MAPS!

   I've been drawing maps. Several maps. Mainly for a couple of products my game company (Goblyn Head Press) is selling or is going to sell via DriveThruRPG.

ASOIAF: Starks And Lannisters Overview

So.. who's it going to be?

It's probably worth saying that I got into the game fairly easily because my favorite major house in the show is Lannister.  My wife really digs Starks but she has yet to try the game because it looks too nerdy.  Don't worry, it's just a matter of time because I see her eyeing the dinner table that I've fully converted into playing daily games.  It's a good thing that I bought enough stuff to get some variety into the mix so the newer players I'm trying to get into the game can experiment and mix and match units.  Even though I have my favorites, I have probably played at least 40% of my games with Starks because I feel that the best way to learn the game is by playing a lot.

Whenever someone starts with the game, no matter what minis game, I always tell them the same thing:  Go with the aesthetics and look of the faction first above anything else.  With this game, however, I don't think the same principle applies as much in this game because everyone is human (for the most part).  When it comes down to picking a faction, I think one of the things everyone needs to do is examine a bit of their psyche and pick a faction that best aligns with their personality.  It's like picking a color in MTG and understanding that each color represents a bit of your personality.  If you want to go a little bit deeper, picking a faction in this game would be like picking a guild from Ravnica, or even building a character in a D&D campaign.  That is, unless you really really like dogs.  Then I would say just pick Starks and never look back.

Alright, so back to the two starting factions from the Core set.  Since you need this set to play the game and they're the factions with the largest amount of units choices right now, you need to decide if you want to go with House Lannister or House Stark.  Remember what I said about picking the right faction for you, as this will do you big favors because a lot of the game's mechanics are designed around how the houses behave in the books/show whatever.  There's a big chance that if you don't like the houses' personality in the books that you will not like how they play in-game.  It's actually one of my favorite things about the game so far and that's how on-point a lot of book to table translation has been.

Hear me roar!

Alright, let's begin with the Lannisters.  In this game, the Lannisters are the faction that has a lot of panic shenanigans, morale tests, weakens, and counterplots.  Their Tactics cards play heavily with the Crown and Wealth zones on the Tactics Board and controlling those will open up many secondary effects of your cards.  Lannister Commanders come in many shapes and sizes from the destructive and brutal force of The Mountain to the cunning strategist that is Tyrion Lannister (yes, you can take him in combat!).  My favorite Commander for the Lannisters is Tywin Lannister (also my favorite character in the show) because a lot of his Tactics cards and abilities intimidate and Weaken enemy units.  Another Commander that I've tried is Jaimie Lannister because his abilities center around defense, parry, and riposte; turning the opponent's attacks and crappy rolls against them.

When it comes to NCUs or their Tactics cards, the Lannisters focus heavily on debuffing and control elements that limit the opponent's options.  Pycelle's Weaken effect and Cersei's No Confidence are prime examples of debuffing the opponent or making them worse for morale tests, while tactics cards like Counterplot can outright stop an opponent tactics card from going off.  I tried to get some examples of the kind of tactics the Lannisters can employ and I think this lot sums it up pretty nicely.  For the Lannisters, they are all scheming masterminds with several abilities that kicks players while they're down.

Kick 'em while they're down.

As for Lannister units, they are well-supplied and fairly diverse to take on a large breadth of enemies.  The Mountain is its own unit just because he is, Lannister Guardsman are slow with lower attacks but has an excellent defense and a great ability (Lannister Supremacy) that only gets better with attachments, and Lannister Crossbowmen are no joke.  I've recently started playing them and having a unit that just hits units with ranged attacks on a 3+ with Sundering from Long Range is incredible.  Lannisters also have some interesting unique units like Pyromancers that can toss their Wildfire from ranged or in combat and it ignores defense saves while suffering -2 to the defender's Panic tests through Vicious.

While the Lannisters have a solid lineup of units, I would say their strengths come from their debuffs and stopping your opponents from what they want to do more so than just strength of arms.  For that, you want to get into House Stark.  If you're looking for a faction that doesn't care about the subtleties and just wants to beat face, you've come to the right place.

Winter is coming.

