Category: Games

OddballAeronautsOddball Aeronauts
The Maverick Muse 2014

Oddball Aeronauts is a quick two-player steampunk themed card game. Each player has a deck of 26 cards which consist of the crew of their steampunk airship. The entire deck is held in your hand, so you can play this game just about anywhere. It’s great for waiting to get seated at a restaurant, or really any time you have to wait in line for more than 10 minutes.

Basically, each card has 3 skill boxes with 2 numbers in each box. The three skills are: Sailing, Guns, and Boarding. Your deck is held in front of you, face up, so that you can fan out and see all your cards. But only the top 3 cards will be used in any battle. The main (larger) number in each skill box on your top card is the primary number you use when choosing to battle. The smaller numbers in each box are listed as +#, and are used as support cards to add to your main skill. On your turn, you will decide which skill you wish to use in the upcoming battle. You have to use your top card, but then may use either, or neither, of the next two cards to bolster your numbers. Your opponent will be doing the same thing. The first player (determined initially by rock, paper, scissors) declares which stat they will use first. This can be a disadvantage, as then your opponent will know what you are doing and may change their strategy based on this knowledge. Once both players have declared their skill choice, players will simultaneously hold up a number of fingers equal to the number of cards they mean to play. Then the players play these cards, add up their totals and a winner is declared.  All played cards are discarded face down at the bottom of the deck.  and the effects of the battle are determined. If the winner chose the sailing skill, they are allowed to recover two cards. They take the top two face down cards from the bottom of their deck (the ones closest to the last face up card) and turn them face up, in place, adding to the bottom of the active deck.  If the winning player chose the guns skill, then the loser must discard their next two face up cards to the bottom of their deck. If the winning player chose the boarding skill, then the loser discards one and the winner recovers one card. The object of the game is to be the last player to have active, face up cards.

This game plays very quickly and is fairly simple to learn. There are a few things here I didn’t cover, such as events, tricks, and mercenaries. And rules are provided, along with some extra cards, to customize decks. Expansions are already in the works, so there will be more opportunities to customize as time goes on. This is a good game to have when you have a few minutes to kill and and are looking for something lightweight to pass the time. The artwork is beautiful and gameplay is fairly decent. Being able to use 1-3 cards from your deck gives you quite a few options for strategic play, although in the end, it does just end with highest number wins.

Good game to have in your purse or car for emergencies.

 

pic2040714_mdNight of the Grand Octopus
Iello, 2014

I was at my FLGS for International tabletop day, when I spied Night of the Grand Octopus on a 50% off table. I had seen ads for it, liked the way it looked, and since it was from Iello, who has a good reputation for fun light games, thought I would pick it up. Some friends also bought a copy and they sat down to play. From the laughter at their table, it looked like I had gotten a good deal. When time allowed, I joined in with them to see what it was like.

Night of the Grand Octopus has nice solid pieces, pretty art, and is simple to learn and play. Each player controls an “offspring” pawn (large) and a “cultist” pawn (small). The object is to be the first to collect artifacts on the University board in order to summon “Him” to earth. You collect an artifact if you can get to a room that has an artifact, and no one else’s offspring or cultist is there to stop you. You use a “command clock” to show where your two pieces will move. You move the large hand on the clock to show which room your offspring will travel to, and the small hand to show which room you will move your cultist to. You are trying to block others with your offspring while trying to get your cultist alone in a room. The more players you get, the harder this becomes. Essentially, this game is a game of random movement, trying to outguess where your opponents will go. Sometimes you’ll be right, most times you’ll be wrong. If your cultist ends up in the room with an opponent’s offspring, you lose life. You only have life equal to the number of players, plus one.

This game goes very quickly, playing in about 10 minutes. As we played, I kept telling myself, there has to be more to this game, some strategy, some… well… anything. But alas, there is not. This is a very simple game. So simple that it is almost boring after the first couple of plays. It is simply a guessing game. You guess right, or you guess wrong. Guess wrong too many times, and you die and are out of the game.

