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Hypermind BoardGame Night - October 2007
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They say 'tis October, and that autumn has arrived. Of course, with 90-degree weather and practically no rain for months, it might as well still be August around here. So how, pray tell, can we be sure that Halloween truly approacheth? Simple - 'cause the Hypermind Boardgamers have pulled out all the spooooky games! Join me again as I chronicle our weekly boardgame nights!
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Posted Mon Oct 8, 2007 4:37 am
Edited Mon Oct 8, 2007 7:20 pm
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It's been 8 months since we started up the Hypermind BoardGamers, and you can go here to see the rundown of the whole thing. It's also a good place to bookmark to find future updates and new Glogs!
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We really wanted to pick a Halloween-related game for the Game of the Month! in October. We thought about Arkham Horror or Fury of Dracula, but for a weeknight game night we though that both of them would be too long to play every week. And since pretty much every other horror-themed game that we have access to sucks, we decided to go with Betrayal at House on the Hill. I've played this a handful of times before, and I really like the cooperative and exploration elements of the game, plus the fact that you don't know how to win (or lose) before the haunt happens. I hope it works out...
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October 2, 2007
We kicked off October with a pair of "horror"-themed games, beginning with the decidely depressing novelty card game, Gloom. Chris taught Chip, Zack, and me to play, then we got down to business trying to make our families as miserable as possible and then kill them in sad and humiliating ways.
I should have killed one other character on what ended up being the last turn (I could have tied for the lead), but I thought I would have one more chance to play. As it was, Chip proved most adept at bringing misery and death.
Time: 35 minutes
Score: Chip -65, Zack -55, Chris -40, Me -40
Ratings: Chip 6, Zack 7, Chris 7, Me 6
Gloom is a pretty entertaining little game. The plastic cards are pretty unique, and the names, pictures, and flavor text on them are downright hillarious. While not very heavy or anything, it's definitely a nice little game if you appreciate dark humor.
From there, we went on to our Game of the Month! for October, Betrayal at House on the Hill. I was the only person to have played before, so I the rest of the guys a quick rundown and then got us started with exploring the mansion.
Things got a little exciting when three of us went down into the basement and kept hitting bad events and complicated rooms. I was playing one of the little girl characters, and got into a line of rooms that required various checks to move past, so I was a little stuck. Finally, after 8 or 9 Omen cards, Chris missed the Haunt roll and we entered the House of the Living Dead! (haunt #21)
Unfortunately, we were caught in a common trap of Betrayal at House on the Hill, as we misunderstood the rulebook about how many zombies to place in the mansion. After the game, we figured out that you were supposed to place 2 zombies in a number of rooms equal to the number of players (which would have been like 8 zombies total).
What we thought it said, however, was to place one zombie for the (number of players + 1) in all of the listed rooms. Something seemed to be wrong when we ran out of zombie tokens and had to use other ones as proxies, but we went with it anyway. So, the remaining explorers faced Chip the Zombie Lord and all 30 of his zombie minions!
Chris was close to the Zombie Lord and he had the Medallion (which is needed to damage him), so he went for it... and ended up as zombie #31. I pounded on the door of the Vault (see the picture above)while Zack kept ringing the Bell and pulling the zombie horde closer to himself. When they finally caught up with him, he fought brilliantly but still ended up as brainless zombie #32.
As they shambled closer to me, I finally got the vault open and found a stick of dynamite. Hoping against hope, I threw it into an adjacent room, blew a few zombies to smithereens, and made a break for it. Alas, though, I was caught on the bridge spanning the Chasm and became Chip the Zombie Lord's final thrall of the evening.
Time: 85 minutes
Ratings" Chip 6, Chris 6.5, Me 7
I really like this game, but it is so sloppy in the writing of the various booklets and in the formulation of the haunts that the game can be ruined just by which haunt you get. Well, I hope we haven't made too big a mistake with this as GotM, but I guess we've got three more weeks to see how good or bad it can get.
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4.
Board Game: China
[Average Rating:7.21 Overall Rank:166]
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October 2, 2007 (continued)
After finishing up the Game of the Month! for this week, we decided to try out Yspahan. I had played the computer version a few times and I'd heard a lot about the game around SdJ announcment time, but this was my (and Chris' and James') first time playing the "real" game. Chip ran over the rules quickly and got us started.
I was planning to go with a caravan strategy, but had trouble early getting what I needed. Chip pretty much ran away with the game, beating the nearest competitor by 30 points.