When it comes to striking hard and striking fast, Stark is the faction to do it.  One of the many things I enjoy about the core set is that you have two factions that have radically different playstyles.  Just like it is in the books, the Starks and the Lannisters are probably the two houses most different from one another.  While the Lannisters rely on debuffs and abilities that stop your opponents from doing what they intend, Starks are all about battlefield combat and maneuver.  They see an opening and go for the jugular just like the Dire Wolf, their house sigil and in doing so, deliver massive damage to the enemies and leave them reeling.  With Commanders like Robb Stark who can take maneuver warfare to the next level, or Roddrick Cassel and his ability to exploit the Vulnerable enemies, the Starks are the faction you want if you want to destroy the opponent's army rather than play the more drawn-out  game of politics and scheming.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the Stark units or playstyle are just centered around this niche.  With both the Lannisters and the Starks, there will be Commanders and units that will change the regular composition from what you expect from the two factions and that's always a good thing.  For example, on one side, you have the fast-moving and lightly-armored Umber Berserker that has built-in Sundering (-1 to defense saves) and their attacks increase when you lose ranks rather than decrease.  You compare this to the rock-solid Tully Sworn Shields with the Shield Wall ability and good luck trying to break their 3+ defense saves from the front.  This unit variety not only keeps different playstyles fresh and exciting but also gives units legroom to perform depending on the game mode that you play.  Either way, when you think about Starks, their humble foot soldier in the form of Stark Sworn Swords move 5, have excellent morale and rolls 8 dice just because they can.  When you pop Stark Fury on them, they gain +1 to hit and Critical Blows on their attacks (6s deal 2 hits) at the cost of D3 models to your own unit.  If that's not a healthy representation of angry Northmen I don't know what is.

Winter is seriously coming.

When it comes to Tactics cards and NCUs, Stark is pretty straight-forward:  It's all about Combat and Maneuver and taking those zones will be extremely rewarding.  Catelyn Stark can remove a condition from an afflicted unit while buffing them so they're attacking with max dice, and Sansa Stark can instant tutor for any tactics card you need, even if it's a previously discarded card.  That is great tactical flexibility and I have her in almost every single one of my Stark lists.

Well, that's about it for the high-level overview of which armies you will get in the core box.  With so many different commanders, tactics, NCUs, and units to cover, list building deserves its own article.  I'll take you guys through the basics of list building and show you a couple of Lannister and Stark lists tomorrow so you can better grasp some of the things discussed today.

5 GAMES FOR OCTOBER

On this eve of All Hallow's Eve, take a trip down memories once forgotten with October's spooktacular quintet of games. Adventure meets FPS in the movie tie-in to the classic horror franchise Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge. Then make sure you Don't Go Alone in an under-appreciated computer RPG from the late 80s. If you make it out alive, investigate some real-life hauntings with Christopher Lee in Ghosts. Need some lighter scares? Try Scooby-Doo! Showdown in Ghost Town, a point-and-click adventure for younger players. If bloody gore's more your thing, enter the horrifying fantasy world of Witchaven, an often overlooked FPS using the Build engine. Enjoy.... if you dare!!!

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Cooperative Games 10+ Years After Pandemic, LTUE Panel

Pandemic wasn't the first cooperative game to come along, but it was one of the first to gain broad recognition. At the 2020 Life, The Universe and Everything Symposium (LTUE Website), a group of us were asked to discuss cooperative games.

Each panelist had their own favorite cooperative game and some least favorites. To provide a common ground for discussion, we talked over concepts of what makes a cooperative game. With the framework provided, we then dug into this style of game and what problems can arise. We finished up by answering any questions from guests in the audience on what we would like to see in the future for cooperative games.

What are Cooperative Games?

Gamers agree on a basic definition of a cooperative game—the players are working together to defeat the challenge presented by the game. There are different styles of cooperative gaming that can change how the game is played.

There are games that introduce a traitor aspect from the beginning of the game. This style of play means there is someone is secretively working against the goals of all the other players. Cooperative games with a traitor have fans and detractors. Whichever you like playing is great, as long as everyone else sitting around the table is on the same page. Tales of consequences to players and gaming groups are told of when a traitor has been played particularly well, to the annoyance of the rest of the group.

A variant for some of these games is that a traitor may or may not be part of the game. Some of these are set up to provide a random element while others are a choice by the players. Some also require a player to take on the role of the traitor when a particular point of the game is reached.

There are more cooperative games coming out that allow for individual competition between the players along with the need to work together to defeat the game. In these cooperative/competitive games, the players have different goals they are working for in addition to achieving the group's victory. Most of the games I've seen that follow this pattern still require the group to work together to accomplish the goal, but there are multiple paths to be used and players are working to get the party to follow the one that would give them an advantage in the end. What I've seen in many of these is that it gives the players a way to see who "won" the game if the group succeeds. But if the board wins, the individual accomplishments don't count.

What Makes a Good Cooperative Game (and What Doesn't)?

Quarterbacking was an aspect not liked in most cases. Quarterbacking is when one player can take control of the game and dictate to everyone else what their actions should be. Cooperative games are designed to be more social in nature by having everyone discuss the actions. We had all been in games where one person either took control of the game, or control of another player's actions. This usually doesn't lead to a pleasant experience for the player that has been sidelined. One time when it was brought up as an advantage, is when the game is being played with younger players, or when teaching how a game is played. But even then, there was caution given that each player needs to be able to play their role in the game.

