Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion DLC Review

Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Platform: Switch Release: 2018 Genre: Third-Person Shooter / 3D Platformer Rating: 9.2 \ 10.0: Excellent

Above is one of the standard "Get to the goal" challenges

While many people that purchased Splatoon 2 did so primarily to play its multiplayer, I was excited to play its Octo Canyon campaign as well, and while it was great, the mode's short length left me wanting more. The Octo Expansion DLC delivers exactly that and manages to surpass the base game's single player in nearly every way. 

You assume the role of an Octoling, the octopus counterpart to the Inklings who, unlike the other Octarian enemies you face, are humanoid. This anonymous Octoling is found in an abandoned subway by Captain Cuttlefish from the original Splatoon, who gives them the code-name Agent 8. The Octoling lost their memory after encountering the first game's protagonist Agent 3 and now has no desire to fight the Inklings. The Captain and Agent 8 are told by a malfunctioning AI in the form of a phone that if they wish to reach the promised land and escape the subway, they must take acquire four "thangs" and assemble an object that will lead them to this paradise. In order to find these thangs, Cuttlefish and Agent 8 must board a train conducted by the mysterious C.Q. Cumber and complete various missions as you travel throughout the subway. 

Unlike Octo Canyon in which the objective of nearly every level was to get from point A to point B , the levels in this expansion tend to be shorter and while there are some levels in which you simply get to the goal, there are others in which you break targets while timed, guide an 8 ball to a goal, survive an onslaught of enemies, carve a pile of crates to match the appearance of a statue, and more. Additionally, you receive guidance from Pearl and Marina of Off the Hook rather than Marie from the Squid Sisters. There are 80 of these missions in total, but not all of them need to be completed in order to acquire the four thangs. Each stage requires a payment of CQ Credits, which are earned by completing levels, to play. If you lose all your lives while playing a stage, you will have to pay the admission fee again to restart from the last checkpoint. Many of the levels will give you a choice between multiple weapons before you begin, and they each reward you with a different number of credits for finishing the challenge while using them in accordance with how difficult they are to use in that situation. Some of these stages are disappointingly short, mildly frustrating or lack creativity (specifically the handful of levels that place you in an unmodified multiplayer map and have you complete a Ranked mode objective while fighting Octolings), the vast majority are incredibly fun. Octo Valley's levels were already creative, but this expansion easily surpasses them by placing you in situations in which you must use weapons and special abilities in unexpected ways that left me genuinely surprised. They are also far more challenging, but rarely frustrating.

Upon completion of a level, you will receive a mem cake, an tiny figure of a character or object from the Splatoon universe containing a small poem which representing Agent 8's memory of the person or thing. Collecting all of the an entire set of related mem cakes (of which there are 10 sets) will grant you a new clothing item upon speaking to the humorously named and sharply dressed Iso Padre. For every handful of levels you beat, you will also gain access to a chat session between Pearl, Marina, and Captain Cuttlefish. On top of being incredibly humorous, these provide interesting backstory for Pearl and Marina and provide context for some of the lore seen in Octo Valley's hidden Sunken Scrolls.

Octo Valley's presentation was one of its strongest aspects, and Octo Expansion meets that high bar of quality. The new music tracks, especially those by Off the Hook, are fantastic and as catchy as ever, with the music from the DLC's final level being especially outstanding. The visuals are also fantastic and varied. The subway and the various bizarre creatures that inhabit it create a delightfully shady and mysterious atmospheres and the levels contain wonderfully detailed skyboxes with odd details such as massive Nintendo consoles and household items floating throughout them.

The high point of Octo Expansion is its final level, which remains entertaining throughout the entirety of its significant length and is sure to greatly please people who have been fans of the series since its beginning. I was enjoying my time with the DLC greatly up to this point, and the finale is easily my favorite piece of single player content in the entire series.