Time: 47 minutes
Score: Chip 93, James 63, Me 61, Chris 49
Ratings: Chip 8, James 6, Me 6, Chris 8
I probably need to play it a few times before really making a final judgement, but Yspahan doesn't do much for me. It's pretty interesting and definitely different, but it just seem pretty chaotic and random to me at times.
Denise then came over and joined Chip, Chris, and Me as I pulled out Dragon's Gold for the first time. I picked up a few of the "blue box" games when they were on sale, and this one had always looked pretty interesting to me. I didn't think we needed to bother with the "basic" game, so I just explained the advanced rules to everybody and we got started.
There were all kinds of wizarding and thievery going on, but the game went very smoothly from the get-go. The timer was pretty extraneous, and the only unresolved arbitration was the one involving the black diamond (which was intentional). We all thought that Chris had it wrapped up, but I rode a horde of gold and two gem majorities to the ultimate victory!
Time: 46 minutes
Score: Me 63, Chris 52, Denise 47, Chip 33
Ratings: Me 7.5, Chris 7.5, Denise 8, Chip 6
To end the evening, we pulled out my virgin copy of China, which I bought at Tanga after just one game with Chip's copy. Chip has played literally hundreds of games of Web of Power online, and was undefeated in China here at Hypermind as well. It was getting late and Chris had to head home, so only Denise joined Chip and me for this last game of the evening.
In the first game, Denise was still learning how to play, but ended up being pretty competitive anyway. Chip won pretty handily, but everybody wanted to jump right back in and give it another shot. I felt like I was starting to really "get" the game, and felt truly in control of my actions on the second time around. So, what happened? Well, "ding-dong the King is dead!" I pulled off the upset in a very close game that came down to my 6-house road.
Time: 29 minutes (game 1), 17 minutes (game 2)
Game 1 Score: Chip 41, Me 34, Denise 28
Game 2 Score: Me 45, Chip 42, Denise 32
Ratings: Me 9, Chip 9, Denise 9
As you can see, we all really like China. It is just so deep for its length, and I think it is just so "organic" how all the scoring is tied to the number of pieces placed in the affected areas. I just want to play it a lot more... very soon. Tune back in and see if I get the chance!
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October 9, 2007
As this week's BoardGame night got started, I was a little nervous because only Chris and I had arrived as 6:00pm began to approach. Soon, however, Sabrina and Mark rolled in toting their suppers. While mastication was occurring, Chris and I sat down for a game of Blokus, a great abstract game that we both love.
Chris played Blue and Red, I was Yellow and Green. We both went immediately for the blocking moves, resulting in a veritable wall of blue and green that almost sealed off one side of the board completely. I felt like Chris was getting the better of the blocking moves, so I shifted a little and started looking more for ways to fit between the pieces on the board. As playable pieces dwindled, we knew it would be close. In the end, it was a close as you can get... we tied.
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Chris -24, Me -24
Ratings: Chris 9, Me 8
By this point, Mark and Sabrina were ready to jump into the gaming action. We pulled out Betrayal at House on the Hill, our current Game of the Month!, and I quickly explained the rules to our new players. I was playing Heather Granville, Sabrina was Ox Bellows, Mark was cute little Zoe Ingstrom, and Chris reprised his role from last week as Professor Longfellow.
Things started out pretty well for most of us, except Chris. On the first turn (I believe), he fell down a coal chute that someone has ridiculously placed right next to the front door. He never made it out of the basement.
The rest of us explored some on the ground level but then headed up to the upper floor where we eventually revealed every available room. Mark also ended up in the bastment after being transported there by some event that he revealed. Before he or Chris could find the stairs from the bastment to the rest of the house, however, things took a turn for the worse.
When Professor Longfellow discovered the catacombs, the haunt occurred as a crazed madman erupted from the labyrinth and killed him to death. Chris then took over the role of said Madman as well as the zombies he had created by killing his family. Reading the explanaiton of Haunt #10 (The Family Gathering) very carefully, only four zombies were added to the board in various places.
Two zombies were on the ground and upper floors combined. Sabrina had found the blood dagger, which allowed Ox to attack with all 8 dice, while I had found the ring that allowed me to attack with my Sanity (which I had taken the opportunity to pump up by visiting the Chapel a couple of times). We made short work of these two zombies, stunnign them occasionally and eventually trapping them in rooms on the upper level.
Little Zoe, however, was in trouble; all alone in the basement with a madman and two zombies. Mark scrambled around, luckily finding a revolver which he used to stun zombies a couple of times as he frantically tried to open the vault. The madman was too much for the young girl, however, eventually invading her smoke-filled haven and ending her young life.