Definitive roles can be played by each player. It was agreed that one aspect of cooperative games that sets them apart is the character roles the players take. Each player having a distinct action that no other player is capable of. This requires the players to work together to accomplish the task. When all of the players are capable of taking the same action, there is nothing unique for the individual player and the action is just an aspect of creating a stronger party than the board. This uniqueness can be achieved by other means, but character personalities and individual roles are the most common.

What We Would Like to See ?

Everyone agreed they would like to see more cooperative games that give additional variants of play for the size of the gaming group. It is easy to say there is a solitaire version by having one player play all of the characters. That would just be quarterbacking the game without any other players. However, that wouldn't work very well for games that have a traitor built in or individual goals for the players to work toward.

Along with making more variants for existing cooperative games there are some competitive games that provide rules for cooperative play. It would be nice to have more games provide an experience for players who don't like to work against other players at the table.

Another aspect brought up would be a stronger cross with other tabletop games, like role playing games (RPGs). The strong narrative in most RPGs lends it to cooperative gaming. There are many genres and settings that would lend themselves easily to a cooperative gaming platform. On the flip side, it would be interesting to see a cooperative board game that allowed the players to develop individualized characters as in an RPG instead of choosing one of the pre-generated characters.

Final Thoughts

Cooperative games are a diverse group of games growing in size. There are players who really enjoy these games and others who don't like them at all. Every game is going to have people who are for and against them.

The complexity of the games range as much as other board games. Many of them are designed to scale so as you get better at playing the game you can make the game harder.

All of these give cooperative games a place. With gamers who are used to working together, and want to work together, a cooperative game can be a fulfilling event when you are able to overcome the obstacles of a hard fought challenge.

Cooperative Games 10+ Years After Pandemic (from the program)

Pandemic created a new type of board game with cooperative elements. How this has changed the world of board games and what does this mean today?

Other Panelists

Cavan Helps

He is the GM on Dice Buddies, has appeared on Enter the Hex, has written a course on game mastering, and is one of the writers of Guardinas of Umbra, a Savage Worlds setting. Dicebuddies.com.

Megan Hutchins

She regularly draws on her background in archeology when writing fiction. She's the author of YA fantasy novels The Redwood Palace and Drift. Her short fiction appears in Analog, Daily Science Fiction, Podcastle, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. A long-time Idahoan, she now lives in Utah with her husband and four children. Mkhutchins.com.

Christopher Baxter

An author, editor, podcaster, and (why not) yes, a game designer. He shares stories and writing tips at writerinthehat.com and is host of A More Civilized Podcast.

Mike Holyoak

A lifelong geek obsessed with table-top RPGs, board games, and board game design. He is a three-time finalist of the SaltCon Ion Board Game Design Contest and one-time winner. Anubisnine.wordpress.com.

I'm working at keeping my material free of subscription charges by supplementing costs by being an Amazon Associate and having advertising appear. I earn a fee when people make purchases of qualified products from Amazon when they enter the site from a link on Guild Master Gaming and when people click on an ad. If you do either, thank you.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

I have articles being published by others and you can find most of them on Guild Master Gaming on Facebookand Twitter(@GuildMstrGmng).

Storium Basics: Cardless Moves

Last time, we discussed multi-card moves here on Storium Basics. This time, I'd like to spend a bit of time on their opposite: cardless moves.

While most moves in Storium games will probably involve cards, cardless moves are an option in Storium. Narrators will vary on how much they like them. For my part, I'm totally fine with them as they add some great color to scenes, but I do want to caution that you not allow them to overwhelm scenes. They're great for adding detail but can also sap a scene of momentum if they are overused.

When writing a cardless move, think similarly to how you write a move for a Neutral card like a Subplot - but unlike neutral cards, cardless moves don't push the scene closer to completion. Remember, a challenge's remaining card slots are, in a way, the measure of how much "story" is left in the challenge, and how close it is to a conclusion. When you play cardless, you aren't changing that at all. You also aren't in any way tipping the challenge's balance - cardless moves obviously don't count as Strong or Weak, or even Neutral. In other words, the story of the challenge does not move forward in a significant fashion, and the actions of your character do not have a particularly noteworthy impact on the challenge.

When you write a cardless move it should be more about showing what your character is doing in the current status of the scene than anything else. Your move doesn't significantly impact the scene and doesn't move the situation forward in any notable way…but it still needs to relate to what's going on. You're not playing on a challenge, but…still think about the move in relation to a challenge and/or the scene all the same. It should never drift totally away from what the scene is focused on.

I'm fond of using cardless moves to show my character's reactions to big moments - to help make other players awesome by making clear that what they've done got a reaction out of my character. That's one good way of using these.

