Author: ctrlalttabby@comcast.net

TableTop games.

If you have read my previous posts (yay!), you know that I have mentioned TableTop several times. If you haven’t ever read my blog, welcome! This post is mostly for you.Picture found on http://www.wired.com/2014/04/wheaton-tabletop-crowdfunding/

TableTop is a show on YouTube about tabletop gaming. Can you guess how it was named? In each episode Wil Wheaton explains and then plays a tabletop game with 3 or 4 friends.

The winner of the game gets a prize. The prize received depends on what season you are watching. In Season 1, they had one trophy they gave everyone and then had to take back, so they wrote the winner’s name on a piece of tape and stuck it to their shirt. In Season 2, they gave the winners repurposed certificates to take home. In Season 3, they decided to buy enough trophies so that the winners could take them home.

While the winner receives their prize at the Winner’s Wall, the other players get to hang out in the Loser’s Lounge. Wil ends up in the Loser’s Lounge so often they added a special chair just for him.

My parents and I highly enjoy this show, and encourage all families at home to watch it.

The picture of Wil Wheaton shown above was found on Wired Magazine at http://www.wired.com/2014/04/wheaton-tabletop-crowdfunding/.

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To the Floating Market!

In Floating Market you are Ama’s little grandchildren. The first grandchild to collect 5 different types of fruit wins. Each turn you will have 3 customer meeples Floating Marketwho will do assorted tasks for you.

There are a wide variety of tasks that you can have the meeples do. First of all, you can have them go onto one of the boats that have the fruit. Second of all, you can have them go to the Fruit Stand. The Fruit Stand allows you to take a fruit if one of the boats adjacent to you scores.

You can also send them to the Boatsman.  The Boatsman allows you to retrieve all of your out of play dice that turn only. You can build a Dock, to improve your chance of collect coins. Or perhaps you would like to visit the Artist’s Hut to add a surprise to the Dice Pool. If you please, you may stop in the Temple, to send a Fixed Tile to the Dice Pool. There’s also the Woodworker’s Stall, the North and South Traders, and the famous Tailor. Of course you can’t forget our other 2 friends, the Fishmonger and the Office. And then there’s the Market. You can place meeples on 3 of these places each round.

In addition to the loads and loads of places the meeples can go, you must also place at least 1 of your dice into the Dice Pool. This die will contribute to the roll that decides which boat of fruit scores. Under each boat there is a range of numbers printed on the board.  This range of numbers shows which fruit boat will score depending on what the dice in the Dice Pool roll. If you have a meeple on the boat that scores, you get one of that type of fruit.

I would play this with my family and convention friends.

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Munchkin in the world of Oz

Another Munchkin variant! Munchkin Oz, like Munchkin Legends (see previous post), mostly varies from the regular Munchkin because of the monsters and the equipment. However, in Munchkin Oz, everyone needs allies, just like Dorothy. So now allies are another wonderful object you can find!Munchkin Oz

In my previous post, I compared Munchkin gear and monsters to Munchkin Legends gear and monsters. As I said then, regular Munchkin gives us the Eleven-Foot Pole (2 handed item, plus 1 bonus to combat). Munchkin Oz provides us with Oil Can (1 handed item, plus 1 bonus to combat) instead. For monsters, you could fight the Platinum Dragon (*Yawn*), or you could fight the Nome King (“Aaah!”).

Please note that a lot of the references are from the books, not just the movie. Therefore if you have not read the books and are playing this game and don’t recognize something, that’s why.

I would play this with my parents and my convention friends.

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Nothing like a good game day

I just went to board game day at Games Plus. (Board game day is the first Saturday of each month.) There I learned two great games, Coup and Medieval Academy.  We ended up buying both of them. It was hilarious that I learned Coup, because just the day before we watched the TableTop episode about it. I also learned how to play Stanley Cup, which is like a hockey version of Foosball.

Though we only played three of the games, there were several other games being played as well. One of the nice things about Games Plus is the wide variety of games it has. They have some new games, like Evolution Flight, as well as some older games, like Ogre. They also have a wide variety of role-playing games and miniatures.

Our goal in our trip to Games Plus was to try new games, to see if we liked them. We enjoyed all of the games listed above greatly, and I highly encourage you to play them.

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How am I going to escape this Labyrinth?

In Labyrinth, you are trying to be the first person to land on all of your magical objects and characters and return to your starting square. Simple, right? Sorry, no. Why? Because the magical objects you need to find, and the paths you follow, are always shifting.Labyrinth

At the start of your turn, you look at the top card on your personal draw pile. This is the current goal you are trying to reach.

Each turn you place the spare path at the end of a row and push. The piece that comes off the other end of the board becomes the next spare path. Once you have shifted the paths, you may move your piece anywhere that a path connects to your tile. At the end of your turn, place the objective back on top of your personal draw pile.

