Under The Microscope – The Princess Bride: Prepare To Die!


Under The Microscope – The Princess Bride Prepare To Die!

Abstract: Prepare To Die! Is the first The Princess Bride game from Game Salute. In it, players play cards in response to the judge’s ‘Hello, my name is…’ card. The player’s cards complete Inigo Montoya’s byline ‘You ___ my ____. Prepare to die!’. The judge chooses the phrase that they feel is the most imaginative or funny. The judge gives the Hello card to the winner. The player who collects three Hello cards wins the game.

 Materials and Methods

Components

The game will consist of about several hundred cards split between Hello, my name is… cards and You ___ my ____. Prepare to die cards. The full game will play up to 12 players with three game modes. This preview copy had enough cards to support up to 4 players. It has three cards explaining the three different game modes.

Game Play

The game is very easy to pick up. The basic game mode, called the Hello rules, has the players with hands of three Prepare To Die cards and the judge flipping a Hello card from the deck. The players choose their best Prepare card and place it face down in the center of the play area. The judge mixes the cards then chooses which Prepare phrase is the best. The player who played that card gets the Hello card. The player to earn three Hello cards wins.

The other game modes are the You… mode and the Full Montoya mode. In the You… mode the cards are switched around and the players earn the Prepare cards as victory points. In the Full Montoya mode, the judge decides what kind of phrase he would like such as ‘the most imaginative’ or ‘the silliest’. The players pick a Hello card and a Prepare phrase card and place them in the center. Mixing occurs and the judge chooses one Hello card and one Prepare card. The player(s) that played either of those cards receives the card he played as a victory point.

Discussion

The Princess Bride Prepare To Die is an Apples To Apples clone. It plays almost exactly like ATA with a Princess Bride twist. The game plays quickly with games rarely lasting more than 10 minutes. It is easy to learn even if you’ve never played ATA. For those who like ATA this game is a nice diversion from the original. For Princess Bride fans, it is a kind of interesting, quick filler game.

Prepare To Die! Funded on Kickstarter and still has 15 days left to go as of this writing. The base game costs $30. This gets you hundreds of cards and includes a Bonus Pack of fan created cards.

I would like to thank Game Salute for the preview copy of The Princess Bride: Prepare To Die!

 

June 3, 2013 – 10:44 pm Categories: Game Design, Gaming, Movie Reviews | Post a comment

A Conversation With…Stonemaier Games’ Alan Stone and Jamey Stegmaier


Tom: Ok first, welcome Alan. I’m glad to have you join Jamey on Go Forth And Game.

So remind us about Stonemaier Games.stonemaier1

Alan: Hey, thanks for letting us talk a little about what we’re up to.  For me, Stonemaier is a way for us to create games that we want to play. Playtest after playtest (and after we completed the playtests), I still really enjoy playing Viticulture.  I think our main goal is to create games in that 2-6 player range, that scale well, don’t take an eternity to play, and are known for quality and depth.  

Tom: It was your first game  and  was a big Kickstarter success. It’s the mark of a good game that you still want to play and enjoy playing it after so many plays.

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We also engaged 942 people—the vast majority of whom were complete strangers to us before the Kickstarter campaign—and I wanted to continue to find ways to connect to that audience. I’ve done that in two key ways: One, talking about tabletop games on the Stonemaier Games Facebook page. I love to talk about games (both new and old) and game mechanics, as do a lot of other gamers. Two, so far I’ve focused the Stonemaier Games blog primarily on a series of “Kickstarter Lessons,” in which I relay some of the things I’ve learned to other potential Kickstarter creators. Having only run one successful Kickstarter campaign, I can’t pretend to be a Kickstarter expert, but I think I have a few good tidbits of information to offer.

I’ve also spent quite a bit of time working on shipping logistics. I want to get Viticulture to Kickstarter backers as soon as possible and help them avoid customs fees (legally). So I’ve connected to several fulfillment-by-Amazon centers around the world as well as companies called RIM and TCF (and Impressions to get the game in FLGSs) to establish that supply chain. It’s an arduous but interesting process, and I’m hoping it will form the groundwork for future distribution of Viticulture and other Stonemaier Games.

Tom:  Give us an update on it.

Alan: Our advanced copies just arrived a few days ago (March 15) and I can’t say how exciting it is to hold a copy of your first published game!

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It certainly didn’t hurt that our artists, graphic designer, and Panda Game Manufacturing did an incredible job with the components. The game looks and feels fantastic. Everything is customized and extremely high quality, and you can tell by the heft of it (4.6 pounds) that there’s a lot of game in the box.

As for the schedule, it was really important to us that we deliver the game in May of 2013 as we promised to backers when we ran the Kickstarter campaign. Pending a huge crisis, we will not only meet that promise—we’ll exceed it for backers in Europe, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and Brazil. US and Canadian games will take a bit longer because those games have to cross several oceans in big boats to get to us, but everyone should have their games by late May.

Tom: You’ve done an excellent job keeping us up to date on the game. Thanks for that. Other KS folks should take note. That’s very exciting news. Were there any surprises with the campaign?

Alan: We learned a lot in the first campaign.  I think I was most surprised and am still pretty blown away by the loyal support we found, even now as we develop Euphoria, there’s a lot of confidence knowing that many of the folks who helped us with Viticulture are excited to see the next project.  As a couple of guys having fun with a hobby, it’s pretty amazing that others are as excited about what we’re doing as we are.  I was also pretty surprised to find that Jamey can stay up for 45 days straight with almost no hallucinations.

Jamey: “Almost no hallucinations” is scarily accurate. Before the Viticulture Kickstarter campaign, I was the type of person who needed 8 hours of sleep to be functional, but I operated on 6 or less a night during the campaign, and I haven’t been able to get back up to 8 since then. Which is fine—more hours in the day.viti4

I was surprised that everything turned out as well as it did, honestly. Raising $25,000 (our original goal) is a lot of money—do you know how many Slurpees you could buy with $25,000? (Approximately 25,000 Slurpees).So to exceed that goal and have so many people be actively involved in the project was surprising and flattering—Alan and I were truly honored by the community that formed around Viticulture.

I’m trying to think of something really specific that I haven’t talked about before, something that surprised me…okay, this is kind of random, but I was surprised by how well the backer toast went. At our $1 pledge level—an underrated reward level, if you ask me—the reward was that Alan and I would toast every single backer at that level (and anyone who added $1 to their pledge) on camera in one continuous shoot, one sip of wine per backer. Both of us were a little worried about doing it because of the amount of alcohol we might need to consume for the 110 backers we needed to thank, and I was worried it might be boring. After all, it’s just us going through a list of names and thanking people.As you can see, it does indeed start off pretty boring. But then something clicked (probably the wine), and all of a sudden it became this joyous and hilarious celebration of the backers. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Our next game is about a dystopian cityscape—what do people drink in a dystopia? Mead?

