Something I talked about in an earlier post was cutting back the size of my 10 x 10 Challenge play reports. I felt that on reflection they were much larger than they needed to be, and that long-winded posts describing every aspect of gameplay may be "a little dry".
So, when I sat down to play today I tried to keep this in mind; and tried to cut back on my note taking. Not that this was entirely successful, as I still ended up with nearly one and a half sides of A4 scribblings. Old habits are hard to break it seems.. Hard, but not impossible. I truly believe that there is little that you cannot achieve if you set your mind to it.
Which is exactly what I did. I sat down with my notes, and asked myself "what am I trying to say here?"
A lot as it transpires, and not all of it particularly relevant. So I worked through them and picked out the key details; cutting things back to the bare bones. I was a little concerned that this edit may have been a little too extensive, as it left me with little more than a couple of sentences describing each round; but less can be more.
The edit had cut out all of the guff; like how many re-rolls I paid for, and what order I activated the avatars in. Giving my writing a certain focus that if I am to be critical of myself, I often find that it lacks. Don't get me wrong, I think that drifting off on tangents is all a part of the creative process; but being focused is not without its perks.
In this instance that focus has allowed me to build a framework; that easily identifies to me the notes that I need to take when I'm at the gaming table. This has the benefit of freeing up a LOT of time that would have been wasted on taking down information I had no real use for. Time that can now be used to both game and to blog.
The blog of a gamer and his eclectic interests; including home brewed content for board games, roleplaying games, and video games.
Saturday, 13 May 2017
Tuesday, 9 May 2017
10 x 10 Challenge #17: Eight Epics - Game #3
Spurred on by my success in the previous game, and determined to keep my plan on track; I decided to go for another game of Eight Epics to round off my Sunday session. On the subject of keeping things on track, I did also want to get this post up on Sunday as well; but unfortunately time got the better of me. By the time I was done gaming it was 11pm, and I needed to get up no later than 5:30am the next morning.
Still, better late than never as they say, and whilst I have fallen behind a little with my blogging; at least my 10 x 10 Challenge is still on track, which is a positive.
Speaking of gaming and positivity, whilst it felt great to beat such a tough game; I opted to keep all of the toggles set to easy for this play through as well. I had initially planned to increment the difficulty slowly with every successive victory, but on reflection I did only win the last game by the narrowest of margins. So I didn't feel that I was ready to up the ante just yet. Not whilst the current difficulty was still offering me a credible challenge.
So with all toggles set to easy, I pooled the dice, readied the avatars, and drew my first threat..
Round 1 - Threat: Pirn, Rampaging Overgrowth.
I was quite happy to see Pirn come out again. He's not too difficult to beat with his flexible challenge requirements (six dice matching, seven dice matching, and finally eight dice matching); and there are plenty of avatars that can help get you there. Personally though I feel the avatars best suited to the task are Sylliph who can manipulate large chunks of the dice pool, and Khantos who can remove dice from the dice pool.
The initial rolls for each challenge where however poor. Very poor. So I found that I had to more evenly spread the threat across the available avatars, using Jarroth to flip dice instead of removing them with Khantos, and using Ophinia to copy Sylliph's ability so as to spare Sylliph for future challenges.
It didn't take long for the avatars to beat Pirn, but it did come at higher cost than I had anticipated; with three of the eight avatars now having dropped to half of their initial Life Points.
Round 2 - Threat: Makano, Drill Strider.
Makano was next, and of all the threats that I have faced in Eight Epics; I would say that he is probably one of the most difficult. Makano is unique in that he is the only threat that changes his "mode"; mode being the best word I can muster to describe the pattern on threats.
Usually a threat will be pretty consistent. Pirn for example requires that you roll all identical numbers, and when it comes to Uluwash you need to roll progressively lower numbers with larger and larger dice pools. There is a pattern. Makano however flips "mode" with every new challenge, meaning that swapping avatars between tasks is almost obligatory; running the very real risk that you will exhaust the entire party (and lose the game instantly).