My only gripe with the Octo Expansion other than its handful of less-than-stellar levels is that only the final level's tracks have challenges to complete in the Squid Beatz rythm minigame. It is a shining example of DLC done well, and it is an absolute must-have for anyone that enjoy's Splatoon's single-player content.

Ups

Numerous levels

Great variety in objectives

Fantastic new music and great visuals

An excellent finale

Humorous dialogue with interesting lore explanations

Downs

Several merely average levels

Only some of the new music is playable in Squid Beatz 

ESRB: E10+ Content: Cartoon Violence Price: $19.99 (Download)

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Splatoon 2 Review

Splatoon 2

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Platform: Switch Release: 2017 Players: 1 (Campaign), 4 (Salmon Run), 8 (Turf War, Ranked) Genre: Third-Person Shooter Rating: 8.7 \ 10.0: Fantastic

Above is a player claiming the tower in the Tower Control mode

Back in 2015, the original Splatoon became one of the few successes on the poor-selling Wii U. It was a wonderfully original game -- a family friendly third-person shooter in which players controlled kids that could transform into squids that could swim through ink fired by their weapons. However, it lacked content at launch, but become a better and better game over the next year. When it was first released, Splatoon 2 was in a better state than its predecessor, but played very similarly and suffered from many of the same issues. While this is still mostly true, I feel that Splatoon 2  has become a worthy sequel thanks to its content updates.

The game's story mode, Octo Canyon, picks up two years after the previous game. The Great Zapfish which provides power to Inkopolis has vanished once again, seemingly due to the Octarians. Marie, one of the Squid Sisters from the previous game, recruits your custom Inkling to help retrieve the Zapfish and track down Callie, the other squid sister, who has also gone missing.

Octo Canyon's gameplay has remained basically unchanged from its Wii U counterpart-- you traverse oddly constructed platforming gauntlets and fighting Octarians along the way in order to reach the mini Zapfish trapped at the end of the level, and you may encounter a hidden scroll or silver sardine. The scrolls contain beautiful artwork accompanied by a piece of the game's bizarre lore and the sardines can be used to upgrade your primary weapons, purchase new sub-weapons, and increase your ink tank's capacity. The primary change made between games is that you now are able to choose what weapon to use before entering a stage. The majority of the stages require you to use a certain weapon on the first playthrough and let you equip whatever you'd like on subsequent runs. Despite the fact that many levels are best designed to accommodate the use of certain weapons, most of them are fun to play regardless of what you choose to use, a select few (especially the boss of the fourth area) are absurdly frustrating to replay with equipment you were not forced to use the first time. This wouldn't be an issue for me, but as a pseudo-completionist, I made it my goal to complete every level in the game using the Splat Dualies in order to acquire the golden version of them to use in multiplayer.

One area in which this game is especially strong is its aesthetic. The bizarre but pleasant character designs and colorful environments are accompanied by what has become one my favorite video game soundtracks. Octo Canyon features music with a bizarre but catchy mix of various instruments and distorted vocal samples, while the multiplayer mode features tracks from various fictional bands including the electronic group the Chirpy Chips, the Celtic rock band Bottom Feeders, the rock group Wet Floor, the jazz band Ink Theory, and the pop idol duo Off the Hook which consists of the game's news anchors Pearl and Marina. All of the multiplayer songs (with the exception of those by Ink Theory) contain lyrics in the fictional Inkling language, but they all sound great despite not being comprehensible.

Splatoon 2's multiplayer gameplay hasn't changed much from the first game either. Like before, you can choose to either play Turf War or Ranked. In Turf War, matches last three minutes and the objective is to have covered the more ground with your team's color of ink than the enemies when time expires. In Ranked, there are four modes that can be played: Splat Zones, in which your team must capture and hold a single point (sometimes two) for a total of 100 seconds by covering it in their team's ink, but a time penalty will be given if the zone is reclaimed by the opposition; Tower Control, in which there is a tower that members of a team must stand on in order to move it towards the goal at the enemy spawn point; Rainmaker, in which the teams fight over the incredibly powerful weapon upon which the mode is named and have a minute to deliver it to the enemy spawn point (if this time expires, the player holding it will automatically be "splatted"); and the new Clam Blitz, in which a player must collect ten clams to acquire a projectile that, when thrown at the enemy team's goal, lowers their defenses and allows their allies to temporarily score points by tossing clams at the goal.