Tom: Tears?

Jamey: “Tears?” That was an awesome response. :)

Tom: You had some pretty unique ideas about promoting the game and the campaign. I’ll not go into them here but rather point people to your interviews with Richard Bliss on Funding The Dream. Those are really good interviews. Speaking of Euphoria, tell us about it.

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As for the theme itself, I leave most of the details for the upcoming Kickstarter campaign (TBA), but the gist of it is this: Each player takes the role of a person in a dystopian future who is lucky enough to have a little bit of power. The world is still evolving, and it’s your time to claim a stake to the future. Thus you have a few workers who are there to do your will. Really, that idea was the origin of the game—I love worker placement games, but doesn’t it seem a little odd that the workers do whatever you want them to at any time? However, this makes sense in a dystopian world, because (as you see in dystopian fiction) they don’t have the freedom to choose anything different. The key is that your workers don’t know they’re in a dystopia, so as their knowledge of the world increases, the greater the chance they’ll try to escape to something better.

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Preliminary art from Jacqui

Tom: The name seems very 1984, which is one of my favorite books. Why a dystopian theme?

Jamey: The driving force for me is that I really love dystopian fiction. I recently explored the reasons behind it on a blog entry on my personal blog. I like the elements of exploring the world, figuring out how it works and what happened to make it that way. I like the social commentary that connects to our modern world. And I like the drama of having one person up against the world—Ready Player One is a great example of this.

Alan: A dystopian theme gives us a lot of freedom to create a rich new artistically fresh world with the contrast of a whitewashed “perfect” society pitted against a shadowy underground that should make opening the game box an experience in and of itself.  Then you get to play it!

Tom: Oooo, kind of sounds like Metropolis. What is unique about Euphoria?

Jamey: I’ve mentioned a few things above, like worker knowledge and the continuous flow of the game (there are several elements that contribute to the flow, but I won’t go into too much detail at this point since we’re still playtesting). In addition, the game uses dice in a way that adds variation and excitement without relying on luck (despite the dice, there is very little luck in the game). There is a thematic element that involves how you activate one of your “champions/recruits” that I really like. And perhaps my favorite element—also thematic—is that depending on how you prioritize your actions in the game, you can make the world more of a dystopia for the other players by restricting their “personal freedoms” in the game. It’s a highly thematic element with Euro-style repercussions to the gameplay.

Tom: That element sounds really cool.

Alan: I haven’t seen a game quite like it, it has elements of other games of course, but it is very much its own animal.

Tom: I am so very interested in this game! Do you have a timeline?

Jamey: We’re looking for a late-May Kickstarter to get funding for the game. Although Viticulture did well, we definitely have no savings whatsoever to put into Euphoria. Thus we need Kickstarter to make it

happen. Plus, I love the community engagement and involvement that happens on Kickstarter.

Jamey: It’s going well. The next step is to use the actual game board art to playtest instead of the very rough mockups I was using. The game involves several actions that don’t make a lot of sense unless you have the art to guide you. I would be honored if you shared your insights through a playtest.

Tom: I’ve seen the playtest documents and PNP and I’m really excited about this game. Before we leave Euphoria, we have to mention Jacqui Davis, your artist. She’s fantastic as you can see! Tell us about Jacqui if you will.

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Gorgeous!

 Grant Rodiek recently wrote a great post on working with artists, and I particularly like the section about telling a story to the artist. This is much better than saying, “Draw a man with a green hat, a vial in his hand, and a smirk on his face.” Instead tell the artist the story of the man, where he comes from, and his role in the game. Let the artist take it from there. You’ll find (as we did with Jacqui) that her interpretation of the man helps the story evolve–and sometimes even the mechanics. A talented artist will do that for you.

Tom: Anything else in the Stonemaier queue?

Alan: There are several concepts in the queue, after we can settle down a bit on Euphoria, we’ll sit down and map out the next one.  First in line is a prohibition era concept that it in its infancy.  

Jamey: In addition to the prohibition era game, we’ve continually tossing around ideas about Viticulture expansions (although we want to make sure there is demand for expanding that world before we move forward), and I have a wealth of ideas that I’m toying with, including one involving time as a mechanic and one that uses a “hatching” mechanic combined with a component I’ve never seen in a game. I’m just trying to figure out what is hatched or bred in that game. :)

Tom: Dinosaurs. It’s the next big theme after steampunk. My prediction.

Jamey: Plus, we might explore the possibility of publishing games we love from other designers

Lounge of Opulent Frugaltiy

Lounge of Opulent Frugaltiy

in the future.

So Tom, let me end by turning the tables on you: If you could interview one game designer of any game (tabletop or not, living or dead, fictional or nonfictional), who would it be? What’s the first question you would ask him or her? And which of their games would you most like to play against them?

Tom: Look how clever you are. That’s an easy one. Stefan Feld or Sid Sackson. First question for each – “how the heck are you so prolific?”. Games to play against them is harder. For Stefan, probably what he’s working on at that time. For Sid, probably Focus. I enjoy abstract games and don’t get to play them very much. It’s cool having the tables turned on me. Thanks!

Jamey:Thanks for the chat, and I look forward to more great things from Go Forth and Game!

Tom: Thanks to you both for enlightening us about Viticulture’s progress and on Euphoria.  I’m really excited about it.

And thank readers for join us for this interview. If you have questions or comments, I encourage you to leave them below.

Man, I really want to go watch Metropolis now.metropolis4

May 1, 2013 – 5:27 pm Categories: Game Design, Gaming, Interviews | Comments (2)

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Catching Up With…Patrick Nickell of Crash Games


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Patrick: My name is Patrick Nickell. I am the Founder of Crash Games and I love to play and make board games. That’s everything in a nutshell.

Tom: We all know that outside of a few ‘game rock stars’, everyone else has a day job.  What do you do to fuel your gaming habit?

Patrick: I am very fortunate to have a situation that allows me to work and build Crash Games on a full time basis. My wife very much so believes in what I am doing and supports Crash Games in every way possible. As far as fueling my gaming habit I support a lot of Kickstarter Projects and then wheel and deal for the rest of it.

Tom: So catch us up on what Crash Games has been doing since we last spoke.

Patrick: A LOT! Michael Coe and I amicably parted ways and he started a new publishing company. We are great friends still and you can hear more about this on the “Funding the Dream” Podcast Episode, 138. I moved from Phoenix, Arizona to Tucson, Arizona which means the company moved as well. I signed two more game from other designers to publish. All kinds of craziness.

Tom: Now for Pay Dirt. Tell us all about it, what is it about, how do you play?

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Tom: Tory Nieman is a big catch.  How did you land Pay Dirt?

Patrick: It took a lot of fishing line to real him in. The trick is using the proper lure and Niemann’s tend to like shiny lures with a just a bit of stink bait on the hook.