But as it turned out, the two young explorers in the upper level were too much for the madman and his undead cohorts. We trapped the third zombie pretty quickly, and then Sabrina's character did 6 points of physical damage to the madman to finish him off as well. Unfortunately, we forgot that we couldn't trap more than one zombie in the same room, so we ended up in the chapel with a very belligerent undead monster. After it attacked Ox, he was left with both physical stats on their last level. Risking myself, I attacked the zombie with my ring, stunning it and giving us time to get to the attic. The mindless beast followed us, overcoming the memories of its previous life to attack us once again, but Ox managed to fend it off. Once again, I stunned it with my Sanity attack, giving it two more opportunities to become trapped, the second of which it failed. The explorers were victorious!
Time: 95 minutes
Ratings: Chris 7, Sabrina 8.5, Mark 7, Me 7.5
This game went soooo much better than it did last week. I defitely like the core game, but it seems that the resolution of each session might depend on how well-balanced the particular haunt is (and how easy it is to understand the rulebooks). In this case, the explorers definitely had an advantage, but I still think that Chris at least had a shot at winning (most of our advantage came from the powerful weapons we had found and the fact that almost all of the "trapping" rooms had already been discovered.)
Meanwhile, Chip and James joined young Ian for a game of Nexus Ops. I really wasn't able to pay much attention to this game, other than to notice that Denise took over for Ian when he had to go home.
Time: 75 minutes
Score: Chip 14, James 6, Ian/Denise 6
Ratings: Chip 7.5, James 7, Densie 8
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October 8, 2007 (continued)
So then to kill a little time while the Nexus Ops game finished, we played a few games of Tier auf Tier. I was actually the only who had played before, but that didn't really make any difference in this facinating little stacking game.
Chris ended up winning the first and third games, while Mark managed to pull out the second. There's not much to really tell about these games, but I'll show you a few more of the cool pictures I took from it instead.
Time: 10 minutes each
Ratings: Chris 9, Mark 9, Sabrina 9, Me 8
Looking then for a game that all seven of us could play, we decided to pull out what is probably our favorite party game, Wits & Wagers.
We played two games that both came down to the last question. In fact, it seems that every game comes down to the last question, which is the only thing I really have against the game. Being allowed to go "all in" seems to make all the previous rounds almost unimportant. Maybe we can explore some way to either limit the betting on the last question or to gradually increase the amount you can bet in earlier rounds so that the game will feel more balanced all the way through.
Time: 20 minutes each
Game 1: Chris 195, Chip 125, Me 120, Denise 120, James 90, Sabrina 40, Mark 0
Game 2: Me 150, Chris 125, Mark 110, Denise 75, Sabrina 70, Chip 0, James 0
Ratings: Chip 8.5, Chris 8.5, Me 8, Denise 8.5, James 7, Mark 8.5, Sabrina 8
From there, those of us who stuck around decided to try out the new game Wicked Witches Way (which obviously fits the theme of this month). None of us had previously read the rules (although Chip and I had watched the Boardgames with Scott episode about it), so I pretty much read them aloud and everybody was comfortable with how to play.
In both games, the person in second place won because they had hung back and accumulated more "black magic" bonus cards. The game was very quick and fun, using an interesting memory mechanic that I haven't seen before (where any player can choose to cover the dice at any time). But there are also some real, tactical decisions that can be made which make the game very interesting as well.
Time: 27 minutes (game 1), 20 minutes (game 2)
Game 1: Mark 28, Chip 27, Me 19, James 18, Sabrina 17, Denise 16
Game 2: Chip 28, Me 26, James 25, Sabrina 22, Denise 22
Ratings: Chip 8.5, Sabrina 7, Mark 7, James 6, Denise 9, Me 7.5
Despite getting a lot of gaming in this week, it still ended far too soon. I'll be waiting anxiously for next Tuesday...
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October 16, 2007
This was an interesting night for the Hypermind BoardGamers. We basically only had 3 people show up for most of the evening, but we set a record-breaking pace for playing games, both old and new.
When I arrived, Chris Ingersoll already had his copy of 1313 Dead End Drive already set up and ready for action. I wasn't terribly excited about the prospect of playing what looked liked a children's mass-market game, but I have to admit that I was quite impressed after playing the game.
Sure, it's roll-and-move, but the fact that there are many different characters to move, along with the hidden heirs and the fact that you want to kill some while saving others, really makes for lots of real, tactical decisions in the game. Mark stole 3 heirs from Chris and me, but most all of them ended up dead. I managed to get Dusty (the maid) out the front door with $7 million early on, and that proved to be enough to win. By the time that midnight struck, there was only one character left (which also happened to be mine), so I claimed the first victory of the night.
