Conan 2d20 RPG - My Thoughts

So after a bit of a hiatus (of about 20 odd years) I've been getting my role playing mojo back and have even attended a few conventions and tried out a few different game systems, and can clearly see there are many more themes and genres to choose from these days.
I decided to invest my time and money in the Conan 2d20 system by Modiphius Games.  I'd already got a fully painted set of the Monolith Conan Miniatures game and all the Expansions so I figured what better way to enjoy more sword and sorcery fun and get to use my miniatures for something else as well.

So for me if Dungeon & Dragons and Lord of the Rings is classified as 'high' fantasy, the I would refer to the worlds created by R E Howard in the Conan stories as 'low' fantasy.  This is by no means derogatory, I just feel the setting and worlds of Conan are dirtier, bloodier and gritty in comparison and for me and the way I wanted the Hyborian age to feel for my players.  I think this is captured in spades by the Modiphius books and the plethora of source material they have produced, the amount of source material and background available is just awesome.

Character Creation:  The character creation offers a great way to build a hero with a history and background story as you create, there are no fancy races to choose from as you are all human but there are a wide range of archetypes with skill trees and you are not tied to a 'one trick pony' character, they will be multi skilled and experienced before they hit the table.  Unlike D&D your heroes arrive heroic and ready for action, and although the system uses experience points for development you can build skills and abilities you choose as opposed to a blanket increase, making use of the numerous skill trees.
Damage & Wounds:  I'm liking the way that damage is dealt with by this system, and beware as there is a mechanic for mental damage and trauma as well as physical.  You have a rating of vigor for physical damage or resolve for mental damage, loses are taken from there until certain criteria are reached and then a wound or trauma is taken.  The vigor/resolve scores will automatically heal at the end of a scene, so this kind of represents getting your breath back or shaking of initial shock but wounds which are not prevented are usually healed after longer periods of time, like between games for example and will cause skill check to become tougher...all heroes only have 5 wounds, when 4 are taken its really bad news, so if things go south it can get messy real quick.
Mechanics:  The skill checks are really easy to get your head around but the thing that I've found hardest to understand and manage is the use of momentum or doom.  If a PC passes a skill check there is the potential to gain momentum, which can be used to do cool stuff such as improve results, cause more damage, take additional actions etc.  The momentum pool encourages the team to work together and maybe share in the success, but sometimes it pushes the players to roll more dice and increase chances of a complication happening.  Its taken me and the players a few games to get to grips with this, but once they do it almost self manages itself.  When running this a a convention game the momentum spends are the thing people used to systems such as D&D seem to struggle with the most.
Negative Stuff:  The only thing I could say is that the rule book is a little confusing in layout and I've had to re-read some stuff between sessions and ensure I've got it.  There are a lot of moving parts which mesh together nicely but may take a session or two to get to grips with it.  Also just the shear amount of information in the core book can seem a little overwhelming, so I would suggest dipping in with the free pdf of the quickstart rules maybe first.  So overall not too negative, just may require some work to make sure it all comes together, but when it does I feel it works really well.

I look forward to continuing my campaign, a nice narrative is forming and I think my players are growing into their characters nicely and I'm becoming more comfortable handling the system and understanding how all the bits fit together to create adventures in an age undreamed of.

Board Game Review - Quacks of Quedlinburg

A game with and estimated play time of 45 minutes for 2-4 players designed by Wolfgang Warsch.
I first stumbled across this game in its original German language version (Die Quack Sadler Von Quedlinburg) whilst at a convention earlier on in the year, luckily the person who ran the game did German to English rules translations so was able to explain it to us.  After this initial play I was keeping an eye out for the English language version, and here it is now available.  So if you haven't worked it out yet then spoilers...I like this game.
The premise of this game is that you are quack doctors making potions and trying to gain the greatest reward for doing so, this is undertaken via charming push your luck bag building type mechanisms.
Each player has a bag which contains chips or various types and values representing ingredients which will be added to your mixing pot, placing these allows you to advance on the track on your player board gaining more victory points and money to spend along the way, but beware as there are explosive items in the bag and if you place more than a combined value total of 7 explosive items your pot will explode and you won't get as many rewards. 
As the game progresses you may purchase different ingredients to add to your bag, each having a special effect when placed or at the end of the turn and so it continues for 9 game rounds.
The game does a great job of giving you various strategy options to try and it can get really tense when you are closing on the explosive total.  The addition of a rule changing fortune cards each turn will mean that no two games are the same and if you don't do very well the 'rat tails' catch up mechanic means you are not left standing with no chance of catching up.
The game would appear to have plenty of replay options, there are 4 optional special powers for each of the ingredients, random fortune cards and the reverse side of the players board offers yet another way to play this game.

 

 

 

 Components - The components are of a reasonable quality.  The player markers are already printed with the required design and the punch boards were well printed, everything in line and punched out very easily.  The draw bags are slightly silky feeling and just the right size to get your hand in to draw chips with no problems and overall the art work is bright and cartoony.  I found it easy to identify components and there is really only a limited amount  of required iconography.  I thought the player boards were practical to use in game and the aesthetics helped with the creation of game theme.  I'd recommend the use of little pots for the storage of ingredient chips during the set up.

 

Game Play - Found this easy to teach our not so gamery friends and the progression of the turn is clear and logical.  The push your luck element is where the real fun is and it can be very rewarding trying to build combinations of ingredients to push you up the tracker.  There is obviously a large random element with the blind drawing of chips from the bag, but I don't think this is a bad thing for the game.  The rules suggest all players build their pots simultaneously, but we felt this could lead to an almost solo play experience, so we decided each person build their pot with others looking on and offering banter and encouragement.  This does make the game a little longer and we decided to avoid unfair advantage we would add a moving first player token in future.  This house ruling was just a personal choice and I'd be happy to play either way.