This is something that I came close to as I flipped from avatar to avatar, as I slowly worked my way down the list of challenges; and even this course of action alone wasn't quite enough. With the additional use of abilities and re-rolls, the number of avatars on half life or less had increased from three to five by the end of round two.
Round 3 - Threat: Broxix, Pestilent Breath.
As threats go, Broxix is somewhat of an endurance round; requiring that you complete eight challenges in order to defeat him, with realistically the only avatar suited to the task (results of fifteen or higher over three dice) being Gron.
This was certainly true of my game, as leading with Gron I was able to cut through the first three challenges with ease before having to pass after a really bad roll. Unfortunately however the bad rolls just kept on coming, which meant spending Life Point after Life Point; leaving the party in a bad way as they entered the fourth and final challenge (six avatars on half life or less, with two of them reduced to one Life Point).
Round 4 - Threats: Narssis, Unholy One / Uluwash, Devouring Tide.
Considering the beating that I took in the previous round I was very happy to see these two threats as my final draws. Narssis can be a little tricky, as he requires that you roll a sequence of one through six on six dice; but Khantos is more than flexible enough to deal with this. Uluwash on the other hand is really straight forward; and many of the avatars abilities can be used to overcome him relatively easily.
Using this reasoning I targeted Uluwash first.. Which went south pretty fast after a few poor rolls and some equally dire re-rolls. I did defeat him, but not before I had spent more Life Points than I really wanted to; and exhausted five of my eight avatars.
Thinking ahead however I had purposely not activated Leafwind when tackling Uluwash; who I let lead the way in the battle against Narssis. Even if he didn't complete any of the challenges, I had enough Life Points left on him to return all of my other exhausted avatars to play.
This course of action did lead to Leafwind sacrificing himself, but not in vain as after a few more rolls that his sacrifice had made possible Narssis was defeated; and the game was won.
Final Thoughts
Despite a lot of bad rolls I did win, and a lot more comfortably than in my last game it has to be said (four of my eight avatars survived). Some of this I would attribute to Serrin not being drawn, as I find him a particularly difficult threat to overcome; but that's not to say it's all down to the luck of the draw. I'd also like to think that I'm beginning to play better, and making more tactically sound decisions; having gained a better understanding of the game and its nuances.
So with that in mind, I feel that I am now ready to start increasing the difficulty of the game via the toggles. Slowly at first, but with a view to making it to the harder settings by game eight or nine.
Still, better late than never as they say, and whilst I have fallen behind a little with my blogging; at least my 10 x 10 Challenge is still on track, which is a positive.
Speaking of gaming and positivity, whilst it felt great to beat such a tough game; I opted to keep all of the toggles set to easy for this play through as well. I had initially planned to increment the difficulty slowly with every successive victory, but on reflection I did only win the last game by the narrowest of margins. So I didn't feel that I was ready to up the ante just yet. Not whilst the current difficulty was still offering me a credible challenge.
So with all toggles set to easy, I pooled the dice, readied the avatars, and drew my first threat..
Round 1 - Threat: Pirn, Rampaging Overgrowth.
I was quite happy to see Pirn come out again. He's not too difficult to beat with his flexible challenge requirements (six dice matching, seven dice matching, and finally eight dice matching); and there are plenty of avatars that can help get you there. Personally though I feel the avatars best suited to the task are Sylliph who can manipulate large chunks of the dice pool, and Khantos who can remove dice from the dice pool.
The initial rolls for each challenge where however poor. Very poor. So I found that I had to more evenly spread the threat across the available avatars, using Jarroth to flip dice instead of removing them with Khantos, and using Ophinia to copy Sylliph's ability so as to spare Sylliph for future challenges.
It didn't take long for the avatars to beat Pirn, but it did come at higher cost than I had anticipated; with three of the eight avatars now having dropped to half of their initial Life Points.
Round 2 - Threat: Makano, Drill Strider.