The largest addition to the Splatoon series' multiplayer suite is the new Salmon Run mode. In this take on the coop horde mode, a team of four inklings are sent to various locations that are being attacked by anthropomorphic salmon known as Salmonids. You must survive three waves that each last 100 seconds, but must also gather and deposit enough golden eggs into a capsule to fulfill a quota you are given at the start of each round. Three of these eggs are dropped when you defeat a boss Salmonid, and the number of eggs you must gather raises after each round. Each player can only carry one egg at a time, and Salmonids will snatch up unclaimed eggs and escape.This encourages you to communicate with your team using messages that can be sent using the D-pad in order to grab the eggs before they can be taken by the enemies.

I find all of these multiplayer modes to be enjoyable, but how they are accessed is the source of most of my gripes with this game. Unlike most multiplayer games which allow you to select any game mode at any time and be placed in any of the maps that are compatible with that mode, Splatoon 2's 

maps and modes are scheduled. Every two hours, one ranked game mode will be available, there will be two maps available for that game mode, and two maps for Turf War. Salmon Run will be available for six to twelve hours at a time, and you read that right-- Salmon Run is occasionally unavailable for up to half a day! There have been several times when I've logged on hoping to play Salmon Run only for it to not be playable for several more hours. I could have avoided this by checking the Splatoon 2 calendar on the Switch mobile app but no video game should require me to pay attention to its own schedule when mine is already busy. This incentivized me to grind in order to acquire Salmon Run rewards or to increase my rank in a specific mode (each ranked mode now has an individual rank instead of one rank being shared between each mode like in this game's predecessor). This isn't a fatal flaw, but it can be very annoying to players with limited time to play the game.

Another good but flawed aspect is the customization. There are numerous weapons to use of which two types are new. These are Splat Brellas, which function as a shotgun when the trigger is tapped and deploy a umbrella which functions as a shield when the trigger is held, and Splat Dualies (which are absurdly fun to use, dual-wielded full auto weapons that allow you to dodge roll by pressing B while moving and shooting, then fire a more concentrated stream of ink while standing still after a roll. There are also countless clothing items to collect. They offer various perks such as increased enemy ink resistance, faster ink refill speed, and faster respawn time. When a clothing item is first purchased, you can view its primary perk and how many extra perk slots it has. You unlock extra perk slots by using the piece of gear during battle, and once the slots are unlocked, you are given a random extra perk. By using Super Sea Snails which can be acquired by participating in the monthly Splatfest events, you can increase the number of perk slots a piece of gear has up to four, re-randomize the perks of a fully upgraded piece of gear, or select specific perks. However, picking exactly which perk you want requires Ability Chunk corresponding to that perk. These Chunks are given to you when you re-randomize the perks on a piece of gear, and you receive one Chunk for each perk that was erased from the gear. Most of the perk selections require ten Ability Chunks, but the more powerful perks require 20. Because of this, it can take an absurdly long time that create a full outfit with exactly what perks you want -- I've played the game's multiplayer for several dozen hours and haven't been able to accomplish this myself.

Splatoon 2 is a fantastic game and a must-have for Switch owners who desire a solid multiplayer experience. Although its schedule can be obnoxious and creating your ideal loadout takes far too long, it is well worth playing for both its single- and multiplayer content.