Time: 24 minutes
Score: Me $7 million, Mark $1 million, Chris $0
Ratings: Me 7, Mark 7.5, Chris 7.5
Next, to kill some time while we waited for anybody else that might be coming, we pulled out Wicked Witches Way, which we first tried last week. Chris was new to the game, so we went over the rules briefly and got started. Knowing that the person in second place for most of the game ended up winning, I tried to hang back this time around. It worked pretty well, getting me 5 bonus points and two "Tailwind" cards that I used to propel myself across the finish line for another win.
Time: 20 minutes
Score: Me 30, Mark 22, Chris 19
Ratings: Me 7.5, Mark 7, Chris 7
Seeing that it was just us for the evening, I tried to convince them to forego the regular Game of the Month! this week and instead try out Fury of Dracula. I had studied the rules and printed out two or three player aids for Fury, but alas it was not enough to sway them from our third play of Betrayal at House on the Hill this month.
Determined to make a successful play with Professor Longfellow, Chris again chose the elderly academic. Mark has some weird obsession with being a little girl, and again played little Zoe Ingstrom. I went in a new direction and played Madame Zostra, the baseball-loving mystic.
Chris was undone by an early trip to the basement last game (via the coal chute), so he did his best to avoid going there. Unfortunately, an event banished him below ground anyway, but I was there to rescue him with the Mystic Elevator. In the end, however, that may not have been the best idea, since the mad Professor had lured us to this evil house only to play "cat and mouse" with us in his twisted experiments.
Chris was the traitor, and the Haunt was #35, "Small Change", where we are all shrunk down to tiny size and chased by a cat that the Professor brought along. I managed to find the Toy Airplane that could have been our salvation, but Chris was there to swat me down and the both Mark and I ended up in the cat's belly.
Time: 55 minutes
Score: Chris (Traitor-WIN!), Me & Mark (Cat food-LOSERS!)
Ratings: Chris 7.5, Me 7.5, Mark 7
So then there we were, trying to decide what to do next. Chris chose my copy of China, so we set it up and I taught them both how to play. Like I said a few weeks ago, I'm really starting to "get" this game. It just feels so "organic" how all the scoring is based on how many pieces are involved in each area, and the way it all fits together is probably the most elegant design I've ever played. Anyway, I kicked their butts the first game (but they were just learning, of course), so we immediately started up another game and it turned out to be much closer.
Time: 18 minutes (game 1), 15 minutes (game 2)
Game 1: Me 62, Chris 38, Mark 32
Game 2: Me 50, Chris 46, Mark 43
Ratings: Me 9, Mark 8.5, Chris 8.5
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October 16, 2007 (continued)
Sometime around this point, Chris actually mentioned that we should ty to break the record for the most different games played in one evening, which we all thought would be cool. Kind of in that idea, we pulled out a previous Game of the Month! that all three of us love, Taluva.
The game was very close and very brutal. At one point in the mid-game, I had only three pieces on the board while I had 7 or 8 that had been destroyed by volcanic activity. I managed to pull out the victory, though, placing my last two huts the turn before Chris could do so.
Time: 11 minutes
Score: Me (placed all Towers and Huts), Chris (1 Temple left), Mark 2 (Temples left)
Ratings: Me 8, Chris 10, Mark 9.5
Going back to the well of previous Games of the Month!, we then pulled out Ra. The first epoch went very fast, and no one scored much of anything. Chris did manage, however, to collect at least one copy of almost every monument. In the second epoch, I was not doing so well but I still had 3 suns at a point where there were still about 5 Ra!'s to go. Then, all of a sudden, we pulled Ra! after Ra!, and it too was over far too quickly. Still, Mark won the round overall, but Chris' stock of monuments was growing to be... well, monumental!
While I made a bit of a run in the third epoch, neither I nor Chris (and all his crazy monument action) were a match for Mark and his uncanny and unnatural ability with this game (and beating Chris by only 1 sun value didn't hurt either).
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Mark 46, Chris 45, Me 40
Ratings: Mark 8.5, Chris 9, Me 9
At this point, Denise actually left her store-managing duties and joined us for a game of On the Underground. I hadn't had the chance to play this yet, but from all I'd heard it sounded pretty cool. Chris explained the rules to me (and refreshed Denise's memory as well). I went fourth, which gave me the chance to see what everybody else was doing and plan accordingly. I concentrated on connecting to stuff and reaching out into lesser-served areas, and in the end it paid off pretty big for me, as I scored 4 points in the final round to eke out a win!
