Multiple Games – Random Geek Child

Hearthstone: Everything Else

Surprise! I’m not done with Hearthstone yet. If you haven’t read my first two posts on it, you can find those here and here. All caught up? Great! The third play style is Tavern Brawl, which has a new set of rules each week. For instance, “[y]our deck is full of wannabes who cast a random spell at a random target when played.” Some rules, like this one, provide you with a deck, while other times you’ll have to build your own. Depends on the week!

The fourth option on the main menu is “Modes,” which leads you to… four other options. Arena and Duels are both a three-strikes system in which you build a deck and try to win as many games as you can before you’re out; each can be played using Gold or Tavern Tickets, and each wins you more prizes the longer you last. Duels also has a Casual mode, which costs nothing but has no reward. As for the mechanics, Arena features the traditional characters and rules, while Duels has its own characters, with extra abilities and increasing Health and deck size the further in you get. I personally prefer Duels, both because it has that Casual option and because it’s my kind of chaotic. I especially like how the addition of new cards each turn forces my strategy to grow and adapt; it’s ever-changing, which means it’s never boring!

Solo Adventures are Hearthstone’s story mode, where you can play through the characters’ origin stories and learn more about their history with each other. Functionally, it’s a lot like traditional Hearthstone, but against an NPC and with dialogue. Some arcs have you rooting for yourself more than others; March of the Lich King was painful because I didn’t want Arthas to win, knowing full well the villain he was becoming. Others are clearly the hero of the story, regardless of whether they’re in the Book of Heroes. (Rokara is in the Book of Mercenaries. She’s also the most consistently heroic character I’ve played so far.)

The final game mode is Mercenaries, which is by far the most unique. Whereas the others are about picking the right cards, success in Mercenaries is more about what you do with the cards you’ve picked. It works like this: to take on a Bounty, you put together a party of six Mercenaries. Protectors deal double damage to Fighters, who deal double to Casters, who deal double to Protectors, so you might base who you bring on which type your opponent is. However, your opponent is the last in a whole lineup of NPCs you’ll have to fight to reach them, so the ideal party has a little bit of everything. Pick wisely, because once you start the Bounty, you’re locked into those six cards. Success is instead contingent on picking, 1) the right three to have in play for any given combat, and 2) the right abilities from each of them to maximize effect. Each ability has a speed, with the lower numbers going first, and you can see what your opponents have picked before choosing moves yourself. Be exceedingly careful with the Health of your characters, though, because if a Mercenary dies, they’re out for the rest of the Bounty! And if everybody dies, big surprise, you’ve lost. There are a few major perks to this game mode, too. First is that, like in Duels, you’ll get a new upgrade after each fight, which lasts for the duration of the Bounty. The second is that, unlike Duels – or any other Hearthstone mode – each combat grants your Mercenaries XP, which unlocks new permanent abilities! You’ll also receive Merc-specific Coins, which can be used to upgrade those abilities.

The closest that traditional Hearthstone gets to this is the Reward Track – by playing games and completing daily or weekly quests, you progress along a track that earns you Gold, cards, Tavern Tickets, and Card Packs, which can be opened for five cards apiece. Battlegrounds also has its own track, where you can earn Hero skins and emotes.

And that’s Hearthstone! I definitely didn’t cover everything, but we’d be here for a very long time if I did. Hearthstone is near and dear to me, so I hope I’ve managed to impart at least the impression of everything, in case any piece of it interests you, too. See you in the Tavern!

What’s behind The Secret Door?

Combining spatial recall and luck with teamwork, The Secret Door is a cooperative rendition of the classic Memory matching game. In this version, players are detectives trying to determine which three Valuables are behind the Secret Door, using process of elimination… and they’re up against the clock!

Like Memory, there are two of each Valuable, ranging from a treasure map to a statue to a stack of cash. However, unlike Memory, three of these are chosen at random and hidden under the Secret Door, and the rest are shuffled in with the twelve Time Cards before being laid out face-down on the board.