Tory is a good friend who I am fortunate enough to game with on a regular basis. When I was living in Phoenix we were getting together with Fred Mackenzie (Designer of Princes of The Dragon Throne & Monster and Maidens) about 2-3 times a month. It’s a bit less now but we still get together to game.

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Tom: How much did influence did you have on the game?

Patrick: Not a lot. Tory had the game pretty solid when I approached him about Crash Game publishing it. We had been play testing it for a couple months before hand and had worked out a lot of the minor scaling issues. Tory is a very driven designer and when I watch him think and I see his designs I am literally in awe of how that man’s brain works. I’m a fan of his for a reason. Tory designs really awesome games.

Tom: I’ve heard and read about it from people at Unpub3. It has some good buzz. When will it be out?

Patrick: Pay Dirt will be hitting Kickstarter shortly after GenCon 2013. I am currently planning on a September release.

Tom: Talk about the rest of the que for Crash Games now.

Patrick: So if you publish this interview sooner rather than later you will get a scoop on some big announcements I made on The Little Metal Dog Show.

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Currently in the queue is Paradise Fallen which is Kickstarter right now. We are in Day 2 of a 30 day Campaign and we are at $2000 in funding of a $12,500 goal so we’re right at about 15%. If people want to support or check out the project they can do so at: http://kck.st/Xq2Pds

So Big News #1 is that immediately after the Kickstarter for Paradise Fallen I will be launching a Kickstarter Campaign for “Council of Verona” designed by Michael Eskue (Designer of ‘For The Win”) It is a great 2-4 player deduction min game using only 13 cards and 16 tokens. It is amazing to me how awesome the game play is for a game that is so small. The art and graphic design have already begun on this project so that it will be ready in time.

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I am also reviewing several prototypes that designers have sent me to evaluate them and see if any of them would make it into the Crash Games production queue.

Tom: Current Burning Question: What are your predictions for the rest of 2013 in regard to gaming?

Patrick: That mini games are going to become very popular and that hair crimping will be all the rage.
Thanks for the time Patrick. It sounds like Crash Games has a really busy year ahead. I’m excited to see how it all plays out.

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April 23, 2013 – 11:20 pm Categories: Gaming, Interviews | Post a comment

A Conversation With…Jay Treat, the designer of Assault on Khyber Station & Intrigue


Tom: What do you want to tell us about yourself?

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Jay: I’m a game designer building a home for myself in the industry by providing advice, playtesting and feedback while I work on improving my games and getting them published.


Tom: I’m alway interested to hear what other gamers do for a living?  How do you support your gaming habit?

Jay: I’m a flash developer for an ad serving company. I create dynamic systems for clients like Ford and Walmart to help them serve the right creative at the right time.


Tom: What was the gateway drug? What game got all this started?

Jay: While my youth was full of D&D, Cosmic Encounters and Hero Quest, I think the game that helped me realize that game design wasn’t just a passing interest for me was Magic: the Gathering.


Tom: You have several designs in the works. Talk a bit about them?

Jay: Assault on Khyber Station is SciFi co-op where the players coordinate their unique abilities to try and escape a failing space station being boarded by ravenous aliens. It’s the sleek descendant of a dicey dungeon crawler originally inspired by a clever tile-based dungeon generation mechanism on a napkin at Chili’s.

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Assault On Khyber Station

 Tom: It sounds pretty interesting. I would guess the tension can get pretty high. What’s next?

 Jay: Intrigue is a trick-taking cardgame where the players are spymasters in Renaissance Venice. You deploy your own agents and manipulate enemy agents to fulfill your agendas… agendas that you share with your enemy. A big part of the game is choosing which opponent to work with at any given time and how to read and manipulate them.

 Tom: I am very interested in this one as I’m actually playtesting it. The cooperating with you enemies against the others is pretty cool.

 Jay: My newest baby is Draw! A Western gunfight built off of five-card draw poker, inspired by a kick-ass cowboy dream I had two weeks ago.

 Tom: Oh, cool. We need more cowboy games.

You’ve stated that Assault on Khyber Station is your most advanced game. What is unique about it? How is it different from other games?

Jay: Players in Assault share no common abilities (other than movement) and so collaboration isn’t merely a good idea, it’s an absolute must. The different roles appeal to different kinds of players, so those that enjoy puzzles and spatial reasoning can share an experience with players that just want to fight or loot. The tiles that represent the space station aren’t just there to form a random map, you actively reshape the board by turning and swapping tiles to form rooms and reach the information that will help you find the location of the escape teleporter. Every game is tense because your goal isn’t in some random space you might stumble onto; it’s always in the last place you look.

Tom: I like the ‘swapping tiles to form rooms’ idea. Modularity is a really good aspect of a game if you can get it. It adds replayability and variety. Now let’s talk about Intrigue.

Jay: Intrigue is descended from a game idea that’s at least 12 years old. I wanted to make a playing card game where each player owns one of the four suits. It’s evolved into its own thing since then. It became a Fantasy battle and stagnated for a long while until AEG’s Tempest IP got me thinking about a new theme that works so much better. Since the gameplay is about forming temporary alliances, cunning moves and devious plans, intrigue makes much better sense.

Tom: I’ve playtested Intrigue and it’s pretty good. The forming of temporary alliances really comes through. The Last Planet LOOKS really cool. How did you come up with it?

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The Lost Planet prototype is very interesting looking!

Fast pieces are longer and so traverse the board more quickly as they progress. Wide pieces have a larger area of effect, but are also bigger targets. Using different connectors allows only the correct pieces to spawn from an origin and so on. Read more about it here:http://hyperbolegames.com/2013/01/16/away-to-the-lost-planet

Tom: Daniel Solis calls that idea of the pieces/components reflecting the mechanics/theme a mechaphor. It’s a really powerful idea I believe. I saw the Hyperbole article but haven’t read it yet. I should do that. Do you have a favorite design element?

Jay: I love cards and dice (though I have yet to complete a good dice game design) but ultimately the crux of any good tabletop game is enabling novel and interesting interactions between players. Whether you’re making them jockey for position, outthink each other, cooperate or question the very nature of competition, finding new ways for friends to enjoy each other’s company is a noble goal.


Tom: What inspires you?

Jay: Beauty. In the world, that usually means wonderous sights; In life, it means unflinching kindness; But in design, it’s elegance: How much impact does any given design choice have relative to the cost to include it? How inherently interwoven are the parts that make up your game? When a game is more fun than it is work, when there’s nothing you can strip from it without destroying its identity, then it is beautiful.

Tom: Why are you designing games?

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More Khyber Station

Jay: I’ve tried to stop, but it’s in my blood. Game design hits all the sweet spots for me: Math, Philosophy, Creativity, Writing, Perfectionism, Joy-Bringing…ness-osisity.

Tom: You’re pretty active on Twitter and in the design community. How helpful is that to you? How important is this community to you?