Time: 65 minutes
Score: Me 47, Chris 46, Mark 43, Denise 37
Ratings: Me 8, Chris 8.5, Mark 9, Denise 9.5
At this point, Denise went back to doing work and Chris headed home. I managed to convince Mark, however, to play one more new game with me, Unspeakable Words. This is a quick little word game with an arcane and unholy twist. When you acore points for forming words with the cards in your hand, you have to roll above the total score for the word on a 20-sided die or you lose some of your sanity (represented by 5 little Cthulhu figures). How weird is that?
We played three games altogether, and all were won by one person going insane.
(See, he's clearly loony!)
I thought that the game was fun and all, and would like to see how it works with more people.
Time: 30 minutes (for 3 games)
Game 1: Me 68, Mark went INSANE!!!
Game 2: Me 96 (almost won on points), Mark went TOTALLY NUTS!!!
Game 3: Mark 55, I had some slight mental instability problems, nothing that wouldn't be fixed by a small perscription and a few visits to a therapist
Ratings: Me 6.5, Mark 7
In the end, with the addition of Mark and me playing Unspeakable Words, we managed to BREAK THE RECORD!!!! We played 8 different games, beating the mark of 7 games played on two previous occasions. What is most impressive about this is that on both of the other times, there were multiple groups playing different games at the same time throughout the evening. We did this all as one group, and had a great time doing it!
Woo-hoo!!! Go us!!!!
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October 23, 2007
This week of spooky gaming fun began as last week's ended, with three games of the new Playroom Entertainment Cthulhu-themed word game, Unspeakable Words.
I started of teaching Chris and his "Cthulhu Pep Squad" (above) how to play, after which I had a brief moment of insanity as he won the first game of the evening. Mark then joined us for a second game in which Chris returned the favor, losing five straight sanity checks and taking a short visit to Arkham Asylum to recover. I ended up doing something terribly novel... I won on points!
After that, Sabrina joined us for a third game. Early on in this game, Mark showed a strong propensity for being a little touched, as he used all seven of his cards to spell, of all things...
Yeah, 25 points... and one less cute little Cthulhu sanity marker. Needless to say, he was rocking in the corner and chewing his fingertips by the end of this one. In fact, Sabrina (having a fresh and relatively healthy mind at this point) was on the verge of winning not long after Mark's psychotic break. When my turn came, I tried to steal the victory by playing a word worth 13 points, which would have put me at 101. Unfortunately, my fragile mind couldn't quite comprehend all the angular-ness of it and I was unable to score the points (but still maintained my overall grasp on reality). Chris tried a similar move and ended up in the corner with Mark, also chewing on his (Mark's, I mean) fingertips. Sabrina, of course, played strong on her next round to go up to 110 points and seal the win.
By the way, get off yer heiney and thumb this picture so it'll make the front page!
Time: 45 minutes for 3 games (8, 16, and 20 minutes each)
Game 1: Chris 57, I went NUTS!
Game 2: Me 106, Mark 84, Chris was totally LOONY!
Game 3: Sabrina 110, Me 97, Chris and Mark were in the corner, rocking, and chewing on Mark's fingertips
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Mark 8, Sabrina 8, Me 7
The next thing we had this week was a demo game of The Red Dragon Inn taught by game co-designer Cliff Bohm, in the midst of a whirlwind Slugfest Games promotional tour of apparently every game and hobby store known to man (or at least that's what I figured if he ended up with us in Burlington)!
Cliff had a bundle of games with him, including En Garde!, Kung Fu Fighting, and Tiki Mountain!, but we were all up for some drunken hilarity at the old The Red Dragon Inn. He taught us the game pretty quickly, gave us a few pointers as we played, and then left the games as demo copies for the store. Cliff was great, and the game was a lot of fun as well! It's essentially a fighting game (they are called Slugfest games, ya know) dressed up as a big drinking and gambling contest to see who can hold onto their treasure and their consciousness the longest. Using some of the as-yet-unpublished expansion characters, six of us were able to play, but only Chip was able to stagger out of the tavern with any gold remaining.
Time: 45 minutes
Score: Chip (3 gold); Denise, Sabrina, Me, Chris, and Mark (broke and/or unconscious)
Ratings: Chip 7, Chris 8, Me 7, Denise 8, Mark 8, Sabrina 8
After that, we pulled out Betrayal at House on the Hill for our weekly dose of the Game of the Month! I played "Flash", who sucks by the way, while Chris chose to go in a different direction and play Jenny LeClerc, Chip playedbrilliant little Peter Akimoto, Sabrina was the mysterious Madame Zostra, and Mark assumed the role of Professor Longfellow.