Makano was next, and of all the threats that I have faced in Eight Epics; I would say that he is probably one of the most difficult. Makano is unique in that he is the only threat that changes his "mode"; mode being the best word I can muster to describe the pattern on threats.
Usually a threat will be pretty consistent. Pirn for example requires that you roll all identical numbers, and when it comes to Uluwash you need to roll progressively lower numbers with larger and larger dice pools. There is a pattern. Makano however flips "mode" with every new challenge, meaning that swapping avatars between tasks is almost obligatory; running the very real risk that you will exhaust the entire party (and lose the game instantly).
This is something that I came close to as I flipped from avatar to avatar, as I slowly worked my way down the list of challenges; and even this course of action alone wasn't quite enough. With the additional use of abilities and re-rolls, the number of avatars on half life or less had increased from three to five by the end of round two.
Round 3 - Threat: Broxix, Pestilent Breath.
As threats go, Broxix is somewhat of an endurance round; requiring that you complete eight challenges in order to defeat him, with realistically the only avatar suited to the task (results of fifteen or higher over three dice) being Gron.
This was certainly true of my game, as leading with Gron I was able to cut through the first three challenges with ease before having to pass after a really bad roll. Unfortunately however the bad rolls just kept on coming, which meant spending Life Point after Life Point; leaving the party in a bad way as they entered the fourth and final challenge (six avatars on half life or less, with two of them reduced to one Life Point).
Round 4 - Threats: Narssis, Unholy One / Uluwash, Devouring Tide.
Considering the beating that I took in the previous round I was very happy to see these two threats as my final draws. Narssis can be a little tricky, as he requires that you roll a sequence of one through six on six dice; but Khantos is more than flexible enough to deal with this. Uluwash on the other hand is really straight forward; and many of the avatars abilities can be used to overcome him relatively easily.
Using this reasoning I targeted Uluwash first.. Which went south pretty fast after a few poor rolls and some equally dire re-rolls. I did defeat him, but not before I had spent more Life Points than I really wanted to; and exhausted five of my eight avatars.
Thinking ahead however I had purposely not activated Leafwind when tackling Uluwash; who I let lead the way in the battle against Narssis. Even if he didn't complete any of the challenges, I had enough Life Points left on him to return all of my other exhausted avatars to play.
This course of action did lead to Leafwind sacrificing himself, but not in vain as after a few more rolls that his sacrifice had made possible Narssis was defeated; and the game was won.
Final Thoughts
Despite a lot of bad rolls I did win, and a lot more comfortably than in my last game it has to be said (four of my eight avatars survived). Some of this I would attribute to Serrin not being drawn, as I find him a particularly difficult threat to overcome; but that's not to say it's all down to the luck of the draw. I'd also like to think that I'm beginning to play better, and making more tactically sound decisions; having gained a better understanding of the game and its nuances.
So with that in mind, I feel that I am now ready to start increasing the difficulty of the game via the toggles. Slowly at first, but with a view to making it to the harder settings by game eight or nine.
Sunday, 7 May 2017
10 x 10 Challenge #16: Eight Epics - Game #2
Not wanting to fall behind with my 10 x 10 Challenge, and with the end of the week quickly rushing towards me I decided to take the opportunity presented by a quiet Sunday afternoon, and to get a little gaming in. In order to keep to my schedule, I needed to get two games in today; and after looking over the collection of games I had chosen for the challenge, I decided that I would go for another game of Eight Epics.
Selection made, I set up the game using the same set of (easy) toggles I played with in the previous game; and drew my first threat..
Round 1 - Threat: Uluwash, Devouring Tide.
Not a bad initial draw. Only three challenges, and none of them particularly difficult to overcome. I just needed to roll low, and largely the rolls were favorable. Even when I rolled incredibly high on the last challenge against Uluwash, they were all sixes; which Jarroth, The Cogsmith was easily able to convert into one using his ability.
It wasn't all plain sailing however, as a couple of the avatars were reduced half of their starting life; which is bad news so early into the game. As the party as a whole had only lost 10 Life Points however, it could of been a lot worse. I mean, it's not like we lost an avatar.