Jay: The Twitter community is wonderful. I went to GenCon two years ago as an unknown and only got one major publisher to consider my games. A year of Twitter later and GenCon 2012 had me meeting with multiple publishers and numerous peers. The Twitter community is great because everyone is so supportive and enthusiastic, not to mention just plain fun.

I observed not too long ago that networking in the game industry isn’t work at all because it just requires meeting amazing people and playing games with them.

John Moller’s Unpub program has also been a massive boon. Being able to connect with local designers to share critical advice has improved not only my designs but my design ability. You might think the optimal use of Unpub is to get as much feedback as possible, but I’ve benefited immensely from setting my games aside and diving head-first into other designers’ games. Analyzing their work and giving them useful observations and feedback has directly improved my own designs.

This community is more important to me than actually publishing a game. And that’s a big deal.

Tom: I agree 100%. John’s program is becoming invaluable for designers. I had my first game at an Unpub Mini at Atomic Empire, my FLGS, on March 2. It was very exciting.

Jay: Excellent! I’m eager to hear more about it. At least tease the name!

Tom: Duck Blind. It’s a set collection/auction game about duck hunting. Theme or Mechanic. Which comes first for you?

Jay: I was about to say theme comes first, but actually thinking about all the designs I’ve started, I realize that mechanics come overwhelmingly first. Interesting. I value theme dearly, but most of my games started with either an interesting interaction or a clever mechanism.

Tom: Ok, let’s talk about Unpub3. What games did you take?unpub3_250-nd

Jay: I took Assault on Khyber Station, Intrigue and The Last Planet.

Tom: Was it helpful? Did you get a lot of good feedback?

Jay: I spent a lot more time at other people’s tables than my own (and that was totally worth it—see 11), but the feedback I did get was very helpful. For example, the core gameplay of Intrigue is in a great place, but the scheme cards keep getting better as I determine what players enjoy and what holes the game needs filled.

Tom: Any major changes because of it?

Jay: The Last Planet will likely be changed significantly if not revamped entirely. That’s not particularly odd since the design is so new that Unpub was only the second time it was played for real.

I’m a big fan of ripping things apart and rebuilding them from scratch. Starting a design again means you have all the experience from your previous attempts with none of the baggage. Don’t worry about forgetting good ideas. If your game really needs them, they’ll return organically. Even if the new design is a flop, you’ve still gained perspective that will inform your next attempt.

Tom: That’s a great attitude for a game designer or any creative person.What were the best two games you playtested there?

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Maximum Throwdown was picked up by AEG. Congrats Jason!

Jay: That’s a tough question, as there were some real gems. Jason Tagmire brought Maximum Throwdown which was definitely my favorite: a gamer’s card-throwing game. For second place, I’ll give Mike Young’s Meteor the edge over Dan Cassar’s Great Bricks of Giza game since it was further along. Meteor is a real-time cooperative game I personally enjoy more than Escape: The Curse of the Temple. Great Bricks is a very Euro game of building pyramids… using Legos!

Tom: I’ve heard good things about Maximum Throwdown. I am interested in trying it and I need to get Jason on for an interview. Dexterity games are hard to pull off well.  Meteor has some good press so I’d like to see that one. I don’t know anything about Giza. I should head over to the Unpub site to check it out. And maybe get Dan on for an interview.

Jay: Dan had his first game published by Rio Grande this year: Cavemen. Great guy too.

Tom: Standard GFG question: What are the aspects of a good player?

Jay: A good player prioritizes the fun of the group above anything else. If you can win, but you have to make everyone else miserable to do it, just point out the strategy and laugh about what a d#$% move that would have been. You’re still clever for spotting it, but the other players won’t suffer as you methodically grind them out.

A good gamer is patient. Gamers need people to play with and should introduce non-gamers to fun games. But if you choose a complex game, teach poorly or berate them for suboptimal or slow play, they will never try another game again: Everyone loses.

Tom: That is so true.  I’ve actually had that experience myself. It is very discouraging and makes you not want to play that game again. Is one play enough for a review?

Jay: Not really. If you caveat your review by saying that you only played once and you only describe your experience rather than drawing conclusions, I’m fine with it. A proper review requires multiple plays with multiple groups for a properly informed conclusion.

Tom: Microgames like Love Letter seem to be the hot new topic. Do you have one on the design board? What is your take on this? Fad or legit? Have you played any?

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Jay: Microgames are legit because they fill two spaces that are historically sparse for gamers; interesting filler between games, and gateway games to entice new players. I’ve played Love Letter, Daniel Solis’ Suspense and older games that predate the term, like Falling. I haven’t designed any and feel no obligation to do so, but if I come across a microgame idea in my explorations I certainly won’t ignore it.

Tom: I had forgotten about Falling. It’s definitely one of the first microgames. I would say that several of James Ernest’s games are in that category.

I should interview him. What’s your favorite unpublished game right now?

Jay: Assault and Intrigue are both really solid, but Intrigue appeals to me more as a player; There’s just nothing out there that makes you work with and against the other players the same way.

Tom: What are you currently playing the most?

Jay: I prize variety over consistency, but I have played a lot of Maximum Throwdown recently, Hanabi in the past two years and Werewolf variants (including my own—Invasion of the Body Snatchers) since forever.


Tom: What game surprised you and how?

Jay: Risk: Legacy? It was a pretty brilliant leap for Rob D’aviau to realize that even though many gamers are compulsive about keeping their games in pristine condition that most games get played maybe a dozen times before they’re retired to the bookshelf forever. Capitalizing on that by making a self-destructing game was bold. That he sold his corporate overlords at Hasbro on the idea is perhaps even more impressive.

Tom: Yeah, Risk Legacy is pretty groundbreaking. I’m waiting to see who will follow in his footsteps with something similar.  I’m a bit surprised that we haven’t seen it yet.

Jay: I’ve heard Rob talk about making a new “Legacy” game from scratch, as well as a couple other designers on Twitter. I’m sure it will happen, but it may be a while. Sounds hard.

Tom: What is next for you?  What else is in the queue?  

Jay: I’m not sure yet whether Draw! is going to be a standalone card game, an RPG combat system or some impossible hybrid, but it’s based off five-card draw poker so that players can jump in and start shooting almost immediately. It’s very young, but already showing great promise. It’s an unusually asymmetrical game for me, which drives the theme but is a challenge for sure.

On the horizon, two games I’ve been meaning to make for a while are Hollywood Disaster—in which wannabe producers compete to fix a terrible film; and Black Hills—a “Shared DBG” where siblings lead the village against encroaching demons in order to inherit their father’s headdress.

Tom: Each of those sounds pretty cool. You said Draw! was asymmetrical.  That intrigues me (pun intended). Can you talk more about that?