Once it’s all set up, players take turns revealing two cards. Any Time Cards discovered are set face-up along the top of the board, while matching pairs of Valuables go to the Vault at the bottom. Mismatched Valuables are then returned to face-down before the next player’s turn. Try to remember what’s where!

If you have enough paired Valuables in the Vault that you think you know which ones are missing, you can (collectively) decide to make your deduction and check it against the cards under the Secret Door. You only get one guess, though, so use it wisely!

If the twelfth Time Card is revealed, the game ends immediately. Time’s up! You’ll have to take your chances now, regardless of how far from a definitive conclusion you are. How many of the hidden Valuables can you guess right anyways? We seem to have a 2/3 trend, whenever time isn’t on our side. (Or is on our side… of the board. The photographed game above somehow had Time Cards on all three spaces of the astronomy tower, which was a very disappointing couple turns.)

A Series of Snacks

I’m not sure exactly where I was introduced to this series of restaurant-owning games, but I think this is yet another interest of mine that my best friend is to blame for. However I came across it, I picked up an interest in the Papa’s restaurant games, as I found them via Cool Math Games.

Most of the games follow a basic premise – there’s the order station, where you take orders, various stations to assemble and cook the meal, and then perhaps one more for sides, like the soda and fries station in the hot dog place. Each “day” you take orders from customers and complete them to your best ability. One of the interesting things about these dishes is that they’re custom built by the customer, kind of like Subway, so it’s not an “I’ll have the number 4” sort of situation. As you might imagine, I spend a lot of time consulting the orders as I cook, especially since as you progress you get more and more ingredients to use. You get rated for each dish and at the end of the day get points according, as well as tips that you use to buy upgrades. My go-to first purchase is the doorbell. You’d be amazed how much time is saved when you don’t have to keep shifting to the order station to check if there’s someone there.

Tips can also be used to buy decorations. Decorating your lobby increases the waiting score, and, if the poster markets a certain product, gives you a bonus on all dishes with that product in them. If this is one of the newer games, you then get tickets for a minigame, which you can win prizes from, like furniture, posters, and outfits. In these newer versions, after the first couple “weeks,” you will find yourself in some holiday season, and there are corresponding clothes, furniture, posters, wallpapers, and flooring that will give you boosts for that holiday. Each holiday comes with new ingredients special to the holiday. For instance, my sushi rolls took on jalapeños for Cinco de Mayo.

You can also get “specials” from customers with golden envelopes, which give you some bonus, as well as the general bonus of having a memorized dish instead of having to do everything customly.

And now, I suppose, I should tell you what the games actually are. They all start with the word “Papa’s” because they all supposedly belong to Papa Louie, but I’m just going to leave that word out, because I don’t need to be repeating it that many times over again. There’s an ever-expanding list of them (Sushiria, Scooperia – ice cream on cookies – and Bakeria – pies – are new since I started playing), but as of now, they include the above listed and the following: Burgeria, Cheeseria (grilled cheese), Cupcakeria, Donuteria, Freezeria (milkshakes), Hot Doggeria, Pancakeria, Pastaria, Taco Mia, and Wingeria. There’s also the Pizzeria, but I don’t play that one. I tried it once, and quickly realized that it’s probably the oldest of them. I can appreciate it as the source of the games that I do like, but I don’t like the system of it as much as the later ones.

There are also the spinoff games, which are more of a food-based action, fighting, quests style game, When Burgers Attack and When Sundaes Attack. Also fun games, of a completely different variety while still being connected by the characters, who are customers from the other games.

Escape Rooms! …Digitally?

Yeah, you read that right. So, as far as I know, I’ve never done a real escape room. I have, however, done plenty of these online ones! A while back I stumbled upon HoodaMath (probably thanks to school friends, but no guarantees on that) and consecutively their entire Escape Games page. My cousins and I obsessed a bit, all three of us hovering around the screen and binge playing them together.

I’m not really going to be comparing this to real escape rooms, since, as I already mentioned, I haven’t really done those. Hence, these will be judged by their own merit and someone else can do a comparison.