They can also be used to just develop a point a little more, without actually pushing it forward. Maybe your last move was about conversing with a character, trying to convince him of something, and while other stuff is going on in the scene, you'd like to take a moment to show that the conversation is still going on and develop the character's motivations a bit more, without actually having the challenge's situation change yet. That can be a good use of a cardless move.

The trick is to use them, but not abuse them. It's easy to fall into a trap of overusing these move types when a challenge is active. They're good for reactions, and good for further development...but don't react to everything, and don't develop everything. When challenges are active, keep the focus on playing on the challenges. Moves with cards, for most games, should clearly outnumber cardless moves while challenges are active...otherwise, games really risk losing momentum. Use them with restraint, and they'll work best.

That does bring up an important side note, though: There are times when a narrator will set up or continue a scene without challenges, specifically to give you the opportunity to roleplay with cardless moves. Obviously at that point, cardless moves are what the game's all about! Just remember to play according to the story, and even if there aren't challenges present, don't allow your character to overwhelm the rest of the game.

For more information on cardless moves and cardless moments, see these articles:

• Add Some Color with Cardless Moves
• A Chance to Breathe: Cardless Moments

Shattered Apollo (XCOM Files)

PFC Tom Shaw, March 1st

They told us we were the first humans to kill a creature from outer space. They told us we were heroes. They told us we were the best humanity has to offer to fight off this invasion. I'm going to be honest with you here and tell you, I don't really think any of that is true. These guys knew the aliens were coming. They must have known for a while. The XCOM project had been dormant for years before they came and picked us up and told us we were chosen to protect humanity. It's possible no one had seen or fought an alien before us, but then how did they know what to expect? How did they know when to expect it? We certainly weren't heroes. Most of us were just dumb kids who knew how to shoot. Yeah, we were trained to kill each other, but not one among us had been trained to repel alien invaders with death rays. Hell, I don't even really know what plasma is and I've been covered in the stuff.

You're here to talk about that night, right? I relive that night a lot in my nightmares. It's difficult to talk about for a lot of reasons, but as the squad leader of the first human beings to engage and defeat an alien threat - well I'm getting used to being asked about it. Well, here goes.

We were flown from the Cheyenne Mountain complex to Vancouver late on the night of March 1st. Aliens had touched down at a shipping warehouse and were in the process of abducting any humans unfortunate enough to be out that late. None of this junk sounded real to me, by the way. Here I was leading this team and I wasn't even convinced we were going to be fighting what they said we'd be fighting. I'd never seen an alien or a UFO. This was the stuff of TV shows and silly documentaries on conspiracy theories. How could this crap be real? It felt like a dream flying out to Vancouver that night. It felt like a dream until our boots hit the ground.

The Landing Zone

We dropped down on the street outside the parking lot of the warehouse. The lot itself was fenced in with a stone wall creating a bit of a fortress for these aliens to hide in. We could hear some damn strange noises coming from beyond that wall. That's when most of us knew that this was really happening. You can be dropped into a foreign country where you don't speak a word of the local language, but you know those sounds coming from the other side of the wall are human voices speaking human words that you just don't understand. This was not like that. No, sir. I can't even begin to describe these sounds to you. They were like nothing I'd ever heard on Earth. This was really happening.

First Contact

Grace was the first to lay eyes on an alien - Private Grace Russell, my fellow American that night. As she took up a position against the wall and moved forward to the entrance of the lot, she spotted three little greys working on one of their abduction pods. I guess they store humans inside these things for transportation. The science team understood more about that than I ever did, but we just called them abduction pods. Anyway, these aliens saw Grace and took up defensive positions behind the pod and some nearby cars. My Brazilian brother, Julio "Burrito" Brito, took up a position across from Russell at the entrance to the lot.

The Great Kobayashi Grenade

I couldn't see a damn thing from where I was pressed up against the wall, but the next thing I know I'm hearing the bizarre sizzling sounds of these plasma pistols firing on my team. Russell and Brito open fire, but they're basically exchanging rounds with the aliens shooting their green ooze back at us. That's when Shinji Kobayashi - no one even knew this dude until that night. This guy really kept to himself at the base. He barely spoke a word of English to anyone. He was definitely a loner. So this guy, Kobayashi, decided to sneak up along the outside of the wall and toss a grenade over the top on to the aliens' positions. The crack of his anti-personnel grenade marked a stop to the plasma pistols sizzling shots, but Russell could see two were wounded, but none were killed. Burrito and I slipped into the parking lot in this short window of opportunity.

Man, the first time I saw a grey - hunkered down behind that abduction pod, staring down at the shrapnel out of its body - I just fired on the thing. I ended its life. That thing didn't even see me sweep in from around the corner. Yeah, as far as anyone can tell me, I'm the first guy on Earth to take one down. I barely even got a good look at the thing before putting a hail of bullets into its small grey body. There was a certain exhilaration among the team knowing that our simple ballistic weapons had defeated these technologically superior beings with futuristic, space rayguns. Sadly this small moment of victory was diminished by the sounds of heavy plasma fire coming from further down the street.

