H.I.D.E. (Hidden Identity Dice Espionage), Game Review

Originally published by Utah Geek Magazine.

Secret agents keep secrets. The better you are at hiding who you are and your mission, the better the rewards. While working to stay in the shadows, you also work at revealing those trying to force you out.

H.I.D.E. (Hidden Identity Dice Espionage), designed by Keewoong Kim and distributed by Mayday Games, puts each player in the role of a secret agent. You're working to keep your identity and agenda secret while exposing other players.

H.I.D.E. uses a pool of dice that are four different colors and marked with the four different missions. Players randomly select a die from the pool and stash it in their hideout. The color is random, but players select their mission. Missions are given a random monetary value. You can earn more money by outing other agents.

After selecting your mission, four dice are randomly selected and rolled. These dice will provide information about your hidden die. In order, players select one of the rolled dice and place it in one of two locations in front of them. One location lets everyone know the color and mission do not match your hidden die. Thus, the other location must match some piece of information about your die. This gives away more information, but it gives an additional advantage.

By revealing more about yourself, you can attempt to expose another player. You make a call about their hidden die. If you are right about both the color and the mission, they’re removed from the rest of this round (not the game)—and you earn a rank and any available reward.

After four phases of dice rolling, those players still in the round complete their missions and collect the reward. If multiple players are going after the same mission, there’s a shootout. This goes back to how players selected and placed the dice in front of them earlier in the phase. Dice previously placed to reveal more information are used in the shootout. This is an added advantage of where you place the die you select.

Players have a gadget card to help them out during each of the rounds. Timing the use of the card can make a difference in the round. You can use it to change the icon on one of the rolled dice, or possibly during a shootout.

There are two ways to win. First, the player with the most money wins after three rounds. You can also win if, at any time, a player gains a fifth rank. Ranks are gained by taking another player out of a round, so this can end a game early. In our games this didn't happen because a player's reward for taking out another player is collecting the removed player's rank cards as their reward. Players re-enter the game with no rank.

We played several games back-to-back and had a good evening of gaming.

H.I.D.E. is designed for 2–5 players, ages 10+, for 30 minutes per game.

Thanks to Mayday Games.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

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Samurai Dice, Game Review

Hikaru

Hikaru stood alone with his weapon poised on the field of honor. Ayako was making his way carefully to where the two would meet. Hikaru was prepared, he knew this place. He knew where there was sure footing and where not to be allowed to be pushed back towards. He watched Ayako moving closer, searching with his eyes the ground and the other surroundings. Ayako would be a formidable opponent, which was never a question.

Thuderegg Productions is following up their samurai role-playing game (RPG), Kaigaku (link to review), with a Samurai Dice.

Samurai Dice is being described as a cross over between an RPG and a fast-paced dice game. It is a combat dice game where you ae using characters to help in the strategy and outcome of events. There are some other aspects that work as a crossover to the RPG Thunderegg has already published.

I was sent a link to try the introductory version of the game which has each player controlling a party of heroes. The goal is to defeat your enemies before the other players defeat their enemies.

You're not attacking the other players. I do see where house rules could be established to allow player versus player action. The rules are designed so enemy abilities activate randomly. This allows a certain element of "surprise" of not knowing what your enemy is going to do.

The heroes are controlled by the players and their abilities are decided on before the rolling of any dice. And, of course this gives an advantage to the heroes. This unbalancing is not a bad thing in this game because this is not about getting through the battle to see who wins, it is a race to see which player is the first to defeat all of the enemies.

The game can be played in rounds, or with everyone rolling their pool of five dice at the same time. The dice mechanic used is easily learned and makes the game easier to play with younger players.

In the promotion pack are a couple of cards depicting the artwork style being planned for Samurai Dice. It looks to be very similar to the artwork used in the RPG.

What sets this game apart is it is being designed as a compliment to Kaigaku, the developer's RPG. The characters not only fit into the genre and style, but use some of the same basic mechanics of building the dice game. This would allow the information on the cards to be complimentary to the RPG.