Jay: An unspoken rule in the vast majority of modern games is that the game is fair; that each player starts the game with an equal chance of victory. There are exceptions, of course (and they tend to be multiplayer games with politics where such imbalances are self-correcting). In Draw!, I’m embracing the no-railing attitude of the Wild West: Players flip playing cards at the beginning to determine which weapons they have. Any face card is a rifle but a king is almost strictly better than a jack, and rifles play completely differently from shotguns. They’re not balanced and that’s intentional. For me, that enhances the Wild West feeling.

Tom: I’m a movie buff, especially B-movies, so Hollywood Disaster appeals to me on a few levels. Playing a ‘Roger Corman’ would be fun.

The idea/theme of Black Hills is cool.  And ‘Shared DBG’ sounds like a really interesting mechanic.

Jay: I enjoy the creative challenge of mixing two ideas or twisting one. Sometimes it leads to a dead-end like “Drafting DBG” did, but sometimes it leads to unexpected ideas like Black Hills. A quirk of the game I’m enthralled with is that players can work together or betray the group as they see fit, which is great for players who hate being assigned the traitor role, and also simulates a real moral decision absent with assigned-roles.

Tom: Is there anything else you would like to talk about?

Jay: Choose to be happy. Hate, greed & despair will get you nowhere and the only true obstacle is yourself.

Tom: How can people contact you?  Are there any links you would like folks to visit?

Jay: Follow me on Twitter. I really need to make a website dedicated to my games, but you will find non-Magic links at the website I made for Magic players: Wizards Familiar. You can read about tabletop game design at Hyperbole Games and about Magic design at Goblin Artisans.

Tom: Grant’s Hyperbole Games is a hugely helpful site for game designers and gamers who want to see behind the curtain of game design.  I really am glad that it’s out there.

Jay: Definitely. It’s an honor for me to be a small part of that.

Tom: Any final words?

Jay: Designers, set your ego aside and get your stuff out there. Meet people and let them rip your ideas apart. It’s hard, but you’ll never get there otherwise (and it does get easier). Rip their ideas apart too (politely, but honestly) and you will both grow and make better games as a result.

Thanks for the great questions, Tom!

Thanks to you Jay! I’m looking forward to seeing some more of your games soon.You can find out more about Assault on Khyber Station here. Jay is a frequent guest writer at Hyperbole Games. It’s right here.

And thank you for joining me for another awesome interview on Go Forth And Game.

April 6, 2013 – 8:49 am Categories: Game Design, Interviews | Post a comment

A Conversation With…Jeremiah Lee, designer of Zombie In My Pocket & Zombie House Blitz


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Jeremiah and some of his progeny

Thanks for joining me this time on Go Forth And Game. This time I’m interviewing Jeremiah Lee, the designer of the hit Zombie In My Pocket and his newest Zombie House Blitz.

Tom: So Jeremiah, tell us about yourself.

Jeremiah: I’m a full-time father of four young children (8/7/5/3 years old), I live in the Ypsilanti, MI (in south-east Michigan). I’ve been seriously involved in boardgames since 2007, and played lots of different games before that. I played D&D as a kid, and a bunch of solo boardgames because I didn’t have many friends nearby that were interested.

Tom: Full time father of four kids. I’m impressed. How do you support your gaming habit?

Jeremiah: My full-time gig as a dad doesn’t pay very well, so I mostly just don’t spend much money on games. I get a lot of games in trade, through the math-trades on BGG, and really, I’m very happy with the games I already have. I want to make my collection a perfect and small collection. I only want things in my space that I love. I’m working towards that goal.

Tom: Full time dad is a huge job. Bravo! to your wife for working so you can stay home to raise your children. I’m with you as to holding on tight to my gaming dollars. The game has to be really good for me to spend my money on it. I recently purchased a dud in an auction because I didn’t pay enough attention to what I was doing. Hate that. What was the gateway drug? What game got all this started?

Jeremiah: The first and most important game in my gaming history is Diplomacy. I love the game. I played it in college, and was hooked. I played Diplomacy nearly exclusively for about a decade, though Settlers of Catan was mixed in there. The game that brought me to the designer game scene was Wolfgang Kramer’s Detroit/Cleveland Grand Prix. I played it at a convention, looked it up on the internet afterwards, found BoardgameGeek, and was hooked.

Tom: Diplomacy! As a gateway! Wow, that’s interesting. You’ve designed a couple of games. Zombie In My Pocket is one of the ZIMP1most successful print and play games on BGG. And you have another game on Kickstarter right now – Zombie House Blitz. I’m detecting a theme here. Let’s talk about ZIMP first. Where did you get the idea?

Jeremiah: I got the idea for ZimP by playing Betrayal at House on the Hill, and Pocket Civ. Betrayal is a big production Avalon Hill game, and Pocket Civ is a print and play game. I loved them both, and wanted to mix them together to make something of my own. I had recently been watching Romero’s “Dead” movies, and thought I’d have a zombie theme. I wasn’t involved in the boardgame world very much at that point, and didn’t know how popular zombie themes already were.

Tom: What was the most difficult part of the design process for ZIMP? What challenges did you face?

Jeremiah: ZimP actually came really easily. I had the idea, I threw some math at the paper to balance the difficulty level, and everything worked. There were only a few weeks of tweaking the rules, and I feel really lucky it worked out as well as it did.

“Zombie in my Pocket” is my solitaire print and play game which has been downloaded over 40,000 times. It was the game that launched my “career” as a designer. After the success of the print and play game, I worked with CGF to make a 1-8 player game from Zombie in my Pocket, and the game turned out to be a lot of fun. It’s a game about knowing when to be selfish and when to keep helping the group. You know everyone is going to turn out to be selfish, perhaps you should be selfish first…

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There was a lot more work put into the published 1-8 player version of the game, and the biggest difficulty was making sure that it was worthwhile for players to work together at first, but advantageous to become selfish as the game went on.

Tom: That’s a really neat idea, shift in focus part way through the game. And is all about the theme. Now let’s talk about Zombie House Blitz. Talk about the development of it.

Jeremiah: I started making what would become Zombie House Blitz about two years ago, when I was being introduced to a bunch of speed games at the same time. When I played the classic game Dutch Blitz, I knew I could make something special with this as the inspiration. I wanted to make an accessible, low-cost, speed card game that could be played with families or gamers, and I love the zombie theme, so that was a perfect fit with me. Zombie House Blitz is under $20, with shipping included, so I was able to hit my goals for the game.zhb1

Tom: I recognized the Dutch Blitz connection when I read about the game play. I appreciate that you are keeping the price point low too. How’s the Kickstarter campaign doing?  Talk a bit about it.

Jeremiah: It’s going really well, we’re at over 40% of our funding with 20 days left as I write this, and we’re getting new pledges every day. I feel really confident about our chances to get this game funded and produced, but we still have a long way to go. This is the first project I’ve self-published (though I’ve had a game published by Cambridge Games Factory, and I’ve worked with other publishers on other games), so I’m really excited about it, and excited to have so many people stand up and help support the project.

