Gaming Unplugged - Old School Style - Luddite Gaming - Nerdtopia

[Scar]

I think that's the game we played a couple years ago where we were low on food, negative on food production, and old Punk Sucka Spun decides to bring back more survivors that didn't contribute at all to the group. We all starved a few rounds later.




No, I won't let it go.

[bac0n]

Haha, yeah, I remember that. We should give it another go sometime. Haven't played it in ages.

Excited to read your thoughts on MoM, Spinal.

[Spinal]

Mansions of Madness was wonderful. We had one veteran player in our group that was able to quickly answer our deeper rules questions. Between that and the fact that we had played the similar Betrayal at House on the Hill before, it was very easy to pick it up and get into a rich experience quickly. All experience levels in our group were engaged throughout, which is not always an easy feat. Without giving away too much of our scenario's plot, I will say that our group was separated right from the get-go into two different areas. One group ended up with the guns, and the other group ended up with the bad guys. So that was pretty funny. Ultimately we were able to complete the challenge though, which was very satisfying. I'd love to play this one again.

[bac0n]

Awesome! I presume you did the first scenario, Circle of Twilight? Which investigators did you choose?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Scar]

"Rest in pieces."

[bac0n]

That game of Fire Team Zero was pretty touch and go for awhile there. There were at least two situations where we were being overwhelmed by monsters, and seriously one bad die roll woulda spelled doom.

Kinda telling that the next game we played (Mansions of Madness) was rather relaxing by comparison.

[Scar]

We had to beat Thanos and Wolverine’s love child four times. I think we all held our breath on the last die roll and jumped up and high fived when it was just enough to finally kill him.

[Scar]

So.... Bunny Kingdom is the shit.

[bac0n]

Apparently there was a kickstarter for a game, Dinosaur Island, created by the guy who designed Dead of Winter, where you basically build and manage a Jurassic Park - trying to create dinosaurs out of DNA, keep them from eating your guests, managing hooligans, creating other attractions - and it was wildly successful, and immediately sold out when it hit the shelves, all with a retro 90s aesthetic.



Due to overwhelming demand, they've launched an expansion on kickstarter, and at one of the pledge levels you can get the original game. I'm down!

This arrives this week. Excited!

[bac0n]

A pair of cool new kickstarter projects launnched today:

Western Legends: Ante Up! - the first expansion to Western Legends (which if you like spaghetti westerns you really have no business not owning) adds an expansion to the board, new ways to gamble at the saloon, as well as a train which you can either ride to a new town, or of course rob.

Tsuro: Phoenix Rising - a sequel to Tsuro, my favorite filler/accessible game. Takes minutes to teach and about 15 minutes to play. Almost every time I bring it to a party or invite people over to play it, at least someone winds up buying it the next day.

[Dukefrukem]

I wish I was closer to you Bacon because I want to like this stuff but it's so hard for me to get into it.

[bac0n]

Get the original Tsuro - I bet you ten bucks you and your wife will love it.

[Spinal]

I picked up The Fury of Dracula over the holidays and have had a lot of fun just looking over the rules and the game cards, etc. Can't wait to take it for a spin.

[bac0n]

They played Fury of Dracula on Wil Wheaton's youtube show Tabletop. Looks super fun!

[Scar]

I picked up The Fury of Dracula over the holidays and have had a lot of fun just looking over the rules and the game cards, etc. Can't wait to take it for a spin.

We picked it up as well. Might have to loan it to bac0n, since I think his wife will want to play Dracula, and Dracula pretty much runs the game.

[Spinal]

We picked it up as well. Might have to loan it to bac0n, since I think his wife will want to play Dracula, and Dracula pretty much runs the game.

Yeah, that might be the only downside to the game. It appears that Dracula could be a LOT more fun than the other roles.

[bac0n]

If there's any level of subterfuge involved with Dracula, yeah, my wife would have to play as Dracula, because as Scar knows, it is physically impossible for me to keep a straight face when trying to put something over my wife.

I just. can't. do it.

[Scar]

If there's any level of subterfuge involved with Dracula, yeah, my wife would have to play as Dracula, because as Scar knows, it is physically impossible for me to keep a straight face when trying to put something over my wife.

I just. can't. do it.