Round 2 - Threat: Broxix, Pestilent Breath.
This is the last thing that I wanted to see so early into the game, as from my experience of dealing with Broxix in the last game I knew just how punishing he could be; and how little room there was for error when challenging him. Learning from my mistakes though, I weighed my options and elected the avatar that I felt had the best hopes of putting a significant dent in Broxix. I chose Gron, Furnace of Justice.
His ability to turn any dice into a six was just the ticket it seems as he plowed through the first FIVE challenges Broxix laid down, having to retire on the sixth due to a combination of a very poor initial roll and the exertion in getting that far. The task of defeating Broxix then fell to Sylliph, Moon Diver.
Sylliph, whilst not particularly well suited to defeating Broxix had a good run of things. Taking challenge six, whilst a lucky roll took challenge seven without any avatar intervention. With Broxix on his last legs, but with a couple of my avatars having taken a bit of a kicking I tagged in Auriel, Harbinger of Healing; with the plan being that even if she could not finish off Broxix, she could heal some of the wounded avatars before passing the torch on to someone else.
As luck would have it however, Auriel rolled EXACTLY what was needed to pass the challenge, and resolve the threat with her free re-roll. Broxix went down. All too easily when compared to last time, which I think just goes to show how important picking the right initial avatar to tackle the current threat is (where last game I was mostly just guessing).
Round 3 - Threat: Narssis, Unholy One.
Like Uluwash, Narssis was a new one on me; but he didn't seem too difficult. Each challenge required that you rolled a straight of one through six, on the six dice; and you had to do this four times to defeat him. Easy enough, although I knew that I wouldn't be able to rely on the abilities of my avatars too heavily to pull this one off, as none of their abilities where suited particularly well to the task at hand.
So, seeing this as largely a crap shoot I opted to put Auriel in the ring first. If nothing else she could heal some of the injured avatars from the previous round, and every time she did so; she could re-roll a couple of dice if she wanted. Re-rolls where largely how I believed I'd be dealing with this threat anyhow, so if I could patch up avatars that my prove more valuable in the next round in the process, all the better.
Re-roll and pass was largely how the challenge went, and with a couple of incredible rolls by the avatars (one of which had only a 1 in 36 chance of coming off, that came off with the initial attempt); the battle was won, and the avatars where ready to face the final threat.
Round 4 - Threats: Durge, World Breaker / Serrin, Shadow Reaper.
The final confrontation was truly embodied the epic in the Epic Eights, going down to the wire; with the avatars securing their victory as only one of them remained standing, with only one of their life points remaining.
As I played through the last round I took almost a whole A4 side of notes that I had intended to share with you all, but as per my previous post I want to start reigning in the length of these session reports; and this post is already long enough as it is. However, if you imagine every movie scene ever where the hero has to diffuse a bomb, conveniently doing so with only one second left on the timer; I'm sure you get the picture of just how the final sequence of the game played out.
Final Thoughts
Another really enjoyable game, but I am starting to notice a theme developing. The theme being that this game is bloody HARD! Considering that I had this game turned down to its easiest settings, and that arguably the solitaire variant is easier than the co-operative game; still only making it by the skin of my teeth just goes to show the level of the challenge that beating Eight Epics presents.
Something that I am proud to have accomplished (even if it was with the training wheels on).
Selection made, I set up the game using the same set of (easy) toggles I played with in the previous game; and drew my first threat..
Round 1 - Threat: Uluwash, Devouring Tide.
Not a bad initial draw. Only three challenges, and none of them particularly difficult to overcome. I just needed to roll low, and largely the rolls were favorable. Even when I rolled incredibly high on the last challenge against Uluwash, they were all sixes; which Jarroth, The Cogsmith was easily able to convert into one using his ability.
It wasn't all plain sailing however, as a couple of the avatars were reduced half of their starting life; which is bad news so early into the game. As the party as a whole had only lost 10 Life Points however, it could of been a lot worse. I mean, it's not like we lost an avatar.