Ups

Fantastic and highly replayable campaign

Great graphics and music
Wide variety of multiplayer modes
Addictive Squid Beatz mode
Decent customization

Downs

Some levels are not optimal to replay with certain weapons
In-game schedule sometimes prevents access to Salmon Run

Game prevents you from properly leaving matches, but sometimes disconnects
Choosing gear upgrades is very tedious

ESRB: E 10+ Content: Cartoon Violence Price: $59.99 (Retail / Download)

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Nintendo Switch Console Review

Nintendo Switch

Creator: Nintendo Release: 2017 Classification Handheld MSRP: $299.99 Rating: 7.8 \ 10.0 (Satisfactory)

The Nintendo Switch is a flawed but fascinating console. Being a Nintendo system, its hardware is significantly weaker than its competition, as has been the case for the last two console generations. However, this is more than made up for by the Switch's immense flexibility. The Switch itself is a 6.2 inch 720p tablet with slots on the side for its removable controllers, Joy-Cons, and it comes packaged with a dock that can connect the console to a TV or monitor via HDMI. It can be played with the two Joy-Cons held in separate hands which gives them enhanced motion control capabilities, or with them attached to grip that is shaped much more like a controller. Some games even allow you to use each Joy-Con separately which offers great opportunities for local multiplayer on the go. I never imagined that it would be possible to have a handheld that I could use to play Mario Kart with friends during school lunch breaks, and it's possibilities such as this that make the Switch up to the task of competing with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

The more I've thought about, the more I realized that ever since the release of the Wii, Nintendo
has been the only publisher that has made me interested in buying their consoles with their features and not just with the exclusive games I can play on them. I bought an Xbox One to play Halo 5, but there wasn't much else to entice me. The social features are decent, but Steam on PC has a very similar set of features and much more, and I don't have to pay $60 a year to play online. However, even if the Switch didn't have Super Mario Odyssey (which would have been a valid reason for me to buy it), I would have still been very excited at the idea of having portable local multiplayer and being able to play on a larger screen if I wanted to.

Although this is not an issue that affects the functionality of the console, there is one area in which the Switch fails that previous Nintendo systems have excelled in: personality. The snap that plays whenever a Joy-Con is slid onto the Switch is a treat to the ears; however, it lacks any other music. The mid-2010s have enjoyed a surge of Wii-related memes and music mash-ups featuring music from the Wii's various channels (especially the Wii Shop Channel) as well as Wii Sports. The console's features have helped to fuel people's nostalgia, but I doubt that anyone will remember the experience of making a Mii on their Switch a decade from now because there was no memorable audio to go along with it.

The Switch's operating system also lacks the customization of its predecessors as well as some of the small features they had. For example, the home menu cannot be organized and rearranged as it could on the 3DS and Wii U, and the custom backgrounds and themes that were present on the 3DS are gone as well. The inability to place games and apps into folders is by no means a deal breaker, but it was a disappointing downgrade. Additionally, the eShop, the digital storefront that has appeared on Nintendo's last handful of systems, has been greatly simplified. Finding interesting games on the shop that you were not previously aware of is next to impossible if they aren't located in the Recently Released or Best Selling tabs, as the only way to search for games is by name.  The rating system that was present on the 3DS and Wii U has been removed entirely. On those consoles, you could a rate a game from one to five stars, classify it as casual or intense, and say whether it was better suited for gamers or for everyone. Without this system, I'm unable to tell whether the few games I come across on the shop that I haven't heard of are truly good, although they almost always tend to seem entertaining.

This brings me to another point, that, while unrelated to the console's hardware, may be the deciding factor in someone's decision to buy the Switch: Its third-party support. When you purchase a Nintendo system, you can always be almost certain that there will be a fantastic lineup of first-party titles; I'd argue that Wii U was worth owning solely to play the games Nintendo developed for it. However, major publishers including Bethesda, EA, Ubisoft, and Capcom have been making much larger contributions to the Switch's library than they did with its predecessors. Ports of triple-A titles that are optimized for PS4, Xbox One, and PC unsurprisingly tend to run at a lower resolution and with worse graphics than with other consoles, but those lack the Switch's portability. The ability to play anywhere everywhere is especially beneficial to games such as Skyrim.