Tom: Do you have a favorite design element?

Jeremiah: My favorite part of gaming is the social aspect. I love “playing the people, not the game” as I often say. I want the game to happen in a space that exists more in between the players than between the players and the game. Zombie House Blitz is a race, and Zombie in my Pocket is a game about limited trust relationships, both are about your friends playing the game with you.

Tom: Speaking of games with a high social aspect you should try Viva Java. It’s very social with up to 8 players. It has tons of strategy and plays smoothly. Pretty unique game. What inspires you?

Jeremiah: I’m inspired by other games, and by other designers. I love thinking about ways to create new interactions between players. A game that gets me excited about the way players are interacting excites me.

Tom: Why are you designing games?

Jeremiah: I’m not sure. It’s what my brain does, without asking. Things pop into my head, and then I have to give them some time to develop, or they just sit there and ask, “when’s it gonna be my turn?” That, and I love seeing other people have fun playing a game I’ve designed. That’s a thrill.zhb3

Tom: I got my first taste of that feeling a couple of weeks ago. I premiered Duck Blind at UnpubMini-AtomicEmpire. Wow it is so cool seeing people liking your game. You’re pretty active on Twitter and in the design community. How helpful is that to you? Is community important to you?

Jeremiah: There are some really great designers working on games that have built up this great network of designers, and I’m really excited and proud to be a part of it. People like Chevee Dodd, Grant Rodiek, Alan Gerding, and Brett Myers (just to name a very few) keep me interested in their designs, while helping me remember to give some focus-time to mine as well. Community is hugely important to me. I wouldn’t still be doing this, pushing to make more of my own designs come to life, without the community.

Tom: I ‘know’ Chevee and Grant but don’t recognize the others. I need to look them up. This community we have is awesome. People like those above and Daniel Solis, John Moller. Everyone is so supportive of each other. Theme or Mechanic. Which comes first for you?

Jeremiah: Though I tend to design theme-first, both of my published games have been mechanism-first games. When I do theme-first (and I do, a lot) I will often get too involved, and make things that are just too big, too cumbersome.

Tom: Standard GFG questions: What are the aspects of a good player?

Jeremiah: There are so many different games, it’s hard to say what makes a good player. I’m going to step away from trying to figure out what makes a player good overall, and focus on what makes someone a good player in the kinds of games I like. I like players to be funny, to be there to experience the game, and try to win, but not be focused on winning. Be at the table to have a good time with me and our friends.

Tom: Is one play enough for a review?

Jeremiah: It is, especially if you’re in the market for “first impression” reviews. Some games give away most of what they have in the first game, some don’t. Hopefully we can all tell which are which.

Tom: Microgames like Love Letter seem to be the hot new topic. Do you have one on the design board? What is your take on this? Fad or legit? Have you played any?

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Jeremiah: I’m not currently designing a microgame, though many of the games I have designed might fit that description. ZimP (solo) is a pretty micro game. I think it’s a legitimate way to make games happen and have quick portable (and affordable games). I really like the idea, though I can’t say that I’ve played anything that I’ve heard labelled as a microgame (perhaps Coup, which is fantastic).

Tom: Heard only good things about Coup.  I need to play that. What’s your favorite unpublished game right now?

Jeremiah: Two Rooms and Boom, by Tuesday Night Games, you can find it on BoardgameGeek.com. It’s a great light social deduction game and it has an amazing range. You can literally hand out cards to people, send them into different rooms, and get a game moving.

Tom: The latest The State of Games – the one about Unpub, talks about that.  It sounds pretty cool. What are you currently playing the most?

Jeremiah: Coup, Plato 3000, and Zombicide. I love all of these games, though I don’t see Coup getting much more play, as I prefer the earlier Hoax, with very much the same feeling.

Tom: What game surprised you and how?

Jeremiah: Connect 4 Launchers. Yes, it’s a mass-market dexterity game with enough crazy chaos of catapulting plastic rings into a tray to make me way-too-loud when the kids are sleeping.

Tom: What is next for you?  What else is in the queue?

Jeremiah: Oh, I always have a few things that I’m working on. Right now I’m just focusing on the Kickstarter campaign. After that, I think I’m going to put my head down and focus on a postapocalyptic evolving story game. It’s very much a mix of rpg and boardgame. An idea I’ve been stewing for a good year or so.fiasco

Tom: Lastly from me. I see from BGG that you are a Fiasco fan. Talk about what a fantastic game it is.

Jeremiah: Fiasco is a crazy game, I didn’t even know things like this existed until very recently. Fiasco gives me a space to “act” again (I was involved in theater in college, and I miss it. Plus, Fiasco can get wacky, and I love wacky. I love silly humor, silly friends, and putting those things together to make great stories.

You have to find a group of 3-5 friends that actually want to play this kind of free-form role playing game. Without people who have a desire to play, this game won’t be fun.

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My first Fiasco playset.

Tom: I love Fiasco. It’s one of the nearly perfect rpg’s. Did you know I wrote 2 of the published playsets – Reconstruction and News Channel Six? Jason lives in Durham and is an acquaintance of mine. Really great guy. Here’s an interesting game design thought that I’ve had – Are there any aspects of rpg’s, the indie variety especially, that could be ported to board or card games? I have a couple of ideas.

Is there anything else you would like to talk about?

Jeremiah: I always enjoy talking about the workings of my 1993 Ford Probe GT’s engine. Perhaps that’s best saved for another blog? I’m also happy to talk about unschooling, and living as a full time dad to kids that don’t go off to school every day.

Tom: I actually know what unschooling is. We homeschool too. And have a very unschooling attitude with it most of the time. Drives the in-laws crazy but my oldest (19yr.old) is at UNC-CH on a scholarship with a 3.3 gpa, an internship, is a photographer for the school paper, and is just pretty awesome. My 14-year-old is becoming a master equestrian, cook, and just a fantastic girl. My 11yr. old is designing games like crazy and he is becoming a pretty good archer. My wife is super fantastic for devoting herself to our kids. I commend you for doing the same. They will do so when they grow up too. How can people contact you?  Are there any links you would like folks to visit?

Jeremiah: I’m on twitter @jeremiah042 where I stay pretty focused on games. The kickstarter page for Zombie House Blitz is http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stupidawesome/zombie-house-blitz-tabletop-card-game. You can keep up with my designs at : http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/9817/jeremiah-lee

Tom: Any final words?

Jeremiah: Thanks, I appreciate your time, and I hope to talk to you again sometime after the successful end of the Zombie House Blitz campaign.

It was really cool talking to Jeremiah. He seems to be on track to being one of the hot, new game designers. I’m looking forward to seeing what he has next. As of today, the Kickstarter campaign has 4 days to go. Head over here to check it out.

Thanks for joining me at Go Forth And Game for this interview. I hope you enjoyed it and that you learned some things. How about leaving a comment?

Come back soon.