Round 2 - Threat: Broxix, Pestilent Breath.
This is the last thing that I wanted to see so early into the game, as from my experience of dealing with Broxix in the last game I knew just how punishing he could be; and how little room there was for error when challenging him. Learning from my mistakes though, I weighed my options and elected the avatar that I felt had the best hopes of putting a significant dent in Broxix. I chose Gron, Furnace of Justice.
His ability to turn any dice into a six was just the ticket it seems as he plowed through the first FIVE challenges Broxix laid down, having to retire on the sixth due to a combination of a very poor initial roll and the exertion in getting that far. The task of defeating Broxix then fell to Sylliph, Moon Diver.
Sylliph, whilst not particularly well suited to defeating Broxix had a good run of things. Taking challenge six, whilst a lucky roll took challenge seven without any avatar intervention. With Broxix on his last legs, but with a couple of my avatars having taken a bit of a kicking I tagged in Auriel, Harbinger of Healing; with the plan being that even if she could not finish off Broxix, she could heal some of the wounded avatars before passing the torch on to someone else.
As luck would have it however, Auriel rolled EXACTLY what was needed to pass the challenge, and resolve the threat with her free re-roll. Broxix went down. All too easily when compared to last time, which I think just goes to show how important picking the right initial avatar to tackle the current threat is (where last game I was mostly just guessing).
Round 3 - Threat: Narssis, Unholy One.
Like Uluwash, Narssis was a new one on me; but he didn't seem too difficult. Each challenge required that you rolled a straight of one through six, on the six dice; and you had to do this four times to defeat him. Easy enough, although I knew that I wouldn't be able to rely on the abilities of my avatars too heavily to pull this one off, as none of their abilities where suited particularly well to the task at hand.
So, seeing this as largely a crap shoot I opted to put Auriel in the ring first. If nothing else she could heal some of the injured avatars from the previous round, and every time she did so; she could re-roll a couple of dice if she wanted. Re-rolls where largely how I believed I'd be dealing with this threat anyhow, so if I could patch up avatars that my prove more valuable in the next round in the process, all the better.
Re-roll and pass was largely how the challenge went, and with a couple of incredible rolls by the avatars (one of which had only a 1 in 36 chance of coming off, that came off with the initial attempt); the battle was won, and the avatars where ready to face the final threat.
Round 4 - Threats: Durge, World Breaker / Serrin, Shadow Reaper.
The final confrontation was truly embodied the epic in the Epic Eights, going down to the wire; with the avatars securing their victory as only one of them remained standing, with only one of their life points remaining.
As I played through the last round I took almost a whole A4 side of notes that I had intended to share with you all, but as per my previous post I want to start reigning in the length of these session reports; and this post is already long enough as it is. However, if you imagine every movie scene ever where the hero has to diffuse a bomb, conveniently doing so with only one second left on the timer; I'm sure you get the picture of just how the final sequence of the game played out.
Final Thoughts
Another really enjoyable game, but I am starting to notice a theme developing. The theme being that this game is bloody HARD! Considering that I had this game turned down to its easiest settings, and that arguably the solitaire variant is easier than the co-operative game; still only making it by the skin of my teeth just goes to show the level of the challenge that beating Eight Epics presents.
Something that I am proud to have accomplished (even if it was with the training wheels on).
Tuesday, 2 May 2017
10 x 10 Challenge #15: Eight Epics - Game #1
Given that I've been playing 100 Swords since February as a part of my 10 x 10 Challenge, I needed a break. So, I looked down my list and decided that I'd go for a game of Eight Epics; a co-operative dice game from the designer of Love Letter.
The version that I have is the English release by AEG, and before giving a brief rundown of play I'd just like to say how impressed I am with the product. Eight Epics is only a small box game.. But that small box is like the TARDIS! Inside you get the game, a variant which could be its own expansion, and a scenario which is equivocal to a promo.