Playing Outbreak at Outpost 31:

Baconette: I think bac0n's the Thing. Do we have a flamethrower?
Scar: Yep.
Bac0n: What, no blood test?
Group: BURN HIM.

[Scar]

Bac0n: Bring Western Legends over on Sunday.

Please and thank yous.

[bac0n]

Will do - matter of fact just finished a game with bac0nette - I was Bat Masterson and she was Stagecoach Mary Fields. I focused on lawman stuff and taking down bandits, she focused on prospecting gold and the occasional bank robbery. I won by a single point.

I love how the game gives you so many different ways to win.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bac0n]

Scar, his wife, myself and two others played a five person game of Mansions of Madness on Sunday, the third scenario. Here's how it went.

Warning, contains spoilers for scenario Shattered Bonds.

[

Show Spoiler

It was probably a little late to be hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere like he was, but something was unsettling Ashcan Pete, his dog too, and he felt like he should be moving. Ashcan had been haunted by dreams as of late, dreams of haunted, tortured places, and of horrible creatures. Dreams like those were usually portents, portents of things not so pleasant coming down the road.

And down the road it came, in the form of a car, a Rickenbacker no less, which pulled over and opened the door. In it were a priest, a gumshoe, and two ladies in the back, one who looked like she just got off the athletic field, the other looking like she just got out of a fortune teller's tent - with her robes and trinkets, chances were she was the fortune teller herself. He appreciated the ride all the same, and the younger of the ladies in the back, Rita was her name, took a shine to Ashcan's dog Duke.

"Much obliged for the ride, friends," said Ashcan as he settled in, Duke on his lap.

The priest turned. He was young but he looked old. "Happy to help a brother in need. I'm Mateo, next to me here is Officer Muldoon, and in the back to your left is Rita, and next to her is Diana. Tell me - where are you headed at this time of the night?"

"Points west, I guess. I just sorta go where I go, and I usually wind up where I'm needed. And my name is Pete, but people just call me Ashcan. And this here fellow traveler is my dog, Duke."

"Well, greetings and The Lord's blessings to you both, " said Fr. Mateo with a smile.

Ashcan tipped his hat and smiled as he leaned back. As he was doing so, he couldn't help but notice the small brass trinket clutched tightly in the hands of Diana, the one who looked like the fortune teller. He had a mind to mention it looked like one of the monsters from his dreams, but thought the better of it.

"Don't know how far we're going to be able to take you, Pete-"

"Call Me Ashcan."

"Ashcan," said Officer Muldoon. "We're on the way to an associate of ours' house to investigate a disturbance. The best we can do is drop you off at the driveway."

"Fair enough," replied Ashcan. "Any little bit helps."

The car drove on through the night. Everybody seemed pensive and not too up for talk, so Ashcan remained quiet. It didn't take too long to reach the driveway, which could be better described as an unpaved road twisting through a forest which made you wonder if the trees themselves were about to reach out and strangle you.

The car pulled over. Ashcan took his small satchel, guitar, and Duke, and stepped out.

"Much obliged for the ride. Wherever it is you're going, I wish you well."

And with a tip of the hat, the four investigators continued down the winding path through the hostile forest. Fr. Mateo glanced out the rear window as Ashcan turned back towards the road in the distance behind them, then disapeared into the fog as they rounded a curve.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Peter alone back there?" asked Fr. Mateo, concerned.

"If where we're going is anything like where we've been, then we are doing him the biggest favor of his-"

SMASH!

The car slammed to the side as if hit by a charging bull, and then careened into the ditch. Silence except for the hissing sound of some gas escaping something that had been punctured. The car sat there, crippled. It wasn't going anywhere. Finally, a figure emerged out of the darkness.

"You all okay in there?"

It was Ashcan.

"I was just about to continue down the road when I heard a commotion, so I came runnin'. Something was reaching out of the woods and attacking your car! I think Duke spooked it off, though. It just sorta disapeared into the fog. Darnedest thing I ever seen!"

Ashcan opened the door and helped the ladies out, who looked shaken, but none the worse for wear. Fortunately, Officer Muldoon and Fr. Mateo emerged from the car relatively unscathed as well. It didn't take long for Muldoon to assess the transportation situation.

"Well, looks like the rest of the way we go on foot. Ashcan, you'd better come with us. It ain't safe out here."

"Whatever you say, officer."

"Call me Tommy."