That being said, this might make an excellent drinking game. Instead of losing lives, taking a drink when your cultist encounters an offspring. I can see that becoming more enjoyable the more you play, because you’ll care less about the simple gameplay. *Not an endorsement for underage drinkers or binge drinking.* Just an observation.

So if you’re looking for a REALLY light, and I do mean REALLY light, totally random game, to burn a couple of minutes, Night of the Grand Octopus might be good for you. If you want any substance tho, look elsewhere.

pic1807099_mdThe World Needs a Jetpack Unicorn
Wyrd Miniatures, 2013

Which is cooler?

A glow-in-the-dark pet unicorn that not only flies you to work and school at super speed, but can project movies from its horn and recite any song lyric ever from memory?

OR

A jetpack that runs on  nacho cheese and bakes your favorite cookies as it rushes you to an appointment with your brusque-yet-surprisingly-sensitive masseur, Marvin?

This a lightweight funny card game in the spirit of Apples To Apples and Once Upon A Time. Each person in turn is the “judge”. All players have a hand of strange “Transmog Words”.  The judge has a card with a scenario like the one above. The player on his/her left gets to argue for the first option, the player on his/her right, the second, using one of the cards from their hand in their argument. The person who best convinces the judges will win their played card. Each card has a point value with more difficult words being worth more points. After a set number of rounds, the player with the most points wins the game.

What I love about this game: The creativity and humor. You can run on as long as you like in your argument, as long as you use one word from your hand. Can be hilarious and very entertaining.

What I don’t love about this game: If you have a lot of people playing, you spend a lot of time watching and not participating, and it isn’t that great for the non-storytelling set. And like all games of this nature, is solely dependent on the whim of the judge.

But if you like this sort of storytelling, this is a very funny, enjoyable lightweight game. And can be hugely entertaining for the right crowd.

pic828598_mdBetrayal at House on the Hill
Wizards of the Coast, 2004, 2010

Betrayal at House on the Hill is the ultimate haunted house mystery game. The game starts as with cooperative play, as the players explore the house, creating the game board by placing tiles for each room in the house. As the players explore, the encounter creepy events, find useful items, and uncover evil omens. When the players discover an omen, they make a haunt check by rolling 6 dice (each as 2 blank sides, 2-one pip sides, and 2-two pip sides). They must meet or exceed the number of omens on the table or the “haunt” happens. As players uncover more rooms and discover more omens, this roll gets harder, and eventually someone will fail. Each player has a character card and stats which tell them how many dice they will use for their rolls, and determines their speed of movement through the house. Will you play the mad scientist, the little girl or the brute? There are 12 characters to choose from (6 double sided character cards).

When the haunt happens, based on the room that the player was in, and the omen that happened, the game takes a sinister turn as one of the players at the table becomes the betrayer. A chart in the book determines the scenario that will play out from that point. The betrayer takes the betrayer tome and discovers their goal for the rest of the game. The rest of the players take their scenario book and determine their goals for the rest of the game. The gameboard gets set up with scenario specific detaila and the game restarts with the player to the betrayer’s left and play continues until either the players or the betrayer meets their winning conditions.

Between the variations possible through the large number of room tiles, and the over 50 scenarios that can happen, the re-playability of this game is near infinite. You may play the same scenario more than once, but due to room configuration, missing rooms, different number of players, item discovery and other variables, it will play out very differently every time. The creepy wording of the cards and the thematic rooms give a fantastic horror movie feel. If you like creepy horror, then this game is sure to become an instant hit that you will bring out again and again. It is well-balanced and almost every game is a tense race to the finish. It is possible and even probable that your character may perish during the game. We usually play with the house rule that if you die before the haunt happens, you may turn your character over and start again with the other character. That way everyone stays in the game until the fun really starts to happen.

It can happen that the haunt roll fails early, which gives the betrayer a distinct advantage, but this doesn’t happen often and can still offer a very fun experience for the players. Want an extra creepy game? Play by candlelight in a dank basement, at night. This is an awesome game that is a must have in any game library, and is especially fun to bring out for a Halloween party. A definite MUST play!