There’s always a little bit of plot. Let me start there, because… well, the game starts there. They aren’t just throwing you into the situation; they have a blurb at the beginning explaining why you are where you are and usually some reason for why you can’t get out. You got lost, you stayed too late and the gates are now closed, etc. Not always realistic, but not all of the games are either. Hence, Escape with Hansel and Gretel.

The rest of the game is running around using the green room movement arrows and clicking on things to find clues, helpful objects, and locks of various types that need opening with your smarts and the clues you’ve found (or haven’t yet). They have an impressive variety of things to do and find, and despite the kids’ game animations they’re still difficult for me. In other words, fun!

Fleeing the Complex

Well, I’m not just talking about Fleeing the Complex. I’m also talking about Infiltrating the Airship, Stealing the Diamond, Escaping the Prison, and Breaking the Bank. But the website is called Fleeing the Complex. I wouldn’t count Breaking the Bank, but it’s referenced in Infiltrating the Airship and in Escaping the Prison, and stars Henry Stickman, so I will.

Each game has a plot, choices to make, crazy reactions to those choices that make no sense, hilarious effects, numerous references (“‘You’re a bender, Harry.’ -Gandalf.”) and epic fails. Breaking the Bank doesn’t have much of a plot on its own, but the rest have an intro and extensive inter-weaving of events meant to make it as enjoyable as possible. I would love to give more examples, but that would spoil the fun!

Perhaps my one complaint with these is that the timeline is confusing. Infiltrating the Airship referenced Escaping the Prison, Stealing the Diamond, and Breaking the Bank, Escaping the Prison made a reference to the teleporter’s previous uses and also made it clear that it came after Breaking the Bank, and Fleeing the Complex mentioned the character Charlie, who Henry met in Infiltrating the Airship. By this, I’d guess that it goes Breaking the Bank, Escaping the Prison, Stealing the Diamond, Infiltrating the Airship, and then Fleeing the Complex. I confirmed this by going to the Henry Stickman Wiki. I guess I didn’t need to do a complicated tangle of deduction? Oh well, it was good practice.

Anyways, these games are madcap silly and loads of fun. One of the reasons they’re so great is that each game has multiple endings, and, with the exception of Breaking the Bank, several ways to win, each with its own label. For example, Stealing the Diamond has three endings: The Aggressive Ending, The Epic Ending, and The Undetected Ending.

Funway

Funway is an arcade/bowling ally/mini-golf putting green/go-kart track/bumper cars arena/bumper boats arena/cafeteria/one-on-one basketball/baseball/soccer/skating rink near us.

Funway - mini-golf and giant PacMan First off, I’d like to state the obvious: they have a huge variety of options. We went for the mini-golf, but their arcade was pretty impressive, too. They had a very large Pac-Man game (it was about 10′ tall, by my estimation), as well as 3 different types of foosball.

I would note that most likely you want to do their outdoor mini-golf, not their indoor. Despite being the same price, the outdoor mini-golf has 16 holes, whereas the indoor only has 9. This isn’t to say that the indoor wasn’t fun, just that the outdoor gave you more for your money.

You could spend a whole day just playing at Funway. Between all of their games, there is more than enough for everyone to do. I especially want to try their bumper boats.

That’s a Lie!

Lie is from the same Pack O’ Game as Hue, Fly, Bus, and Shh. They are also coming out with a second Pack O’ Game set (the Kickstarter runs through April 2, 2016). In Lie you start by drawing 5 cards. Then you chose which of the 2 dice on each card you are using for the round. Once you have decided, there is no turning back. Lie

Then the bidding begins, playing like Stone Soup or Balderdash. Either you declare what you “have”, or you declare the person before you to be lying. To do this you call out “Lie!”. Then everyone shows their hand. If the overall count of everybody’s hands is greater or equal to the previous claim, the person who declared it a lie loses. If the overall count is less than the previous claim, then the person who bluffed loses. For instance, you could call 3 2’s, only having 3 cards in hand, 2 of them being 2’s, knowing someone else called a 2.