The rules also offer several toggles too, so you can make the game easier if you're finding it a bit rough; or harder if you're finding it a bit of a cakewalk.. Not that I find the latter very likely. As personally even with all of the difficulty toggle set down to their lowest levels I still had a hard time of things. That said, prior to this session I hadn't played the game before; so it is both probable and likely that I wasn't playing optimally.
How did I do though? Let's see..
Round 1 - Threat: Pirn, Rampaging Overgrowth.
This one wasn't too bad as an initial draw. Only 3 challenges, and all of them quite flexible (getting all of the dice to match, but it can be any number). Khantos, Arcane Master came in pretty useful here as dropping dice from the pool allowed me to quickly tip the odds in my favor.
Leafwind, The Wildling was also pretty useful in allowing me to get extra activations out of some of the other epics, meaning I got a few free re-rolls on top of those provided by his ability. He did take a bit of a pummeling as a result though, dropping to half health by the end of the round.
Round 2 - Threat: Makono, Drill Strider.
This one was a little trickier to beat, requiring that I beat 4 challenges and really mixing it up in terms of the requirements of each challenge; from low rolling to high rolling, including sequences and matching. Tactically this took some planning, and I'm still not convinced that I did the best job I could here as 6 of my avatars were on less than half life by the end of this round.
We did scrape through though, and that's the main thing. I also dropped really lucky on the initial roll against the sequence, getting 7 of the 8 numbers I needed to complete the challenge before an avatar even got involved!
Round 3 - Threat: Broxix, Pestilent Breath.
This is where it all really began to fall apart. Broxix can soak up a lot of punishment, and by the end of this round all of my avatars where on less than half of their initial life totals, with three of them being reduced to only one life!
The party was in a bad way to say the least.
Round 4: Threats: Serrin, Shadow Reaper / Hronthar, Winged Flame.
The last round (at least in the easy game it is), and that means that the party has to take down two enemies without a respite in order to claim victory. This was a bad combination too, as both of these enemies would take a lot of effort and resources to bring down. Resources I frankly just didn't have.
Deciding that the Hronthar was probably the easiest of the two (as he could be taken down with a few lucky rolls), I elected to battle him first and set about it. Long story short, it did not go well. I needed a lot of high rolls, and I just wasn't getting them. I even had to sacrifice an avatar to seal the first challenge, and there were still two more to go after that!
Auriel, Harbinger of Healing was next to fall as I patched up Khantos in one last attempt to bring down the dragon.. Which I did! It was a token victory though, as whilst he had slain the beast, Khantos was now my only avatar that wasn't either dead or exhausted (and he was down to his last life point).
The game it seems was over. The last avatar had fallen, and the earth was screwed.
Final Thoughts
I honestly enjoyed my first game of Eight Epics. It's a challenge, but I like a challenge; and I look forward to hopefully being able to meet that challenge as I play more games. True, luck is a factor (as you might well expect with a dice game); but it can be largely offset in the case of Eight Epics by making good decisions. Certainly better decisions than I did.
Still, live and learn.
The version that I have is the English release by AEG, and before giving a brief rundown of play I'd just like to say how impressed I am with the product. Eight Epics is only a small box game.. But that small box is like the TARDIS! Inside you get the game, a variant which could be its own expansion, and a scenario which is equivocal to a promo.
The rules also offer several toggles too, so you can make the game easier if you're finding it a bit rough; or harder if you're finding it a bit of a cakewalk.. Not that I find the latter very likely. As personally even with all of the difficulty toggle set down to their lowest levels I still had a hard time of things. That said, prior to this session I hadn't played the game before; so it is both probable and likely that I wasn't playing optimally.
How did I do though? Let's see..
Round 1 - Threat: Pirn, Rampaging Overgrowth.
This one wasn't too bad as an initial draw. Only 3 challenges, and all of them quite flexible (getting all of the dice to match, but it can be any number). Khantos, Arcane Master came in pretty useful here as dropping dice from the pool allowed me to quickly tip the odds in my favor.