Ayako

The dice version also allows for hero advancement. This would allow for players to create a continuous game lasting between sessions if desired.

Samurai Dice also would make a good filler game while waiting for the gaming group to arrive. Setting the mood with the cards, even if they aren't being used in the role-playing.

The four on four version set into the promotional version only took 10–15 minutes. With the additional cards being considered and variants on rules a game could be easily adjusted to fit an available time slot. We also looked at the possibility that a game could be set up on a point system of tracking the number of opponents defeated. This would allow an open ended game that could be stopped at any point, be it a time limit or Samantha has arrived.

Samurai Dice is being developed by Jacob Ross and distributed by Thunderegg Productions. The version I looked at did not have estimates of time or number of players. However, I think both of these are adjustable. No age limit was given but I am thinking this would be a 10+ or 12+ game because of the decision making of which enemy to fight and when to use abilities.

Samurai Dice went up on Kickstarter the first of October 2017.

Hikaru stands alone, again. Now, his weapon was lowered and soiled. It was an honorable battle. Ayako laid on the ground while Hikaru paid his respect to the fallen warrior.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

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Nerdy Inventions, Game Review

Tinkering in the laboratory by adding a watzit here and a widget there can be a fulfilling career. Working to get the right combination of components to make a whole working invention is give a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. Then, after the first one is made, being able to put that invention to use to create more amazing creations can take you to a whole new level of self-confidence.

Nerdy Inventions distributed by Mayday Games is a quick playing game well suited for a small family, kids, or even when another couple comes over for game night. It is designed for two to four players and we played it with two and four players. The game moves quickly and easily along, but, you also have the capability of being able to step away from it or break out in conversation without disrupting the game. This makes it a nice addition to the game shelf.

First, I sat down with three other players of mixed ages and we were able to quickly learn Nerdy Inventions and play through without any problems. This first session was with less experienced gamers and everyone enjoyed it. I am sure we were all missing options that were available to us, but no one minded the fact. They were having fun, helping each other and enjoying the interaction through the game.

The next time I played was with a friend who is a gamer. The two of us started the game as we were waiting for the rest of the players on a game night. After we started, we found out the others weren't going to be able to make it and we played one game after the other for several hours.

Nerdy inventionshas easy to understand rules that provide a lot of combinations of what can be done on your turn. Although we didn't hit the lowest age of the recommendation our youngest player was able to understand and apply the rules on their own quickly. More questions came from the more experienced gamers as they were figuring out the nuances of what they could do. After a quick pass through the rules we were able to start our first game.

Each player starts with an invention. Inventions allow the player to make adjustments to their resources, or the inventions available to be created when you get the right combination of resources. The resources are determined by a roll of three six-sided dice.

The game

A turn starts by rolling the dice to determine what resources you have available. The right combination of dice allows you to build new inventions that becomes part of your laboratory. You can also spend dice to move inventions so the resource requirement changes or power one of your inventions you have used earlier in the game.

Using an invention allows an action depending on what the invention is. There are ten different inventions available. The combination of events in a single turn grows as you determine how to spend your resources and use your inventions. The game is designed that everyone will get the same number of turns, usually. There is an invention that allows a player to end the game immediately, if they think it will give them enough victory points.

Every invention is worth victory points. During play you have to decide how you want to fill your laboratory with what's available—what's on the invention row and what you have resources for. At the end of the game victory points are totaled to determine who has the best filled laboratory.

Along with being a good family game Nerdy Inventions is a good addition to have as a cabin game or a filler game. It is in a small package, is easy to set up, and easy to clean up. With the randomness of rolling dice and the order of the deck as inventions are made available the replay-ability of Nerdy Inventions is high.

Nerdy Inventionsby Chih Fan Chen from Homosapiens Lab and licensed to Mayday Gamesis designed for 2–4 players of ages 8+. A game is designed to last 25–30 minutes.

I would like to thank Mayday Games for the opportunity of playing and reviewing their games.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

You can also join Guild Master Gaming on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter (@GuildMstrGmng).

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