Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A few things

Thing #1
There is a new updated Epic Solitaire Notebook Adventures up and available. New features include dungeons, which is completely inspired by someone who tested the game named Cameron Harris (I think), but who I've lost his email.

Dungeons, while right now I don't think happen regularly enough, solve a little sticking point I've had; namely, that of "why don't you just funnel all of your development points into a single Settlement, instead of spreading them out?" Hopefully, the appearance of a dungeon in a kingdom where a player is simply "camping out" for level ups will make him think twice.

Dungeons are simply a series of battles, that pay out 2X gold, and when they exist, prevent special effects of Settlements from happening. Plus, if you decide to NOT try and take out the dungeon, the Settlements get angry with you.

To offset the new dangers of Dungeons, I've added a new "harder to die" feature, which allows for a scavenger magician to find your body, and replace your severed limbs with magical armor. Fun stuff, if you look through the abstractness of it all.

I'm at the point now with the game that I don't mind it being posted up to the geek, so if anyone wants to earn some geekgold, feel free to submit the game.

Thing #2
On another note, in honor of my love for games that play differently, I picked up the new Z-Man edition of Tales of the Arabian Nights. And then, I put it down, and picked it up again. It's a good workout, given that the box is amazingly heavy considering that it's all cardboard and paper (no wood pieces).

After playing around with it a little bit solo just to get the feel of how it worked, I came to the conclusion that it really does feel like a game produced in the early 80s: fairly simple mechanics wedded to countless look-up charts that reference other look-up charts. But it's a 1980's game with the trappings of the new millenium's penchant for gorgeous art and top notch production values. Even the box top oozes class; the main background of the box is matte black, but the rest of the artwork is all colorful and glossy. Granted, I don't buy too many games, but I don't think I've bought a game with cardboard punch-out chits this thick before. Anyway, I look forward to bringing this handsome edition of a "choose your adventure" book out on the table soon, even if it's just with my 6 year old daughter, who should be able to handle most of it easily as long as I'm the reader, since the game is pretty much A) move in the world, then B) go through a look-up chart process to find out what story happens there.

Also, I wouldn't running a play-by-forum/blog version Tales at some point. Granted, it's a lot of typing, but the game flow and 99% non-turn-order wackiness should make it easy enough.

Speaking of play-by-forum, I'm currently in Season 12 of the Battlestar Galactica play-by-forum game at the 'geek. Needless to say, with all of the possible interrupting, and potential out-of-turn card play, it's a slow go. Very slow. I'm amazed that people can actually RUN a play-by-forum version of this game, much less play it. For the record, the game officially started over a month ago, and we still haven't quite made it 'around the table' of player's turns yet.

**Still awaiting his next chance to playtest the Three Fates game.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Seth Jaffee said...

Cool to hear about the Epic Solitaire Notebook Adventure thing. I think the ideas in that game were really clever!

Now what about that Calendar game? ;)

Regarding Battlestar Galactica play-by-forum... I saw the first one of those starting, and I realized what a bad idea it would be - so I decided not to try it. I played a tiny bit of D&D by forum once, it took forever, and the whole thing just sort of stopped before we'd made any real progress. I can't imagine BSG being any better.

Hope you have a good time at least. Let me know how it goes - if I haven't died of old age by the time you make the first jump!

10:34 AM  

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