Things started pretty normally, except that we had two or three very close calls on the haunt rolls early. I just kept taking physical damage all over the place, though, and was only one point from death in a couple of areas before the traitor was even revealed!
When the fateful event finally occurred, we discovered that Madame Zostra was actually a relative of the infamous legendary coed-slasher, Crimson Jack (Haunt #48, "Stacked Like Cordwood"). "Traitor" Zostra (Sabrina) ended up kind of trapped in the basement alone, while most of the explorers (Chip, Mark, and I) were up in the attic trying to find and figure out how to use the "sacred axe of coed-slasher killing". Sweet little Jenny (Chris), however, was alone with Jack on the ground floor.
Of course, sweet little Jenny could kick some serious mass-murderer butt, having the highest might of any of the remaining explorers. But, as they always do, Jack just kept coming back. Once we finally figured out to swing the heavy, sharp end at the bad guy, I ran off to the mystic elevator to rescue Jenny so that she could take care of the boogeyman for us. With a few lucky rolls here and there maneuvering the elevator, Crimson Jack soon found himself cleft in twain by one coed he shouldn't have messed with!
Time: 59 minutes
Score: Explorers (Chip, Chris, Mark, Me) WIN!!!, Traitor (Sabrina) Lose 
Ratings: Chip 6, Chris 8, Me 8, Mark 8, Sabrina 8
The more we play it, the better it seems to get. Of course, maybe it's just because we have to spend less and less time referring to the terribly convoluted rulebook and misinterpreting poorly-written haunt instructions. It's definitely helped that I finally downloaded the FAQ and Errata as well as the far-better revised haunt booklets as well. It's made the last two weeks go a lot smoother.
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October 23, 2007 (continued)
At this point, seeing that the night was still young and we had exactly five players, I pushed hard to try a game that I've wanted to play for a long time, Fury of Dracula. I had read the rules 2 or 3 times, so I played the Count, of course. I did my best to explain the basic rules to everyone, and we plunged ourselves into this gothic game of cat-and-mouse!
The Hunters positioned themselves around the board in various spots, and I (having two New Vampire encounters in my opening hand) started in Dublin. Quickly, I made my way to Galway and spawned my first bride.
With the idea of giving you a little foreshadowing, I'll say that this whole game revolved around Mina Harker (played by Mark). Her ability to draw extra cards plagued me at every turn, starting on the second turn as Mark played a Newspaper Report that revealed I had started in Dublin. I quickly took to sea, however, eventually landing in Alicante. There I laid down my second New Vampire and then wheeled around through Saragossa and Madrid, eventually spending a couple of turns hiding in Cadiz as the Hunters ruled out area after area, eventually discerning that I was in Spain. My first vampire matured, and with the passing of one day I was up to 3 Vampire points.
Through more crazy event card play, the Hunters found my other spawn, and Chip (playing Dr. Van Helsing) spent their first Resolve to speed his way there and eliminate her the round before she would have matured.
At this point, I made the mistake that nearly cost me the game. I fled again to sea, sailing through the Atlantic, the English Channel, and the North Sea, eventually landing at the rarely-used port of... Berlin. Yes, I know, Berlin is not a port. But in all my studying of the game I had failed to actually spend any time looking at the board, and I just screwed up. Anyway, Mark pulled another great Event from his butt and tried to follow my Money Trail to reveal all the sea locations in my trail. Being prepared, I played a Devilish Power card to counter the Money Trail. Mark, of course, had a Good Luck card to counter the Devilish Power, and all the sudden I found myself revealed to be in the North Sea!
I desperately wanted to get into Eastern Europe, but the stinking city of Vienna had been all consecrated, so I had to try ango around through Leipzig and Nuremburg. At this point, I began to wonder why the Hunters weren't checking out the perfectly good port of Berlin, and finally realized my mistake.
I immediately confessed my error, and following the "Cheating" rules in the book, revealed my location, cleared my trail, and dropped down to the next red space on my blood pool track. The next round, despite it being night, Lord Godalming (Chris) entered my location and assaulted me.
Confident in my vampiric prowess, I swooped in with my fangs bared... only to get a mouthful of holy water. From there, the potent Hunter kicked me aroung turn after turn until I realized (down to 4 blood) that I needed to run away. I turned into mist and fled, eventually attempting to head back to sea and escape. By this time, another day had passed and I was at at 4 Vampire Points.