Kobayashi Comes Under Fire

Private Kobayashi's bold maneuver had left him alone and exposed. He was pinned against the wall farther up the road and barely holding back four greys who were trying to gain a strategic position behind our squad. Knowing this, Burrito rushed across the parking lot toward the warehouse hoping to end our conflict inside the compound swiftly. The aliens were wounded and distracted by the loss of one of their own. They didn't even see him get in close and mow down a second alien hiding behind a car in shock. Grace had only reported three aliens in the lot, so I felt confident that Private Brito and I could pincer the last one on our own. I sent Russell, Rojas and Marin to backup Kobayashi on the street. You know, I think about this moment often and wonder if splitting up the squad had been a mistake. That might have been where things went truly wrong for me and Marin, but if I hadn't sent them, then Kobayashi would probably have died in the streets of Vancouver that night.

Burrito Gets the Drop on This Alien

As Julio and I pushed forward in the parking lot searching for that final alien, Russell, Rojas and Marin made their way up the street toward Private Kobayashi. We heard Marin nscream out in pain from our position and it still sends chills down my spine. Julio and I thought she was dead. As far as we understood, no one had ever been hit by these death-rays so we expected the worst. Rojas came over the radio, though, saying she'd been hit but she was still alive. She even managed to take one of the aliens down before falling back behind a car to rest. Adriana Marin was tough.

As far as I understand, while the aliens were distracted by Private Marin, Kobayashi was able to take up a new position across the street - rushing away from the wall where he had been pinned down. From there he was able to take down an alien firing on Marin and Rojas with ease. Although Marin was hurt, it sounded to us like the firefight on the street was turning in our favor. We could hear the aliens shrieking their horrible sounds and scattering back to defensive positions further down the lot. Private Brito and I obviously wanted to pin the aliens down, but before we could rejoin Kobayashi we had to take care of our immediate enemy. We found the final alien of the initial squad hiding behind a yellow car. I took some shots that missed, which to this day still haunt me. That damn yellow car is one of the last things I remember that night. After that, things go dark.

Just Before Things Go Dark

The alien that Julio and I were tracking was leading us into an ambush. Julio told me later while I was in the med-bay that three aliens popped out of the warehouse itself right on top of my position. One of them fired several shots into my left side, nearly covering me in that burning green plasma. I went down hard and Julio thought I was dead right then and there. I don't have any memory of this, you know? The last thing I can remember is missing that damn bastard who led me into the trap. I guess after I fell, Brito rushed up taking shots on my attacker and killing it. He said I was bleeding out right there in the lot. He reported over the radio that if they couldn't get me on the skyranger soon, and rush me to medical attention I was a goner.

Kobayashi Coming in Hot

Now, from what I understand, once Burrito reported I'd been shot down, Kobayashi took charge of the team on his side of the wall. To this day, I never heard the guy speak, but if you hear Grace tell it, without Kobayashi's leadership I wouldn't be here today. She makes it sound like Shinji single-handedly killed the rest of the aliens in some kind of maddened rage, which makes Julio laugh every time we bring it up. All he would tell me is that Shinji led his sub-squad around the northern end of the wall and closed in behind the ambush in a pincer attack with Brito. Together, their counter-ambush wiped out the rest of the greys on site and we were able to be extracted soon afterward.

That's really all their is to tell. The six of us took out ten greys. Marin was wounded, and I was rendered unconscious. Technically, I was leading the mission and I got the first kill so some people think I'm a hero. Personally, I know it could have gone better. I'm still kicking myself for walking into that trap like a goddamn puppet on a string. It was my leadership that got Marin hurt, too. Kobayashi was the real hero that night as far as I'm concerned and I don't think I'm alone in that regard.

• From an interview with Tom Shaw, US Special Forces, Leader on Operation Shattered Apollo

---

XCOM Report - March 1, 2015 - "Shattered Apollo" 

PFC Tom Shaw (USA) - Squad Leader

• Confirmed Kills: 1 (Sectoid)
• Condition:  Gravely Wounded
• Earned Promotion 

PFC Grace Russell (USA) 

• Confirmed Kills: 1 (Sectoid)
• Earned Promotion 

PFC Roman Rojas (Guatemala)

• Confirmed Kill: 2 (Sectoid)
• Earned Promotion 

PFC Adriana Marin (Moldova)

• Confirmed Kill: 1 (Sectoid)
• Condition:  Minor Wounds
• Earned Promotion 

PFC Shinji Kobayashi (Japan)

• Confirmed Kill: 3 (Sectoid)
• Earned Promotion 

PFC Julio Brito (Brazil)

• Confirmed Kill: 2 (Sectoid)
• Earned Promotion 

AZ Game Fair 2019

Last weekend I attended AZ Game Fair 2019 in Mesa. It's just up the road from Tucson, and as a "special guest" I get a free badge, so it's usually a very inexpensive weekend of gaming. However, this year my wife and baby came with, which meant a full price hotel room for 2 nights, so it wasn't so cheap after all.

