferangulator device fails and you need to find some dilithium crystals or you are all going to die!

I truly enjoyed Star Trek: Expeditions, but I have a reservation. The plot lines and events required to make the game “episodic” might limit the re-playability of each scenario. Yes, the cards and tokens appear randomly on the board, but after 4-5 runs of the same scenario the excitement level might run dry since repeated players know the best path to completion. That said, this game begs for add-ons and supplements and I expect them in the near future.

These are my thoughts on Star Trek: Expeditions and my reasons for giving it the “GTS 2011 Best of Show” title.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

P.S.,

Stuart chiming in here. I had the same reservation as Trask. The game is GREAT, but it will need to be supplemented with additional stories to use to increase re-playability. I also hope for an expansion to bring in more of the Star Trek personnel as Kirk, Spoke, Uhura, and Bones were the only player options. We need Sulu, Chekov, and of course, Scotty! But this game was a fun game, especially for Trekkers and as it was designed by Reiner Knizia, you won’t go wrong.

You can play the game solo, or up to four players. It has a run time of about an hour. and it is set to release in mid-June.

Stuart

Green Ronin

Green Ronin had a nice spread of all there recently released books.  And they seem to have new stuff around every corner.  Most exciting (to me at least) was the Dragon Age RPG: Set 2. Expect full coverage of this when it comes out. Also coming soon is the 3rd Edition Mutants & Masterminds Game Master’s Guide, DC ADVENTURES: Heroes & Villains, Vol. I, and exciting things for the A Song of Ice and Fire RPG.

The Green Ronin Booth

Bandai

Bandai has the Naruto CCG set #20 that just released (I love the tag line.  ”Where the fiercest ninjas are also the sharpest dressers) , #21 in May, and Chibi Tourney Pack #3 in July (great artwork on this one). Their hottest new release, Resident Evil [Deck Building Game] is not starting to come back in-stock at retail stores after selling out their initial run. There will be a new expansion coming out this month, and another in June (in this one, if you die you can come back as a zombie).

Resident Evil by Bandai

Three Sages Games

TSG’s has a new addition to their plastic (foam backed) mapping tiles Mystic Woods (outdoor encounters, small cabin, skeleton of a dragon) and a Gigantic Cavern set. And of course, all of the sets use the same background so they mix and match well with their previous sets.

Gamers Rule

Gamers Rule has a new expansion for their Dungeon Deck Quests cards. If you are not familiar, this is a seven deck system that can create an adventure on the file in 30 seconds for any Fantasy RPG with dungeon delving. You flip the first card for a lure on why the PCs are there, the 2nd is the entrance card that describes the approach, the 3rd card is the overall atmosphere of the dungeon, the 4th card describes the rooms, the 5th card has a map, the 6th card is the challenge involved, and the final card is the treasure.  You just have to add the appropriate combat stats for the challenge card depending on what game you are playing. Their first expansion adds more advanced (high level) challenges.  The second expansion is just more cards for the decks.

Cactus Game Design Company

Cactus focuses on Christian Games. They have built up impressive partnerships, having Christian/Bible versions of Catan, Blink, Apples to Apples, Guesstures, Outburst, Scattergories, and more.  Their newest game is Bible Taboo. The Redemption Trading Card Game has a new booster coming out at their national tournament in August.

The next post on Monday is the “Best of Show” announcement! Stay tuned!