Once again, my trail was revealed when Mina was placed under Hypnosis. Mark spent the hunter's last resolve to come and finish me off, Crucifix and dreaded Holy Water in hand. What he didn't know, however, was that Dracula was ready for the frail Mina Harker.
I had laid a trap for her, and immediately entered into a Rage as the battle ensued, destroying her Crucifix. After the first round, when I avoided her one use of Holy Water, I thrashed her turn after turn. Finally, Mark realized that he had no hope and tried to flee, eventually escaping with only 3 health.
As my turn began, I considered again battling my former thrall, but instead left her to the devices of my ally, Quincey P. Morris, who could inflict a wound upon her every round now that her valued crucifix was no more. I, therefore, again took to the North Sea.
Chris was there with a Stormy Seas card, however, driving me to ground in Scotland. Mark made a mistake by choosing to resupply rather than rest, and my ally soon had Mina down to 1 health. While the other three Hunters tried desperately to get across the English Channel, Mark finally rested. Unfortunately for the Hunters, however, I was able to make a Night Visit to Mina and finish her off for my final two Vampire points and claim the victory!
Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Score: Me (6 points, 4 blood remaining), Hunters (Chip, Chris, Mark, Sabrina) failed!
Ratings: Me 7.5, Chip 6, Chris 6.5, Mark 7, Sabrina 7
Everybody's impression of Fury of Dracula was hurt by several lengthy rules questions and play mistakes (mainly by me). I hope that we will all give it another chance soon (maybe next week  ) so that we can actually play when we know what we're doing.
Anyway, to finish off the night, I pulled out the "pretty" version of a classic Cheapass game, Give Me the Brain!.
The game is silly but hillarious, and we all had a great time.
Time: 50 minutes for 3 games
Game 1: Chip (Win), Me, Mark
Game 2: Mark (Win), Chip, Me, Denise
Game 3: Me (Win), Denise, Chip, Mark
Ratings: Chip 7, Denise 8, Mark 8, Me 7
So, another game night filled to the brim with gaming excitement and spooky fun. Next week is Halloween eve, so who knows what will happen?
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October 30, 2007 - Halloween Eve!!!
To cap off our month-long marathon of Halloween-themed games, this week featured Dracula and Zombies, two favorites for both horror fans and gamers! The vast majority of our evening was consumed with a harrowing game of Fury of Dracula, which I'll cover in the second part of this report, but for now I'll delve into the rest of the games we played.
Chris and Mark started off the evening with a couple of plays of Chris' new game, Easter Island. I was still at home waiting for the heating guy to come (which he never did, by the way), so I don't have any pictures to show. Chris won both games, but Mark must have enjoyed himself pretty much because they both gave it high marks.
Time: 20 minutes each
Ratings: Chris 9, Mark 8
From there, things took a turn for the spoooooooky! As I came in, a group of players was deeply involved in a ravenous game of Zombie Fluxx. They seemed to have fun, and later in the evening I had the chance to try this game out myself. Now, I've never had anything much against orignial Fluxx, but I just didn't go for the zombie-fied version a'tall. In the two games I played, Denise won the first in something like the first or second round when she use the "Play All" rule to empty her hand, which included both a goal and its required keepers. In the other game, everybody lost as the ungoal, Zombie Victory, was revealed. It's just too much random luck mixed with heavy chaos and a healthy dash of feeling totally helpless for me.
Time: 35 minutes, 2 minutes, 10 minutes
Game 1: Chris Blair (Win), Chris, Mark, Sabrina
Game 2: Denise (Win), Mark, Me
Game 4: ZOMBIES WIN, Denise, Mark, Me
Ratings: Chris 8, Sabrina 8, Denise 8, Mark 6, Me 5
After the first game of fluctuating zombies, we pulled out our Game of the Month!, Betrayal at House on the Hill. We had an "adults only" cast this time: Chris attempted to restore some respect to "Flash", Mark played the quiet Jenny LeClerc, Sabrina tried again with the formerly traitorous Madame Zostra, and I gave Father Rhinehardt his first shot at our gaming table. Things started quickly, with us all being quite familiar with the game by now and knowing how to spread out and explore. As the last player in round two, Chris found the second Omen card of the game, the Girl. When he made the Haunt roll, this is what he got:
So, barely 10 minutes into the game, Flash was already a vampire and Dracula was about to wake up in the Graveyard. I was on the ground level and practically cornered by Dracula and his Bride. Flash and his now unearthly speed quick chased down Madame Zostra and all the sudden we had two vampiric former explorers. Of course, Zostra was a vampire who was wearing a suit of armor and carrying an axe, which she soon found useful to hack poor Jenny to bits.