With that, Tommy headed to the back of the trunk and started handing out supplies to the team. Diana got a flare gun. Fr. Mateo took a fire extinguisher. Just what kind of disturbance was this, anyway? Finally, Tommy grinned and pulled out a long cherry wood case out of the trunk, closed it, then set the case on the top, dusting it off even tho it didn't need it. On a brass plaque on the top was engraved a single word: Becky.

Tommy snapped open the latches and pulled out the rifle that was inside. Oh, it was THAT kind of disturbance. Becky in hand, Tommy started down the dark and misty path.

"Stay close, everybody."

And so, the five continued in silence down the winding path through the hostile forest. Not a sound was to be had. Not even crickets. It was as if everything around them was either hiding, or dead. Only Fr. Mateo broke the silence.

"Say, Ashcan, did you happen to see what it was that struck our car back there?"

Ashcan took off his hat and scratched his head, then shrugged.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy, but what it looked like was a giant tentacle."

That stopped everybody in their tracks. They seemed to believe him. Not good.

"I shoulda stayed at school," said Rita. Also not good.

Diana just stood there, trembling. Worse. Fr. Mateo did the sign of the cross and said something in Latin. Worse still. And finally, to top it off, Tommy pulled five bullets from his pocket and chambered every single one.

"Here we go again."

To be continued.

]

[Scar]

Picked up Quacks of Quedlinburg yesterday, (among a few other games), and its a pretty easy to pick up, and rather entertaining. It’s a ‘push your luck’ kind of game. A welcome break from the more intense games we play.

[Scar]

"Oh what the Hell....." Beef McGronsky VII muttered as he woke from hyper sleep. The alarms were sounding, the room was bathed in red, and he felt like he'd been hit by a sledgehammer. The other two hyper sleep pods were open, and Beef couldn't help but stare at Red Fox as she stepped out of her pod. Easy on the eyes, and lethal as hell. Rumour had it she was a LURP, and not someone to be fucked with. Whatever thoughts Beef had toward's Fox's, ahem, shapely figure went out the window when they saw blood all over the third pod. "Fuck," muttered Fox.

Inside the pod was the remains of the scientist, neither of them bothered learning his name. His chest cavity had exploded outwards, and the glass of the pod was shattered. Beef looked at Fox, "What're your orders in this situation?" Fox replied, "Send a report, sanitize the site, and bail."

"So.... Can we just nuke the ship and bale in the escape pods?" Fox glance at Beef, and gave a slight nod.

Both were combat veterans, and both kept their energy rifles secured near their hyper sleep pods, because you never knew when some crazy shit might go down. Considering the luck they've had on past tours, they knew their luck was going to run out. Today felt like it was going to be that day.

Fox took off up a corridor, knowing they needed to find the self destruct sequences. Beef headed down a separate corridor, and opened the first door. "FUCK!" he exclaimed, as slime dripped all over him as we walked through the entrance. The room was in shambles, the computer was tripping out, and something nasty had been in here. "Might as well see what else is in here," Beef muttered. Kicking over a container, he found another energy assault rifle. "Misery enjoys company, I guess. Now if I can just find a cigar."

Fox burst into the Monitoring room, checking her corners. Only one of the monitors in the security room was active, and it showed the Storage room. "Seems clear", she thought. Looking around, she noticed the self destruct codes. "Well, shit. That was easy."

Then she heard the gunfire....

As Beef picked up his new toy, some....thing dropped from the ceiling. Seven feet tall, scaly, dripping with mucus, a long whip tale..... Looked ridiculously close to a monster he saw in some ancient classic movie. Close, but not close enough to violate its copyright. In shear reflex, Beef flipped his assault rifle's selector switch to full auto and held the trigger down. "FUCKING DIE!!!!" he screamed as he splattered the alien all across the bulk head. "Glad I've got a fresh weapon, because I forgot to grab a fresh magazine", Beef thought.

As Beef caught his breath, another creature crawled though the air vent. Smaller, but no less deadly. "Goddamnit!" Beef started popping off rounds, but due to his unfamiliarity with the weapon, his rounds didn't strike true. It took a swing at him, but failed to connect, probably due to sheer flippin' luck. Fox burst into the room, and with zero hesitation, fired off a shot. HER shot rang true, but the beast was resilient. Staring in horror, they saw the beast metamorphosize into something even larger. Eight feet tall, no tail, four limbs that could squeeze their head like a cantaloupe. They both fired, and fired, and fired.