I have a few other gripes with the Switch, the largest being the design of the dock. The dock is designed in a manner that traps the device between two walls of plastic. This causes it to become very hot when it is being used in the dock for extended periods of time, and this has caused a slight noticeable bend near the middle of the tablet that looks like this:

This happened to my Switch even though I've spent around 80% of my time with the device using it undocked, but the warping was thankfully not as extreme. What makes this even more frustrating is that third parties have been selling alternate dock designs that solve this design issue. I would have tried using one of these custom docks, but they are sold as empty shells that require you to take apart the original dock and transfer its components, and making a mistake during this process would force me to buy a $90 replacement. The Switch also suffers due to its lack of storage. Its internal storage is a mere 32 GB, only 25 of which are available to use. While very of the games on the console come close to matching the file size of games on competing devices, some ports of games with massive file sizes require a MicroSD Card to download. This essentially forces users that prefer to purchase thier games digitally to invest in external storage, and I've used almost half of my storage despite the fact that not one game I've purchased via the eShop is larger than 1 GB. Making this even more inexcusable is the fact that the deluxe edition of the Wii U which, keep in mind, released in 2012, also had 32 GB of storage, and that could be consumed by a small number of games as well.

Much of this review may have discussed the Nintendo Switch's cons, but most of the issues mentioned are not deal-breaking, and the console's positive aspects are far more pronounced than the negative ones. It is difficult to overstate just how amazing it is to be able to play a massive game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or race a friend in Mario Kart anywhere, and this capability makes the Switch a worthy competitor to other contemporary consoles. It offers its users many unique ways to be entertained, but its several small shortcomings keep it from being truly great.

Contents of the Box
Nintendo Switch console
Nintendo Switch dock
2 Joy-Cons
2 Joy-Con straps
HDMI cable
AC adapter

Specifications
Screen: 6.2 in., 1280 x 720 (720p) resolution (Up to 1080p when docked)
Storage: 32 GB (Expandable by up to 2  TB via a MicroSD(HC/XC) card)
CPU / GPU: NVidia Tegra X1 processor

RAM: 4 GB

Ups

Multiple control options

Fantastic first- and third-party library

Can be used to play local multiplayer anywhere

Can be used as a home console or on the go

Downs

Poor customization

Lack of options in storefront

Poorly designed dock
Pitiful amount of storage

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Murder on the Orient Express, Movie Review

Murder on the Orient Express was written in 1934 by Agatha Christie. In 1974 there was a movie, and a radio show in 1992. Later were television adaptations and even a computer game in 2006. Although this story may not have the richer film history of others it is an iconic tale of a puzzle mystery and is widely known for its unique plot. When dealing with such a well-known story, it's not the story we become so much involved with, but how the story is told. Even if you have not been directly involved with any of these earlier pieces, the iconic nature of this tale and characters has influenced many other works. So, excuse me if there seems to be some points that may be considered spoilers.

The movie Murder on the Orient Express’s screenplay was written by Michael Green and directed by Kenneth Branagh (who also plays Hercule Poirot) present a movie worth seeing. They both, along with the rest of the cast have experience in presenting their crafts.

This star-studded cast takes their characters and brings each of them to life on the screen. Each character has a lot of backstory needing to be brought out to make the mystery work, something difficult to do in a two-hour film.

Each character needs to be developed. They are developed. We are given how each person is connected to the victim and how they are connected to each other. If you don’t already know the story this can lead to a suspenseful setup. Mystery readers are used to being given the clues, sifting through them to determine which are the pertinent ones and those that are the misleading red herrings.

Our puzzle box mystery is confined to events and people on one railcar. All of the suspects are present and we just need our grand detective to sort through the clues to solve the case. As with any mystery of this type, we as the audience want to be able to solve the murder with Poirot. I give a lot of credit to those involved in the production for what is presented, but the movie falls short of being spectacular because of the requirements put onto a mystery of this type.