I did not arrive at the convention until 10pm on Friday, so I might as well have just come up Saturday morning and saved the cost of the room that first night... oh well.

Saturday and Sunday, however, I did manage to spend a lot of time at the convention, and actually play some games for once!

Old Favorites

Puerto Rico
After hopping into a game or two of The Resistance with Sean Ramirez of The Dukes Of Dice podcast, I taught his friends Puerto Rico, which sat at the top of the "best games" list for a decade (and with good reason). Sean and I had played before, so of course it boiled down to a contest between him and me. I haven't played that game in years, but it's definitely one of my favorites, and I pulled out the victory.

Game Design Panel
After that, I was on a game design panel with another local designer, David Short, as well as Canadian special guest Daryl Andrews, and the guest of honor from Italy, Vital Lacerda. The panel was called The Secret Lives of Board Game Designers, but had no real direction or moderator, so I tried to sort of direct traffic. We mostly took questions from the audience.

Railroad Tycoon
After the panel, my friend Hoss was running a game of Railways of the World (FKA Railroad Tycoon). There were only 3 of us, Hoss, myself, and a new player Hoss had just taught how to play. We used a map of Great Britain, which I'd not seen before. I kinda liked the map. It was a tight game, and in the last round I had to go to the bathroom, so I made my last 3 plays out of turn (they didn't affect anybody else anyway) and ran off. When I got back, they'd just finished counting points, and Hoss had won by 1 point! I don't know if I trust him though, the first thing he said that game was that I should be banker because he was bad at counting, and the first thing he did in the game was grab $10k bills in lieu of $1k bills... :)

New Hotness

Underwater Cities
In addition to those old favorites, I got a chance to try a few of the new, hot games. Saturday night Hoss and I sat down to figure out Underwater Cities. The rulebook took about 45 mins to learn from, mostly because they repeated the "play a card and place a worker, and if your card color matches, you get the bonus" text at least 4 times.

I was enjoying Underwater Cities while we played, but thinking about it afterwards, I am not sure I'd want to play it more than maybe twice. The "play a card and place a worker, and if your card color matches, you get the bonus" thing is cute. I did feel like I never really wanted to play an off-colored card, even though I had something in play that gave me a consolation prize when I did that (though I probably should have done it once or twice).

We had to stop 1 turn before the end because they closed up, so I don't actually know how my strategy turned out, but I got a pretty good feel for it. I saw maybe 2 real paths I'd want to try (the one I did, and 1 other). I'm sure there's more, but it wasn't obvious what else you could really do.
The collect-cards-in-play part was a lot like Terraforming Mars, and I definitely liked this A LOT more than I like Terraforming Mars.

Wingspan
Wingspan was solid. I enjoyed most of it. Probably the only thing that I thought was weird was the random-and-variable resource pool. You need resources (in 5 types) to pay for playing bird cards, and there's an action where you take some resources (you can upgrade that so you take multiples, 1 at a time). The resource pool is 5 dice, rolled into a supply. When you take a resource, you remove the die from the supply, reducing what's available. Caveat, if all remaining dice in the supply match (there's only 1 resource option available to you), then you may choose to re-roll all of the dice, resetting the whole pool to 5 random things before taking one.

I could see wanting a random resource pool, and I could see wanting a competitive resource pool (like dice drafting), but I'm not sure the way they're combined here is the best way to do the job.
One of the types of reasons I don't like it is because there are a bunch of card effects that are like "take a [specific resource] from the supply, if it's there" - which is therefore super variable, based not just on what's rolled, but also based on how many dice happen to remain in the supply. Worse, there's a card type that says "when [X happens and succeeds], take a die from the supply," where the likelihood of X happening depends on what opponents do (which is fine), but the likelihood of X succeeding increases as the number of dice remaining decreases... so while it looks like this card gives you flexibility when it hits (you choose a die rather than get a specific resource), in reality, this card is not likely to hit at all, and if it does, you probably get some random resource, not a real choice. I could argue that's just a lame card effect, but I think it's a symptom of a lame resource system.

But other than that, I thought the game was fun, and solid.

Just One
Not as hyped as the previous two games I mentioned, Just One is a hot new cooperative party game where the goal is to get one of your teammates to guess a word by giving 1-word clues. The catch is that after each player writes down their 1-word clue (but before the guesser sees then), any matching clues cancel out. So it's scary to use the obvious clues, because if someone else does that, you don't get them, but then everybody avoids the obvious clues, and you still don't use them!