The beast took serious damage, and then took a swipe at Fox, practically severing her hand. Not fazed, she switched her rifle to her off hand. Before she could squeeze off another shot, the damn beast scurried off into the air ducts..

"Who the FUCK makes air ducts that big?!" Beef exclaimed. "Doesn't matter, that fucker is gone" muttered Fox. Beef quickly fixed the computer, and Fox sent the self destruct codes.

"THANK YOU FOR ACTIVATING THE SELF DESTRUCT MECHANISM. YOU NOW HAVE TEN MINUTES TO EVACUATE. ESCAPE PODS WILL NOT BE ACTIVATED FOR ANOTHER FIVE MINUTES" bellowed the speakers.

"Shit, we can make it to the escape pod in three minutes", Beef grumbled.

The two of them took off down the corridor. They burst into the Canteen, destroyed from either an alien, or one helluva bar brawl that they both missed out on. "One room to go" stated Fox.

One room indeed. They opened the door to the last room, and it looked like something out of a horror movie. Slime dripped over the both of them as they entered. The room was completely covered in large, leathery eggs. "That ain't good" muttered Fox, as she looked at her weapon. The ejection port was wide open, no rounds left. "Here, take this" Beef calmly stated as he tossed her his spare rifle.

"YOU NOW HAVE ONE MINUTE UNTIL THE ESCAPE PODS ARE ACTIVATED" bellowed the speakers.

"Well, we made it this far, what else could happen?" quipped Beef.

Just then, a gigantic monstrosity burst through the walls. "It takes a bitch to know a bitch, and that's the Queen Bitch right there" Fox stated.

"ESCAPE PODS ARE NOW ACTIVATED."

As they heard this, Beef shoved Fox towards the escape pod, holding the trigger on his rifle down, just spraying and praying, and then diving head-first into the escape pod. Beef turned around just in time to help Fox give the middle finger as they ejected the escape pod, floated off into space, and watched the entire ship explode in a multi billion dollar explosion.

"I guess that was a success?" Beef asked Fox questionably.

"Sure, I guess. We're still getting paid. Time for the long nap, better get comfortable."

As Beef tried to come up with some smooth, suave line to say to Fox, she hit the hyper sleep button, and he passed right out.

[Scar]

The above post was brought to you by the game Nemesis. When it'll be in stores, I don't know, but thank you Kickstarter!

"Dueces!"

[bac0n]

Here are a few games that have made it to my table in recent weeks:


Dinosaur Island - a fun little worker placement/engine building game where you're researching dinosaur recipes, collecting dino DNA, hiring and allocating workers, all in an effort to build the, like, most totally bitchin' dinosaur theme park this side of San Dimas.


Wingspan - you have a bird sanctuary and you're trying to fill it with birds. Each bird you add has a special bonus to it, and the strategy comes in populating areas of the sanctuary with multiple birds so that you can combo their bonuses together. Also, don't forget that if you get Burrow Owls, they go in the field, because EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT A BURROW OWL LIVES. IN A HOLE. IN THE GROUND. Why the hell do you think they call it a burrow owl anyway? Ya think a guy like that is gonna know what the queers are doing to the soil?


Getaway Driver - this arrived via kickstarter just last week - a small and lean two player tile laying game that hides a surprising amount of strategy and bastardry. One person plays the getaway driver, the other, the cops. The getaway driver can pull stunts (driving on two wheels, pulling a dukes of hazard jump, etc.) to elude the cops, and the cops of course have a steadily growing force to bring into the chase, as well as knowledge of the city layout. We quickly established the house rule that whenever the police motorcycle is deployed, the CHiPs theme must be played.


Lords of Hellas - the first kickstarter game I backed, it's been on the shelf for over a year, and only now am I getting it to table. Shame on me, cuz this minis on a map game is super fun, relatively fast paced, and has a nice flow to it. There are four ways to win: control enough territories of the same type, kill enough monsters, control enough temples, or control a monument three turns after it was fully built. All Scar wanted to do was hunt monsters, all my wife wanted to do was protect herself against Scar's massive army, and in the mean time, I was able to sneak out a victory by controlling the entire bottom half of the board.

What are other people playing?