I finally got a chance to try out the Earthdawn Third Edition rules last Saturday when a friend ran Misguided Ambitions, the demo adventure available on the Earthdawn home page. Though there were some obvious tweaks and mods to the Step System to help streamline play, the game still feels very much like Earthdawn. Considering how much I enjoy the Eartdawn game – both the system and the setting – that’s about the highest “initial impression” I can offer.
Well, zombies and pirates I suppose. Last weekend with our gamemaster out of town my gaming group decided to have a board game day instead. We started out with a team Pirates game where Pat and I took on Wayne and Chad. After that one of Chad and Wayne’s co-workers stopped by and we played a few games of Flying Frog’s Last Night on Earth. The evening was a good lighthearted diversion from an otherwise intense role playing campaign and I wanted to take the opportunity to make note of some observations regarding the games we played.
It’s been a little over six months since I first tried out Privateer Press‘s Monsterpocalypse collectible miniatures game at GenCon 08. Although initial reactions showed potential I decided to hold off forming a definite opinion until I played the game more and got a better feel for it. So now that I’ve had the chance to do so and have reevaluated the game I’ve determined that my opinion hasn’t changed much, and that really isn’t a good thing.
Most weekends I host a weekly roleplaying game at my house, but this week instead of getting out the rule books and character sheets I got my junk out and set it on the table.
I game with the hosts of the Fear the Boot podcast, and after mentioning Wizkid’s Pirates pocket model game during a recording a fan donated a ton of ships for them to use at Fear the Con 2, the upcoming local convention here in St. Louis that they’re hosting March 6th – 7th.
We started out picking out a few ships (each of which has a points value) to throw into a few test fleets to learn the game. Each ships have a different number of health/speed/cargo capacity and a point cost so you can mix and match to create a strategy that favors one goal or the other if you want. I’m not going to give the game an in-depth review here – it’s been around a while and there are far more detailed descriptions out there on the intertubes by far more experienced players – but I will say it was a fun little game.
After learning the basics we all chose a nationality and picked a few ships to have small personal collections. Then we sat down and put together over sixty 40-point fleets from the rest of the collection. These fleets will be taken to Fear the Con and put at an open gaming table for attendees to grab, assemble, play the game, and then keep if they want them. Should be a good time so if you want to swing by and try a game and get some free plasticard ships, please do!
Overall the game was good clean fun. I don’t think it’s the type of game I’d want as my primary game but I foresee enjoying having a small fleet around to bring out for random games with my gaming group. The game is collectible and so you could easily fall into the trap of victory through fatter wallet but you’d probably get a lot of millage out of picking up a few packs to serve as a community pool for you and your gamers to build fleets in to play as a side game.
I need to ram more stuff with my junk!
Privateer Press brought a sneak peak release of Monsterpocalypse starter boxes and boosters to GenCon this year and I decided to pick one up to see how the game played. I’ve never been a fan of collectible games but Monsterpocalypse’s relatively lax rarity distribution seemed like it might not be too bad for casual play. After a few games I’m not 100% sold but the game showed enough promise to be worth a critical review.