If you lose, then on the next round you draw one less card than you did the round before, then stay at that number as your full-time draw number until you lose again. The winner is the last player still allowed to draw a card.

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Zombie Apocalypse… Gamer Style

Today I write about not 1, not 2, but 3 games, all under the category of zombies. The games are Zombie Dice, Bowling For Zombies!!!, and Dead Money. Let’s get started.

Zombie Dice is a game where you- 3 guesses- roll dice. You are a zombie. You want brains. Many brains. Each turn you roll the dice to determine whether or not you will get brains. You start by randomly (no peeking!) choosing 3 dice out of the container. You then proceed to roll them.There are exactly 3 results you could get, unless you’re using the expansions.

First off is brains. This means you caught the human and get to snack, if you don’t get shotgunned (more on that later). You set all the brains you roll on a turn to the side.Second is footprints. Footprints mean the human is hiding. If you choose to roll again, so as to hopefully get more brains, you will count the footprints as one of your 3 dice and reroll it.The last possibility is a shotgun. This is when it turns out that the human has a gun, and shoots you. If you are shot 3 times, you lose all brains for that turn and your turn is over.

At the end of each roll, you may choose whether you are satisfied with that turn’s roll, adding them to your total, or whether you would like to keep rolling so as to search for more brains. The goal is to be the first person to get a total of 13 or more. There is a catch, however. After somebody reaches 13, everyone else gets one more turn, a last chance to get more brains.

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Next is Bowling For Zombies. In Bowling For Zombies, you are zombies, out for a bowl. You have zombies of different levels in your hand, as well as three body parts. First, you play a zombie. This is what you have to plan carefully. You don’t want the highest card, as the strongest zombie walks away in search of a snack. You also don’t want the same zombie as someone else, as equivalent zombies rip each other up. The remaining zombies get the loot. This is where you have to be careful, for the highest level remaining zombie picks the bowling lane he wants first, with lane values varying from 1 to 9.

Then there are the body parts. If you play the head, you can collect any two bowling lanes, so long as they add up to 9 or less. The next body part is the leg, which allows you to put it in another person’s score pile, counting as a minus 1. The last is the hand. The hand allows you to discard a lane. I did find the pictures on the cards a bit disturbing.

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Dead Money and Bowling for Zombies

The last game is Dead Money. In dead money, you have many cards that you are trying to get rid of. Each card has a special ability that comes into action when you play it. Some cards require 1 hand, some 2. You may play up to 2 hands worth of cards each turn. Some cards require brains. When you draw a brain, you play it in front of you. When you play a brain-requiring card, you also roll a die. If the roll is under the number on the top corner of the card, you drop the brain and it goes to auction. This is where the numbers really kick in. You use the numbers to construct the best poker hand you can, if you want the brain. There is, as usual, a catch. Each card has a symbol with either 1 or 2 coins. If you win the poker hand, you have to draw a card for each coin on the cards you played. The first person to end their turn with no cards wins.

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Portable games

Need a game that you can play on the go, that doesn’t take much time, and is easy to play? Here are some of our personal favorites.

Pass the Pigs; Chupacabra; Easy Come, Easy Go

Easy Come, Easy Go is a fun math and logic game that requires you to be paying close attention. You roll dice to try to get certain number combinations so you can claim a goal, like Exactly 7. The game ends when someone has 3 goals. Plus, John Kovalic drew it!
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Chupacabra is a very appetizing game where you roll and eat dice with other dice. Chupacabras can eat cows, chickens and goats. (When you eat dice you acquire them.) For every chupacabra, you can eat 1 goat or 2 chickens. It takes 2 chupacabras to eat a cow. The goal is to have all of the dice.
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Pass The Pigs is a “dice” game where you use pigs instead of dice. Depending on the position they land in (like razorback, which is when the pig lands on his back), you get points. The goal is to be the first to reach 100 points.
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