By allowing the development of the characters, the pacing of the movie is slower. This was still enjoyable, but felt longer because of the suspense is not there as we build to the climax of revealing who committed the murder.

There are other elements worth watching for. I enjoyed the imagery used in the Murder on the Orient Express. The use of glass throughout the movie provides a wonderful sense of continuity to the theme of the story. The different states of the glass and how it is used provide levels of depth, separation, fracturing, multiplicity, that build on the depth of the story.

Kenneth Branagh and Michael Green are already working on Death on the Nile as a follow-up for Murder on the Orient Express(which was hinted at the end of the movie).

Overall

Murder on the Orient Express is a good movie adaptation of the book. The style of story is where I feel it ends up lacking, very much in the same manner as other adaptations that require this level of complexity in the characters. There just isn’t enough time to present this much information in one sitting. If you want to get the full feeling of this tale, you need to read the book.

The movie is of average appeal with additional credit given for the how the characters are photographed and the imagery of glass.

I give Murder on the Orient Express 3 out of 5.

Also published with Utah Geek Magazine.

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Don't Touch My Dice

Across the folding table John tossed his d20, this was an important roll. It caught on his finger and went high into the air. The die came down, hit the edge of the Player's Handbook open in front of him, and shot across the table towards me. Reflexively I dropped my forearm along the edge of the table to keep it from continuing its runaway path across the room. It bounced back to the center of the table and end its path with an 18 on top.

"You touched my dice!"

"What? I just stopped it from going off the table."

"You touched my dice! I can't use them now. Well, at least, not for the rest of the night. And, that was the set I wanted to use." He turned and looked at our GM, "That roll doesn't count. He touched my dice."

RPGs are similar in many ways to other games of chance. You have a strategy you are using, but the element of luck comes knocking and the best laid plans run and hide. Later, a person with no thought about what is happening, and no plan, looks up with wide thoughtless eyes and wins the day with the random roll or lucky draw.

Players have superstitions. I don't think I have superstitions, but I'll bet people gaming with me can point out my quirks and odd behaviors. And, the more stressful the situation, the more our personal behaviors come out to play.

I have witnessed many actions players have used to influence their dice, and other aspects of a role-playing game (RPG). Because dice play such an important part in the outcome of events in RPGs, most of our superstitions are an attempt to control those generators of random frustrations.

Metal dice from Gravity Dice

The two I've seen the most are touching and staging.

People feel a connection with their dice. This personal connection builds over time and space, or depending on if they bought new dice, dwindles over time and space. In either case, the connection is an ethereal cord binding the player to each member of the set to pull them together for the game session.

Dice are bound with a ritualized selection process at purchase and when selecting a set at the table.

Binding the dice at time of purchase is a secretive matter starting before the player ever enters the game store. Systems are developed that must be handed down from master to apprentice. Therefore, to maintain the sanctity of dice purchasing I will say no more on that matter.

They pour their dice onto the table and carefully look over the results of their casting. Dice continue pouring out of the bag of holding and flow beyond their allotted space to clatter across the table to towards other players. Those that chose not to stay close have weakened bonds. They are immediately returned to the darkened dungeon of dice holding, along with the rest of their irreputable set.

Next the dice are organized. The sets are grouped and compared. One player owned over a dozen sets of dice and would add up the results of each one. The highest results got the honor of representing him during the gaming session. Another player I met looked only at the d20s. Ties were re-rolled until it was determined which set would bring the best luck for the evening. At times side bets would break out between other players (and characters) on which set would be in play for the evening. Once the selection was made, gold would be traded and the game could commence.

Another way of controlling the randomness of dice is how they are placed on the table. I gamed with a guy who always made sure when he set down a die, in with his waiting horde, that the highest the highest number was exposed. He explained this would get the dice used to sitting that way, so when they were rolled they would be more inclined to roll the number. Within our group this led into a lengthy discussion of the law of averages of random numbers. Which, in turn, led another person to setting all his dice to the number "1" when he was finished using them.