When you land on the symbol on the board that matches the symbol on your card, lay your card face up to show you’ve completed it.

I would play this with my family and friends.

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Don’t Pop that Belly!

There is a lovable game called Pop Belly. In Pop Belly you are feeding pigs until they burst (the stomach piece pops out). Pop Belly

You start by choosing a color. This color is the color of your feed chips and your pawn. Place your pawn on the barn door. It will stay there until somebody else pops a pig’s belly.

On your turn roll both the the numbered and colored dice. The numbered die shows how many pieces of food (feed chips) you will feed the pigs that turn. The color die shows what color blanket one of the pigs you are feeding is on. The other pig you feed is your choice. You may only feed two pigs each turn.

Points (movement) happens when the belly of any one pig pops. You must then count how many chips you put in the pig whose belly just popped and move that many spaces. The person who fed the pig last, causing it to pop, does not get to move. (“We were raising that pig for bacon! You overfed it, causing it to get sick!”) The first person to exit the barnyard wins.

I would play this with most people I know. It’s very simple and it’s super fun.

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Note to all intense gamers: This game is really weird in that play goes counter-clockwise instead of the usual clockwise.

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Munchkin is a Legend?

Munchkin, oh lovely Munchkin. And now I’ve got Munchkin Legends to add to my collection! Munchkin is a fun, competitive game where you kick open the door, fight a monster, loot the room and then stab your friend in the back. Doesn’t that sound charming?Munchkin_Legends_web

In Munchkin, you earn gear. This gear helps you in combat. Each piece of gear has a different bonus it gives you during combat. Combat is when you choose to look for trouble, and is occasionally when you kick down the door.

The difference between Munchkin and Munchkin Legends is mostly the gear and the monsters. Gear in Munchkin may be simply an object you might see every day, like the Eleven-Foot Pole, while Munchkin Legends may be more unusual, like Paul Bunyan’s Axe. The same goes for the monsters. What’s a Plutonium Dragon for oddness when Shiva the Destroyer is in town?

When you win a combat or play a Go Up A Level card, you go up a level. The first person to reach level ten wins.

I would play this with my parents and my convention friends.

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You’re Hired! ~the Bus Company

I tried this new game called Bus (part of our Pack O Game). In Bus, you have a color token, which is your Bus. When you land on a Bus Stop, you draw a Passenger Tile. You may choose between drawing a face-up Tile or a face-down Tile.Bus

These Tiles have point values and speed limits, as well as 2 Passengers. The passengers will be drawn in different colors. You must go to both Road Tiles with those colors to complete the Passenger Tile.

The speed limit tells you how many Road Tiles you are allowed to move per turn. The point value states how many points you get if you complete the Passenger Tile. The sum of the point value and the speed limit will always be 6.

The winner of the game is the person with the most points. If there is a tie, the winner is the person with the most Passenger Tiles. I only know this because we had a three-way tie.

I would play this with almost anybody.

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You don’t want to Cross these Hares!

I tried Cross Hares by 1A Games at Capricon in February. In Cross Hares, you are little rabbits who are setting out to be the first one to destroy the Factory. Because of the factories fumes, all of us rabbits have mutated to speak and walk on two legs.

Cross Hares

Certain rabbits have Deployment Specialties. This means when they earn a Specialty marker, they can turn it back in and Deploy a Trap, Bounty, Hazardous Plant, or the Zombny, depending on the character1. If you land on any of these things2, you must take the bad stuff.

As you go up the path to the factory, there are many things that may happen. If you roll a number (1-5), you move that many spaces. If you roll the question mark, though, you may roll the research die. The results from the research die are almost always good (no guarantees, though).

When you get to the factory, you must make a choice. You can attempt to defeat the factory as if it were a regular enemy, or you can randomly pick a super cool special ending. The catch to the special ending is it might be good, it might not.

I would play this with convention friends and my parents.  This game takes at least two hours, but it’s worth it.

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1 Some characters are not able to Deploy Specialties.

2 Some exceptions are made. For instance, if you are adjacent to or on Weepoint (a Hazardous Plant), the bad stuff triggers, not just if you are on top of it.

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now a board game!

There is this game called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is kind of like Candyland in the way you move. You draw a card and move the amount of spaces the card says. The cards also have poems from the movie.

The goal of the game is to be the first player to the Glass Elevator space on the board. On the way to the Glass Elevator, there are golden ticket spaces. You cannot win if you do not have 5 golden tickets by the time you reach the elevator.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

If you hit the point when you are about to advance to the final section leading to the elevator, you have to move in the Round Chamber until you have 5 tickets.

I would play this game with most people because of its sheer simplicity.

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