It's a fun party game, would play again, even at 2 in the morning :)

My Own Games and Prototypes

Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done
Crusaders came out just a few months ago, and so far it seems to be very well received. The production is very nice, and several people approached me at the convention to tell me how much they were enjoying the game play!

One guy who had backed the Deluxified version of the game was trying to read the rules while his friends played another game, so I offered to teach. In the end it was just 2 of them (the other 2 kept playing that other game), so I sat in and made it a 3 player game.

It's been a while since I've played Crusaders, but I still liked it a lot!

Crusaders: Divine Influence
I had made an expansion to Crusaders about a year ago, and I had thought it was probably done. I sent it to Utah with Michael in October so the TMG team could play it, and I just got it back about a week ago.

Ben and his daughter were looking to play one of my prototypes, and so as the last game of the convention, I taught them Divine Influence. Emma had not played Crusaders before, but she picked the game up just fine, even with the extra expansion rules. It went well, though I think the free movement from the Influence action is too fiddly, hard to visualize, easy to forget, and usually unnecessary. I should either cut it, or make it simpler -- maybe something like "you may freely move between adjacent hexes with your influence marker on them" (a dynamic known as "railroading" in some games). Maybe better would be to simply cut it, and save having to make components for influence.

David's doggo card game
Late Saturday night I played one of David's quick card game prototypes. It's intended to be a sort of follow up to AEG's Cat Lady. Indeed, much of it was super similar to Cat Lady (collecting similar types of sets from a 3x3 grid), however this game was a step up in complexity, as you could buy upgrades to the patterns of cards you're allowed to pick up.

I gave him some feedback, hopefully it was helpful. Mostly it was "once a player replenishes the board, their turn should be over," which I think he agreed with in the end. The rest was about a special card called "fetch," which did something thematic that David liked, but I thought should probably instead just be "get a card from the discard pile," which also seemed thematic to me. The way David wanted to do it, in my mind, subverted the main mechanism in the game, which is something I don't like doing. The recent game Noria does that, and I wish it didn't.

Why Are PUBG Players Afraid Of Pochinki?

A question arises is that why most of the PUBG player afraid of Pochinki? What is the unique thing about it? What are the secrets in Pochinki? Everything will be revealed today.

At the first look Pochinki does not seem to be as much dangerous as it is in reality. Some reasons based on my experience that why most of the people avoid landing in Pochinki are : 

1. As Pochinki has a high number of houses, there is also a good number of campers. Campers are those players who get themselves hidden in a building and wait until someone enters the house to come into action. They remain hidden so it becomes difficult for other players to guess resulting in sudden attack and finally death.      
           

2. The availability of high loot makes most players land here. But the loot is not so good as because many guns including Kar98 and M24 is extremely rare to find there.

3. Most of the players landing in Pochinki are pro players. And they keep challenging each other to show that one is better than the other. Hence more aggressive debates.


         So these three are the points I consider as the reason behind the secret of Pochinki.
 Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Also, share the link https://sudragamer.blogspot.com/?m=1 for more interesting updates.

Storium Basics: Subplots

Welcome back to Storium Basics - today, I'd like to briefly discuss the Subplot card type.

Subplots are actually my favorite card on Storium. The other cards show your character's impact on the story—a subplot shows the story's impact on your character.

Subplot cards are considered neutral, so they don't affect the Strong/Weak balance of a challenge. They do, however, push things closer to a conclusion. I like to use them to set up situations that might go either way, or to emphasize the way the challenge is currently going while moving events forward.

It takes some time to get used to writing subplots, but here's the basics: When you play a subplot, it's time to get a little introspective. Show how the subplot has been affected by the story events—how are the events of the story shaping your views of your subplot? Or, alternatively, you can show how your subplot is driving you to take the actions that you are taking. I use a mix of both. As you play subplot cards scene after scene, show how it is developing in your character's mind.

Now, that doesn't mean that your move is entirely internal! As I said above, this is still a move on a challenge, and thus it still moves the story of the challenge forward. So, this move needs to be both about your character and about the story of the challenge. It is tilted more towards your character than other moves, but the challenge's story shouldn't disappear.

A great way to do this is to tie what's going on in the challenge specifically to what's going on with your character's subplot. You can, like I suggested above, show how your subplot drove you to take the actions you're taking in the challenge. Or, you might instead decide to show how the actions you took affected your view of your subplot.

For example, if you're playing a character with the subplot Prove Yourself, reflecting his desire to have his abilities acknowledged by those around him, that subplot might be involved in a few ways. Now, these aren't the only ways you could do it, mind - but here's a couple thoughts:

• Inspiring Actions: Out of a desire to Prove Yourself, you charge headlong at the enemy, filled with ambition to win the day and be acknowledged by the other heroes.
• Reflecting on Actions: You charge headlong at the enemy, and X happens. In the moments afterwards, a thought goes through your head about how that's likely to affect your goal of proving yourself - do you think you've gotten closer, or further away?