One of our current players mentioned how he, and his old gaming group, would buy a new set of dice for new characters when starting a campaign. Each of his characters from that time had an individual set of dice used only for that character. The binding was with the character instead of the player. I didn't dare ask what happened to the dice when a character died.

Those numerical abstractions are not the only aspect of gaming coming under the scrutiny of superstition—everything on the table is in the game.

Miniatures and the map are also bound as major tokens of luck

Character box from C&C Woodsmith (Facebook page)

I met a player who would go into near a full-on panic attack if someone moved his miniature on the game map (they were also this way when playing board games). They explained after one of these episodes that there are energies wrapped around the miniature (or token, or coin, etc.) representing the character, and him as a player. These energies would become more aligned as they are only handled by the one person. So, no one else was permitted to move his pieces. Not even a GM. If the GM moved it, his luck was ruined from that point forward because the only goal of a GM is to kill the characters.

Players also will only use a specific figure for their character. One woman couldn't play one night because she had left her figure at home. We were set to play one of several campaigns the group was involved in and she had brought the wrong figure. She wouldn't play the campaign she hadn't brought the figure for.

I know a GM who only allows painted figures to be used, even for his monsters. One of the players mentioned it was a nice addition, but not needed. The game stopped as we were given an impromptu lecture about how using unpainted figures was more than aesthetically pleasing.

At a convention, I met a player who bought all of his figures in twos. He painted them the same and kept one in front of him and one on the board. I mentioned it was great way for everyone else at the table to know which figure was his. He was shocked. He hadn't considered that. His reasoning was to create a connection between him and his figure on the table, which led to a greater connection to the character, which provided good luck for his character, and success during the adventure.

Beyond the figures, other elements are in play at the table.

I met another player, for superstitious reasons, who would not allow anyone use their mechanical pencil or eraser. They brought extras to every gaming session for others to use, but not the one they were using. He even bought them en masse. He would pick out the luckiest pencil and eraser (it was never divulged how he knew which ones were lucky) and set the rest out for use by the groping group.

Even having the right snacks on the sideboard can mean the difference between life and death of a character. I was invited to a game that was delayed because the wrong brand of snacks was brought and the person had to make a run to the store.

How we handle the turn of the worm called luck is important.

Not the shrine--pictures are not allowed.

Dice shaming is a recent application. Posting pictures of the offending dice so they will start to behave as desired. But, in many ways it is not new. When the luck has drained out of the dice people get rid of them, in one way or another. I have seen dice given to other players, thrown against a cement wall to shatter it, hammered into pieces, and melted. I was told how one player kept "losing" dice, figures, and any other item they thought contributed to the lack of luck they were facing.

Luck is a fickle friend. It comes and goes as it pleases. RPGers are willing to try just about anything to control the luck at the table. The ways will continue to change and reflect the players and the game. I for one am glad I haven't fallen into the trap of worrying about people touching my stuff on the table. But, please, when you're in my game room, don't get too close to the shrine in the corner.

Originally published on Stuffer Shack.

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The Historian Tales (First Three Books) by Lance Conrad, Book Review

Lance Conrad

I met Lance Conrad at the 2017 Salt Lake Gaming Convention. A friend and I talked to him about his books and were intrigued about the idea of a series of books where the link between them was the narrator. Between the two of us we bought the first three books, which were available at the time of the series.

I read the books in order of publication: The Price of Creation, followed by The Price of Nobility, and ended with The Price of Loyalty. However, the order they are read doesn’t influence the stories. The only character who is present in all of the books is the narrator, the Historian. The Historian travels across time and place collecting stories. Each book is the retelling of one of the stories he has amasses over time.

The three books were set in fantasy. Two of the three had elements of magic while the other was based in a kingdom with a dethroned king. Each book is only about 230 pages. The length works well for the style the stories are told in.