Tom G

March 27, 2013 – 10:35 pm Categories: Game Design, Interviews | Comments (1)

Under The Microscope – The Card Game of Oz


“To please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one’s heart and brings its own reward.” – L. Frank Baum

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Abstract: Everything old is new again. And L. Frank Baum is no exception. He has the biggest movie at the box office at the moment. And hot on its heels is a brand new game from Orion’s Bell and Game Salute. In The Card Game of Oz by Jim O’Connor players are the authors ‘writing’ their own story in the World of Oz.

Materials & Methods: The game introduces a new game system called the StoryLine Game System. The StoryLine System uses Location Cards to build the basis for the story. Each player has a hand of Characters,Events, Objects, and Effects. They use these cards to create their story and to mess with the other players’ stories. The game also includes Story Dice which are used to generate Story Points.

At the beginning of the game, a title card is placed in the central play area. Next the Location cards are shuffled face down and each player chooses 3 cards. These are placed,face down,  in a line in the central play area.  Then the other player(s) place their Title card at the end of the Story Line. The first player rolls the4 blue Story Dice to generate Story Points for his turn. Story Points are used to play cards to a Location. The Location is revealed at this point. Locations give some Characters bonuses and hinder others. Each card has a Story Point cost to play, some more than others. The other players take their turns similarly, each playing cards to their side(s) of the Story Line. Once a player plays a Character card they are able to add a Gold Story Die to their rolls. They add Gold Dice for each Character they play. Story Points are also used to move Characters along the Story Line, one Location per point. In addition to playing cards and moving Characters, players can use Story Points to replace a Location card with one from the Location card deck, or draw a new card to their hand. Players may also discard or archive cards from their hand to gain Story Points. The game ends when one player moves one of their Prime Characters to an Opponent’s Title Card and flips it to ‘The End’. Points are then summed and the winner determined.oz4

The components of The Card Game of Oz are very nice. The Location cards are large, oversized cards with very nice art. In fact the art of the game is fantastic. Cudos to the many artist who contributed. The Location cards also have text that gives or takes away bonuses to the Characters at that Location. The rest of the cards are average sized and again container wonderful depictions of the Characters, Objects, etc.. These cards have several pieces of information on them. They have a Title telling who or what the cards is,  Story Point cost, text describing the Character and its ability, and how many Vitality Points the card scores. There are also a few other things that the graphics on the cards tell you. The frames of the cards have symbols indicating the alignment, to borrow a phrase, of the cards – Good, Neutral, Evil.  The background of the text area tells what kingdom the card comes from. And there is another symbol at the bottom of the card that indicates whether it is magical or not.

I’ll mention the Story Dice briefly. These are custom dices, four blue and six gold. They have either blanks or symbols on their sides. As mentioned, players roll the blue dice to generate Story Points until they have Characters on the table.

Discussion: What do we think about The Card Game of Oz?

It’s a good, fun little card game. The StoryLine System is pretty unique. We thought it worked well in generating a story. The gameoz2 is easy to learn and easy to play. My son was able to teach his cousin to play after only playing the game twice himself. We liked the art of the game a lot. The core of the game is hand management. Knowing what to play when and where is the key. And having the cards in your hand when you need them is necessary. Efficient use of Story Points enables you to acquire and play the needed cards AND to move Characters to their optimal scoring positions. The game is relatively compact, consisting of cards and dice. The variety of Locations and cards gives the game a relatively high degree of replayability. So overall I give The Card Game of Oz a 7 and  my son gives it an 8 on the BGG scale. It’s his game of choice right now.

This game was recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign. It will be produced and will be available to the rest of the world soon. The creators have expansions planned in the form of Story Packs of cards that will contain new Characters, Events, etc.. This will increase the replayability of the game tremendously. They say that there will be a Story Pack for each of the Baum books.

Results: The Card Game of Oz is a great family game. We give it 3 out of 5 microscopes.

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You can find out more about The Card Game of Oz at the KS site or here at the Game Salute site.

I would like to thank Game Salute for providing a preview copy of The Card Game of Oz for us to review.

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March 24, 2013 – 10:36 pm Categories: Gaming, Under The Microscope - Reviews | Comments (1)

What’s New with Dice Hate Me Games


Dice Hate Me Games is a special game company because company head honcho Chris Kirkman is a good friend and I get to game with him on a regular basis. So it is only natural that I launch What’s New…! with DHMG.

Chris made several BIG announcements last week. DHMG has signed three new games to the family.PortfolioVivaJavaDice-435x435-1

First is no real surprise. It’s Viva Java: The Dice Game from T. C. Petty III the designer of DHMG’s Viva Java: The Coffee Game. VivaJava Dice, is the successor to the well-received 2012 release of VivaJava: The Coffee Game. Just as in its predecessor, players of VivaJava Dice take on the roles of employees at the VivaJava CoffeeCo., scouring the globe for the best beans to keep the company on top while keeping themselves one step ahead of the rest of the executives.

Next up is Brew Crafters. From the DHMG site -  Brew Crafters, players assume management of a local craft brewery, working hard to manage resources, use their workers PortfolioBrewCrafters-435x435-1wisely, and develop their brewing line to create the best local brews. Brew Crafters honors the tradition of classic Euro games such as Agricola and Puerto Rico, but at its heart beats a unique brewery processing system that must be constantly improved, monitored and manned in order to keep the beloved beverages rolling off the line.

Lastly is my favorite, Belle of the Ball from Daniel Solis. It’s my favorite cause Daniel is a good friend and it’s the only one I’ve actually played. Oh, and it’s a REALLY fantastic game. It’s accessible, anyone can play this one. Daniel has been working on this one for a loooonngg time and it shows. It’s a smooth, easy to learn, easy to play. I am really glad Chris picked this one up. It’s going to be very successful I know.  Here’s some info on it from DHMG. In the card game Belle of the Ball, players take on the roles of party hosts, seeking the best mix of guests to make their gala the greatest by the end of the night. In order to ensure that they stay one step ahead of the other hosts, players will have to carefully watch the growing line of guests at the door, inviting those in that seem to share passions with party-goers alrePortfolioBelleoftheBall-435x435-1ady inside, all the while handing out their precious stash of Regrets to those who should seek refuge elsewhere. Of course, other hosts may find it advantageous to invite a rejected guest inside just to collect their accumulated Regrets for later use.

In addition to these games, Chris will be delving into video reviews as well as increasing his review output.

It’s looking like everything is coming up sixes for Dice Hate Me Games.

March 18, 2013 – 9:30 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments (1)


I thought I would do a quick update and highlight some interesting Kickstarter games.

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First up, Dungeon Roll from Tasty Minstrel Games. Dungeon Roll is a quick dice based dungeon crawler. Here’s some flavor text from the KS – “A vicious dragon is out there… Assemble your party at the tavern… Slay the dragon! Grab the treasure! OH GLORIOUS GLORY!!! Dungeon Roll is a light and quick press-your-luck dice game with many important and interesting decisions.” It has custom dice, cool art, and a TON of other stuff. It  is only $15 delivered! Here’s the link.