As mentioned above, a subplot is a neutral card. That means that it doesn't tip the balance towards Strong or Weak as far as the challenge's progress towards an outcome goes. But it does progress the challenge's story.

Neutral cards can be a little hard to picture this way at first - how do you progress the story while not making things Stronger or Weaker? That's a bit of a misconception, I think.

When you play a neutral card, like a Subplot in this case, you push the story forward. This can feel like it's pushing closer to one of the endings, based on which ending the challenge was headed towards. If the challenge is already going Strong, your subplot can feel strong. If the challenge was already going Weak, your subplot can feel weak.

Why? This is because a neutral card leaves the status quo where it is, but leaves less slots to change it. So while you aren't actually making things Stronger or making things Weaker, you are progressing the story of the challenge and there is now less "time" for the challenge to turn around.

So, while a subplot play shouldn't feel exactly like a Strength or Weakness play, there's no problem with using it to emphasize the current story direction. With a neutral card, you're saying that things continue along the same path they've been continuing on...if that's a good path, that's good, if it's a bad path, that's bad.

That assumes you're playing a neutral card on its own, of course - playing multiple cards at once is an option in most Storium games, and I'll discuss that technique and its effects on moves another time.

When you play the last subplot card in your stack, it is time to move the subplot forward in a notable fashion. Show how the story's events have led the character to some kind of development point—some place where their views change, or perhaps harden and evolve to a new level.  Moves where you're finishing up your subplot stack should feel significant. Even if they're in the middle of a challenge and other things are going on, be sure to take some time to leave a sign of development of your character's story. You don't have to know precisely where it's going yet, but you should make clear that something has changed in how your character views or interacts with the issue covered by the subplot. Leave yourself some cues, some thoughts on how this might develop

It's okay - even fun - to leave the full development a bit up in the air here more solidly decide when you pick your new subplot a little later. You can ask yourself a new question the subplot inspires rather than providing an answer. This doesn't have to be a full conclusion to the subplot. It's a major development, not necessarily an ending. You are moving forward in a way, but you aren't necessarily moving forward to something totally different.

You also get a wild Strength card any time you play the last subplot card—you'll get it at the close of that scene.

At the start of the next scene after you finish your subplot, you'll also have to define a new subplot. It's pretty simple—just click the "Define a New Subplot" button that replaces your Move button, and write one like any other custom card.

What you want to do here is think a bit about what happened regarding your prior subplot. Where did your character start out regarding that issue, and where did he end up? What is he thinking about now? Is it the same issue, with some new color to it, or has he moved on to some other thing?

This is why it helps to be thinking about your subplot each time you play it, and get a little introspective each time. If you take the time to think about this along the way, you don't have to think about it all at once. And, if you use that final move of a subplot to leave yourself some thinking cues, you'll more easily find direction in writing your new plot.

Don't forget to consider how the game's story itself has been going, either! Subplots are about how your character and the game interact.

Subplots are, as I mentioned, how you show the game's impact on your character–and when you define a new Subplot, that's a big chance to show it. It's one of my favorite times in Storium–when I get to write a new subplot, I can definitively show everyone just what my character has gone through and what issue he's working through now as a result. Sometimes my new subplot is a development of the prior one, a furthering of that issue with a new name and new stakes. But sometimes things have gone totally sideways and unexpected things came up, or the character realized that what he was working through wasn't what he thought he was working through, leading to a subplot that's pretty drastically different.

Here's an example of one that developed over the course of "Sorrow's Shores" for my character, Brennan:

• It started out as "Learning the Basics," reflecting Brennan's unfamiliarity with the situation he was in and his desire to be able to at least help out a little and learn what he could to take care of himself. 
• From there, it moved to "I Have to Do More!" as Brennan learned to do his part but saw the group struggling and dealt with the loss of one of the group's members–he felt like he hadn't been strong enough yet and wanted to push himself. 
• Finally, it became "When it isn't enough…" as more bad things still happened, and he began to realize that sometimes no matter how hard you tried, sometimes you weren't strong enough on your own, and maybe it wasn't just him that was like that, maybe it was everyone. So he started wrestling with what that meant and learning that it was okay if he had to depend on other people.

I hope that all this has helped you gain an understanding of Subplots in Storium. If you'd like to read more, here are a few articles on this and related topics:

• Develop Those Subplots!
• Establishing Character Arcs
• Character Arc vs. Game Arc
• Subplots and Character Arcs
• Writing a Move: Neutral Cards
• Build Towards Something

Cold Wars 2019

Some shots from the Warmaster Revolution and Epic Armageddon tournaments from this past weekend at Cold Wars.