Leafwind, The Wildling was also pretty useful in allowing me to get extra activations out of some of the other epics, meaning I got a few free re-rolls on top of those provided by his ability. He did take a bit of a pummeling as a result though, dropping to half health by the end of the round.
Round 2 - Threat: Makono, Drill Strider.
This one was a little trickier to beat, requiring that I beat 4 challenges and really mixing it up in terms of the requirements of each challenge; from low rolling to high rolling, including sequences and matching. Tactically this took some planning, and I'm still not convinced that I did the best job I could here as 6 of my avatars were on less than half life by the end of this round.
We did scrape through though, and that's the main thing. I also dropped really lucky on the initial roll against the sequence, getting 7 of the 8 numbers I needed to complete the challenge before an avatar even got involved!
Round 3 - Threat: Broxix, Pestilent Breath.
This is where it all really began to fall apart. Broxix can soak up a lot of punishment, and by the end of this round all of my avatars where on less than half of their initial life totals, with three of them being reduced to only one life!
The party was in a bad way to say the least.
Round 4: Threats: Serrin, Shadow Reaper / Hronthar, Winged Flame.
The last round (at least in the easy game it is), and that means that the party has to take down two enemies without a respite in order to claim victory. This was a bad combination too, as both of these enemies would take a lot of effort and resources to bring down. Resources I frankly just didn't have.
Deciding that the Hronthar was probably the easiest of the two (as he could be taken down with a few lucky rolls), I elected to battle him first and set about it. Long story short, it did not go well. I needed a lot of high rolls, and I just wasn't getting them. I even had to sacrifice an avatar to seal the first challenge, and there were still two more to go after that!
Auriel, Harbinger of Healing was next to fall as I patched up Khantos in one last attempt to bring down the dragon.. Which I did! It was a token victory though, as whilst he had slain the beast, Khantos was now my only avatar that wasn't either dead or exhausted (and he was down to his last life point).
The game it seems was over. The last avatar had fallen, and the earth was screwed.
Final Thoughts
I honestly enjoyed my first game of Eight Epics. It's a challenge, but I like a challenge; and I look forward to hopefully being able to meet that challenge as I play more games. True, luck is a factor (as you might well expect with a dice game); but it can be largely offset in the case of Eight Epics by making good decisions. Certainly better decisions than I did.
Still, live and learn.
My New Job: First Day. First Impressions.
So today was my first day at the new job, and I have to say that my initial impressions are all together positive.The work is interesting, challenging and, engaging. The staff are all pretty laid back, and whilst I'm doing more hours than I was in my previous role; the time just seemed to fly by today. People are also really willing to help, and there isn't the expectation that you need to hit the ground running before you can walk.. Which is definitely a positive given the highly involved, and technical nature of the work I am undertaking.
Anecdotally, I also found a copy of Snake coded into one of our in-house systems today; totally by chance. I flagged it up with my supervisor, and what was their response? Only to tell me, "yeah, and there's a few other games in there too". How cool is that?!
Most companies flip-out when developers leave Easter eggs in the stuff they develop, but not these guys. No. They leave them in, and tell you there is still more to find!! Like I need encouraging!!
If nothing else, this is going to be an interesting assignment.
Monday, 1 May 2017
In The Pipeline: May 2017
So, following on from my previous post, what's In The Pipeline for May and beyond?
10 x 10 Challenge
In order to hit my target for years end, and to complete the challenge I have worked out that I need to be playing at least 3 games a week. So blogwise I will be looking to keep up with that pace in terms of my running commentary; posting up a brief item on how each game went.
Meeple Arcade
I have spent a fair amount of time researching and screening games for this feature over the past few weekends (which is what I call sitting in front of my laptop, playing games); and have shortlisted a few interesting titles to share with you all.
The plan for May is to post up at least three of these.