Each story is told to impart a moral. The books start when the Historian comes across a situation where a story is developing and stays with it until the story runs its course. Once the story ends the Historian moves on to find another story. From the telling, and style of the writing used, each story is presenting a lesson for the reader. Lessons can be taken away from almost everything we read. And, in the Historian Tales, this intention is clear.

The Price of Creation

The Historian comes across a village where a child is born who is different. His family shelters him and helps him to develop his own talents. Eventually, the community drives the young man out. This leads him to find his meaning for life and how he can help the people he came from and those who have been their enemies for as long as they have known.

 

The Price of Nobility

The Historian enters a kingdom that appears to be doing well, but the kingdom is struggling with the succession from the founding king to his son. A small group who were loyal to the father, and the kingdom, have a plan to help the son become a better king. The plan takes a dangerous turn when the kingdom is overthrown by the barbarians the founding king fought. The new king now must retake his thrown.

The Price of Loyalty

The Historian enters a land where people become inflicted with magic. There is a lone sorcerer who discovered how to control the infliction, and his earlier intent of helping others has created horrible consequences. A small group must face a larger group of the wizard’s early students who are using their abilities to enslave the people of the land.

The reading is a lighter read for adults and can be easily read by young adults and middle school ages. Concepts are well developed so that when a scene is presented the Historian than gives the reader what it means or how the other character is reacting to the stimuli of the moment. This development of the reasoning compliments the style of being taught from a story.

The Price of Creation, followed by The Price of Nobility, and ended with The Price of Loyalty are good books for younger readers and to be shared with them. The point of view coming from the Historian as narrator allows the stories to be easily read aloud to an audience.

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Macroscope, Game Review

It is a challenge understanding what you’re looking at when you can only see bits and pieces of the whole picture. You slowly unlock the clues to what you’re looking at. Timing is critical as others are racing along the same path to discovery. You’re using your skills, and improving your powers of deduction. Can you figure it out before another person can piece together the clues?

Macroscope is a game of such discovery and understanding. Players are competing to discover what picture is hidden in the Macroscope from the small sections that can be seen. Macroscope was designed by Martin Nedergaard Andersen for 2 to 6 players of ages 6+. He did a wonderful job of creating a game younger players are intrigued by.

A picture is hidden in the Macroscope and on your turn you are able to reveal portions of the picture by “opening” viewports. Then you have the choice of guessing what the picture is, or moving on to the next player. This continues until all of the locations are opened and no one guesses, or someone attempts to identify the hidden picture.

The game moves quickly. There are twelve ports on the Macroscope and each turn allows a person to remove one or two tokens covering the viewports. Removing a token port is a simple aspect of rolling a pair of dice and removing a token with the matching number to one of the dice. If no matching numbers remain, the player can remove any of the remaining tokens. This continues until a guess is made, or all of the tokens are removed.

Making a guess carries risk. When a player identifies the picture they receive scoring crystals equal to the number of still closed locations on the Macroscope. An incorrect guess means the player has to pay to the pool that number of scoring crystals. More than one person can guess at a time, but each guess must be different than any already called out—so there can only be one player receiving the scoring crystals and everyone else must give theirs up. That’s the end of a turn.

If all of the tokens are removed without a guess, the tokens are replaced randomly and the game moves on to the next hidden picture. When this happens the turn hasn’t ended, you’re just working on a new picture.

There are ten turns to a game and lasts about 30 minutes. The first time playing the game give yourself some extra time to punch out the pieces and build your Macroscope.

Your family will be able to come back to Macroscope and play again. There are 200 double sided pictures in the Macroscope, or 400 rounds of play. It is well designed to allow going through the deck one direction, then the other. I don’t think there would be many people who could remember what they saw in earlier games by the time they worked through the rest of the pictures.

Macroscope was designed by Martin Nedergaard Andersen, published by Lifestyle Games, and distributed by Mayday Games. It is made for 2–6 players of ages 6+, and to last 30 minutes.

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