Achtung! Cthulhu is a really cool rpg setting that deserves some attention. Here’s the flavor text – Discover thachtung!e secret history of World War Two – stories of the amazing heroism in which stalwart men and women struggled to overthrow a nightmare alliance of science and the occult, of frightening inhuman conspiracies from the depths of time, and the unbelievable war machines which were the product of Nazi scientific genius – and how close we all came to a slithering end! The Secret War has begun! It is compatible with Call of Cthulhu RPG and Savage Worlds RPG. You can support it here.

Here’s an older game that is making a fresh new start – Deadwood Studios from Cheapass Games. Deadwood is one of Cheapass’s ‘bigger’ games.  From the KS – “The game happens at Deadwood Studios, makers of terrible Western movies. DeadwoodWebHeaderPlayers wander across the backlot each day, looking for acting jobs. After you take a role, you can roll a die and try to “act,” or you can “rehearse” to improve your odds.’”It had a base game with multiple expansions for different genres of movies. I really like the Cheapass Games that I have played and this one, with the sweet update, looNP cardsks just as good. Check it out here.

Nothing Personal is a game from TomVasel and Stephen Avery that had a successful KS campaign a while back. Now there is a deck of standard playing cards with the art from Nothing Personal available on KS. You can check it out here.zombie house blitz1

Next, Zombie House Blitz from Stupid Awesome Games. A speed card game to play with friends and family. Save people from the zombies, even if grandma might have to be left behind. This sounds like a pretty cool take on Ligretto from designer Jeremiah Lee. You may remember him from Zombie In My Pocket, one of the most popular print ‘n’ play games on BGG. Jeremiah is back with ZHB. AND he’ll be a guest on Go Forth And Game very soon.  Support Zombie House Blitz right here.

March 17, 2013 – 11:37 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Under The Microscope – Belfort from Tasty Minstrel Games


Under The Microscope – Belfort

Well here is the long awaited review of Belfort. I want to apologize to Michael Mindes, Jay and Sen-Foong, and the rest of the folks at TMG for it taking me SO long to get this done. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I really feel that I need to play a game at least three times to fully review it. And I couldn’t get anyone at my game group to take the plunge. I don’t understand it except that it was rumored that the game was looong and no one wanted to commit to it. Second, I didn’t realize that Belfort was just beyond the ability of my primary gaming partner, my son. At the time he was 9 and it just didn’t gel with him. So we waited. Now he is a gamery gamer and really likes the game. So lets get to the review.

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Designer: Jay Cormier & Sen-Foong Lim
Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games

Abstract: Belfort is a worker placement game. Using elf and dwarf workers, players collect resources. They then use these resources to build the building of Belfort. Players score based on how many buildings they control in each district of the city.

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Materials & Methods:

Components: This game has a ton of components. Lots of wooden bits, heavy cardboard tokens and boards. You really get your money’s worth with this one.  The production of Belfort is very good. Tasty Minstrel Games has done a fantastic job. The components are well made. The Josh Cappel art is fantastic. It is whimsical and offsets the heaviness of the game. Josh is a very popular game artist and this game shines because of his skill.

Belfort has a pretty unique pentagonal board representing the city with the various guilds and building depicted as well as a score track. There is a side board where resources are obtained. Both are made of a heavy cardboard. The game board wedges show the building that can be built and the guilds that are available.  Players place either their workers on the guilds or their player markers on the buildings to claim them when built.

The cards look nice and are the buildings that can be built. The buildings give extra abilities when built. The game comes with wooden elf, dwarf, gnome, and resources bits that are well made.

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Results & Discussion:
In Belfort players are master builders constructing the city of Belfort. They use their workers, Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes, to obtain resources and perform actions. The resources are used to build the buildings of the city. Buildings give extra abilities and lead to victory points. And victory points are what it’s all about.

 

The game has seven turns (three of those are scoring turns) and there are five phases to each turn. Those phases are move the calendar marker, place workers, collection, actions, and scoring.
On a turn, players, in turn order, place one of their workers. Workers are placed on the planks areas of either the Guilds on the board or on buildings the player has built. If the player chooses to place on a Guild, they pay a coin and place a worker token on that Guild’s plank. Players can also place workers on the building they have built. Guilds and Buildings give the players special things during the Collections phase. This continues until either everyone has placed all their workers. Or someone passes. When a player announces that he is passing, the rest of his workers go to the three spaces of their choice on the resource board. Play continues as before until everyone has passed or all workers are placed.
The game now moves to the collection phase. During this phase, players collect the resources from their workers placed on resource producing spaces from the Guilds, Buildings, or Resource Board. They also collect any income from their buildings and pay taxes if applicable. The Actions phase is next. Here the players can perform the actions from Guilds or Buildings. Or they can build buildings using the resources they have collected. If buibelfort4lding, the player plays the building card in front of them. They then place one of their building tokens in one of the sections of the board on one of the buildings that matches the building card they played.
If it is a scoring turn, players score points based on two criteria, area control and number of workers. To score area control, players go section by section and the player with the most buildings in each section scores the most point. Next players score based on who has the most elves, who has the most dwarves, and who has the most gnomes.  Scoring markers are moved along the score track on the outside of the board.

The turns continue for six more rounds then the final scores are tallied.

What we think: My son is 10 and loves it. My 14 yr. old daughter killed us in her second game. And I agree with them. This is a very good game.

First though let me get the one cavet out of the way. The game can run long timewise. It averages about 1.5 hours but can go as long as 2.5 at times.

With that out of the way on with the good stuff.   Belfort is well designed and plays smoothly. The theme of the game comes through well thanks to the art and graphic design. It is easy to teach but has a lot of depth.  The endgame can really sneak up on you if you are not paying attention. You need to balance obtaining resources and building to be successful and this is not easy. It has hard decisions and multiple choices and paths to victory.  All of these are qualities of a great game. And I place Belfort in the Great Games category with an 8 on the BGG scale.
For more information about Belfort you can find it here on BGG or go to the Tasty Minstrel Games.

All photos were obtained from BGG and are the property of their various owners.

I would like to thank Tasty Minstrel Games for the review copy of Belfort.tmg logo

March 13, 2013 – 9:34 pm Categories: Gaming, Under The Microscope - Reviews | Post a comment

The Burning Question!


Ok, so the Question of the Month has actually been more like the Question of the Whenever I Can Get Around To Posting It. Therefore I’m changing it to The Burning Question that is not time bounded so much.
So the first Burning Question is…What is your prediction for gaming in 2013? What big thing is going to happen to or in gaming this year? What will we be talking about in January of 2014? Let me know what you think.

February 22, 2013 – 4:51 pm Categories: Gaming | Comments (1)

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