SCRAWL
I have quite a few bits and pieces that I am working on for SCRAWL at the moment, including the introduction of new races and classes, as well as a few miscellaneous house rules that I hope to get posted up over the course of the month.
Tunnels & Trolls
I'm just about to enter the planning stage of the first Tunnels & Trolls solo that I have written for some considerable time.. Suffice to say, I'm a little rusty; so it has taken me a lot longer to get to this stage than I had originally anticipated.
After planning comes drafting, then re-drafting, before we finally have a finished product ready to playtest; so not only has it been a while coming, but it'll also be a while yet.
10 x 10 Challenge
In order to hit my target for years end, and to complete the challenge I have worked out that I need to be playing at least 3 games a week. So blogwise I will be looking to keep up with that pace in terms of my running commentary; posting up a brief item on how each game went.
Meeple Arcade
I have spent a fair amount of time researching and screening games for this feature over the past few weekends (which is what I call sitting in front of my laptop, playing games); and have shortlisted a few interesting titles to share with you all.
The plan for May is to post up at least three of these.
SCRAWL
I have quite a few bits and pieces that I am working on for SCRAWL at the moment, including the introduction of new races and classes, as well as a few miscellaneous house rules that I hope to get posted up over the course of the month.
Tunnels & Trolls
I'm just about to enter the planning stage of the first Tunnels & Trolls solo that I have written for some considerable time.. Suffice to say, I'm a little rusty; so it has taken me a lot longer to get to this stage than I had originally anticipated.
After planning comes drafting, then re-drafting, before we finally have a finished product ready to playtest; so not only has it been a while coming, but it'll also be a while yet.
In The Pipeline: An Introduction
It's the start of a new month, and what better way to kick that off than with a new feature; In The Pipeline. But what's it all about?
Well, whilst I am not the worlds busiest man by any stretch of the imagination; I do have a lot going on. In my personal life, I manage my time using an app; which really works. It helps me keep track of what needs to get done, manage tasks by their level of importance, and most importantly frees up my brain to think about other stuff.
My blogging on the other hand is comparatively chaotic. I leave ideas hanging in the air for weeks, and go off on tangents all the time. I'm like a kitten in a hall full of laser pointers, and shiny things metal discs suspended from strings. In short, I'm pulling in so many different directions that very little is actually being accomplished. It's a bad habit, and I'd like to break it.
That's where "In The Pipeline" comes in.
The plan is to kick every month off with a "In The Pipeline" post, which is basically a summary of the projects and pieces of work that I intend to complete in the short to mid term (1-3 months). Which should not only help me break the cycle of starting but never finishing (by bringing some accountability to my inaction), but also serve as a useful way of keeping anyone interested in something that I'm working on up to date on its progress and development.
So that's my plan, and as plans go it seems pretty solid. As long as I'm realistic in my expectations, and don't try to run before I can walk.. But that's a whole other issue, and as I often say "one problem at a time".
Well, whilst I am not the worlds busiest man by any stretch of the imagination; I do have a lot going on. In my personal life, I manage my time using an app; which really works. It helps me keep track of what needs to get done, manage tasks by their level of importance, and most importantly frees up my brain to think about other stuff.
My blogging on the other hand is comparatively chaotic. I leave ideas hanging in the air for weeks, and go off on tangents all the time. I'm like a kitten in a hall full of laser pointers, and shiny things metal discs suspended from strings. In short, I'm pulling in so many different directions that very little is actually being accomplished. It's a bad habit, and I'd like to break it.
That's where "In The Pipeline" comes in.
The plan is to kick every month off with a "In The Pipeline" post, which is basically a summary of the projects and pieces of work that I intend to complete in the short to mid term (1-3 months). Which should not only help me break the cycle of starting but never finishing (by bringing some accountability to my inaction), but also serve as a useful way of keeping anyone interested in something that I'm working on up to date on its progress and development.
So that's my plan, and as plans go it seems pretty solid. As long as I'm realistic in my expectations, and don't try to run before I can walk.. But that's a whole other issue, and as I often say "one problem at a time".
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