 

Board Game Geek Link https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244521/quacks-quedlinburg

 

TL:DR - Nice colourful bag building game, easy to teach with a really fun push your luck element.  Has lots of replayability and felt it was good value for money.

 





 

 

Boardgame Review - Gizmos

Review of Gizmos

A game for 2-4 players with a suggested age of 14+ lasting 40-50 minutes.  Produced by CMON and designed by Phil Walker-Harding.
So recently picked this new release up based on the nice looking components and the fact that Phil Walker-Harding's previous offering 'Imhotep' was a splendidly simple game but offered lots of choices and strategy during play.  I would say this game did not disappoint, the rules are simple and easy to understand and it pleases my wife they are only 4 pages long (including the front cover).

If the games Century Spice Road and Potion Explosion were to get together and have a love child this would be the result.  The game revolves around your player board and the market place of cards (gizmos) which you can purchase by spending marbles (energy spheres) of various colours which are drawn or picked at random from the marble dispenser.  Buying the Gizmos will allow you to convert/manipulate the spheres you pick and fire off combinations of different actions and effects thus allowing you to buy increasing more expensive gizmo cards.  The game ends when any player has created 16 gizmos or purchased 4 of the top tier gizmo cards.
The game is very simple to teach and get the hang of and within two turns you can see how all the moving parts of the game come together to make a fun game which even with our first play hit around the game duration noted on the box, so it certainly doesn't outstay its welcome.
The box states an age of 14+ but I think that it would be manageable by a younger age group although it is certainly much more than a kids game.
The icons on cards are consistent throughout the components and a handy reference sheet is provided, although after a turn or two the iconography is pretty much self explanatory.
Overall we have found it to be an enjoyable game, it requires some planning and a bit of thought as you build your engine of gizmos,  watching it all come together is a lot of fun and the tactile element of the marbles does add something to the whole experience.

• Components - These score a 4 out of 5.  Thick cardboard components with coloured printing on both side.  Some assembly of the energy dispenser is required, but there is a separate sheet with the instructions on how to do this and it is very clear.  The energy spheres (marbles) are of a nice weight and consistent size, colour and quality.  My only small gripe is that the gizmo cards you draft are square shape and I would have preferred standard card size to allowing them to be sleeved and easier shuffling, but this certainly didn't detract from the game.  The plastic box insert fits everything nicely back into the box when packed away but I suspect will not be future proof for the inevitable expansion.
• Game Play - Scoring this also at a solid 4 out of 5.  Any one who has played either Splendor or Century Spice Road will recognise the mechanics of this, so although not a ground breaking mechanic it is a lot of fun to play and certainly adds a twist to it.  Working towards an engine that fires on all cylinders has more strategy to it than you may first think and we found playing the game a rewarding experience.
• Board game geek link here https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/246192/gizmos

TL;DR  -  An enjoyable engine building and drafting game using marbles to create a tactile experience.  Although not totally gateway I think it will provide a good game experience for bothy newer players and veteran gamers alike.  Thumbs up for this game.

Box art doesn't tell you much about the game

Energy spheres available for selection

Player board with gizmos built underneath and the available player energy spheres stored in the energy ring

A Whole Year!

Well I've just realised its been a year since I posted anything on my gaming related blog, you can see why I'll never be a social media celebrity.  I also need to apologise for not hosting any Games Day Events this year for the Northants Board and Card Gamers Collective, reasons will become clear in this post.  I will promise to pick it up again for 2019.
In a non game related way the last year has been tough to say the least with the death of my dad, moving house and then eventually facing the fact I needed some help for anxiety and depression, but I think I'm back on and even keel again and able to focus on having gaming hobby fun.
I won't harp on about mental health, I wouldn't want to sound sanctimonious or all expert about the subject but I would like to make it clear that the help I had from my doctor has really changed things for the better and not only for me but those around me.  So as the adverts say, its ok to not be ok and as I did don't think that the problems caused by stress are a sign of weakness in your character, reach out for some help.  If you have a friend who you think might be struggling, listen and talk, it really does help.
Any way enough of my preaching stuff, what has been happening hobby wise??

• I have finished painting the core box of Mythic Pantheon by Monolith.  It really is a miniature heavy game but they are really nice to paint.  The bad news is I've now started on the stretch goal box and there are about 300 more in the paint queue.
• I've been converting and painting up matchbox and hot wheel toy cars for Gaslands, a kind of Madmax post apocalyptic car racing and shooting game.  Making the cars is great fun but I haven't had a chance to play the game yet!
• Lots of board gaming as usual and also played some older less cult of the new euro games which were really good.  Fried my brain with T'zolkin and less so with Notre Dame, both older but very good games.  Moral of the story is don't miss out on these games just because they are older, keep an eye out because I picked up Taj Mahal for £3 at a convention!!!

Stygia and Airbrush Practice

I've been busy this week trying to finish off as couple of projects.
Firstly I have now painted everything in the Stygia expansion of the Conan Miniatures game.  I've got the quality of the sculpts whilst not ground breaking are very serviceable and not bad considering they are made of a softer plastic than say the gripping beast or warlord plastic figures.  The scorpions were a bit fiddly to do as they had to be removed from the base to allow the base to be textured and painted and then re-fixed, just a bit time consuming.  If you look at the giant scorpion you can see my first attempt on the claws of fading black on the tips into red and then into the body, a bit ham fisted but I wasn't to sad as this was my first attempt.



 


 

 

Evil Thoth Amon, the bad guy
 



The Hero from the Sytgian set, I always find shades of blue difficult to do.





Smaller scorpions, there are 10 of these bad boys in the set