I had a little bit of a chance as I nearly made two "sunrise" rolls with vampires in or near an outside room, but in the end I was also slain by Flash, this time with a revolver from long range. So, I guess that Flash was indeed redeemed, but only in the most infamous of ways. Technically, since Sabrina killed another explorer after being "converted" she shared the traitorous victory with Chris.
Chris and Sabrina celebrate the hacking of Mark's character limb from limb...
Time: 45 minutes
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Sabrina 8, Mark 8, Me 8
To finish the evening, Mark, Denise, and I played another couple games of Give Me the Brain!, which I find to be far more fun and interesting than Zombie Fluxx. Yes, Give Me the Brain! is definitely our choice for finely crafted zombie card games.
Time: 10 minutes, 9 minutes
Game 1: Mark (win), Denise, Me
Game 2: Me (Win), Mark, Denise
Ratings: Mark 8, Denise 8.5, Me 7
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October 30, 2007 (continued) - Fury of Dracula
After last week's issues with the game, I was thankful that everybody was up for another try at Fury of Dracula (I think mostly to see how it played when Dracula didn’t cheat and we actually got most of the rules right). There were only four of us, so Chris took the roles of both Lord Godalming and Dr. Seward, while Sabrina was Van Helsing and Mark reprised his role as Mina Harker.
As we set up the game, the Hunters spread out all over, but I saw a little opening in central/eastern Europe and began the game in Venice (or somewhere nearby anyway). I had a couple of New Vampire encounters, so I made my way down into Italy leaving those pretty ladies behind.
While I was in Rome, the Hunters drew the Evasion card for me, allowing me to jump to pretty much anywhere on the board. I wanted to stay in Eastern Europe (where my power was greatest), so I chose to fly to Varna on the coast of the Black Sea. While then moving around through Constanta, Galatz, and other cities in the area, I managed to mature one New Vampire to get my first couple of vampire points. The accursed Hunters found my trail, however, and Dr. Seward managed to find and destroy my other bride - but not before suffering her sweet kiss!
Eventually, some horrid event revealed the area where I was hiding, so as they closed in on me, I took to sea. Trying to out-guess my opponents, I thought that the island of Cagliari would be the least likely spot to rest. Making my next move the Hide action further confounded them, throwing them off the trail and convincing them that I was on the mainland. Meanwhile, I made the Dark Call, summoning my many minions (drawing 10 encounters) and choosing those which would do me the most good (including two more New Vampires).
Dogged in their pursuit, however, the Hunters finally ruled out all other ports in the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian seas and realized my deception. I took to the sea again, fleeing through the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic, but Lord Godalming soon discovered the servants I had left behind in Cagliari. He first faced a stout gypsy woman bearing a knife, then went round after round with her husband, who also had a pistol. And then, just when he thought the husband was defeated, he discovered that my minions can be quite relentless in their devotion to my dark plans (I played the Relentless Minion event card). The half-dead gypsy came at him again and again, seriously wounding Godalming but failing to finish him off.
During this time, I encountered Stormy Seas in the Atlantic (no doubt due to the pestering prayers of the Hunters), and was forced to dock at the port in Galway. I then made my way through Dublin and jumped acrossh the Irish Sea over to Swansea. There in England, I began to again sow my seed, planting New Vampires in Swansea and Plymouth. The Hunters quickly ruled out all the other Atlantic ports, however, and were again closing in on me.
Mina Harker was first to make it to the British Isles. I was at four on the Vampire Track, night was coming, and I had a Seduction card in my hand (which would give Mina a bite if she encountered one of my New Vampires after sunset, thus winning me the game). As other Hunters joined us, I again fled to sea at dusk. Mina was lucky, however, choosing correctly where to begin her search for my brides, and managed to kill them both before I made landfall and brought forth the night.
Again trying to figure out the least likely place they would think I would go, I sailed into the Bay of Biscay and landed at Bordeaux. As the Hunters again threw wide their net and tried to locate me, I used my dark powers to speed through France using first my Wolf Form and then the Unearthly Swiftness event card. This took me through Southern Frace and again into Italy, eventually ending up in Munich. There I found myself blocked from the rest of Eastern Europe by Consecrated Ground in Zagreb and a Heavenly Host token in Vienna. Just as I was planning to use my last Devilish Power to remove the Heavenly Host, the Hunters chose to move it for me, underestimating my speed and trying to restrict my movement further west. I was then able to pass quietly into the heart of my power.
Knowing that I had some time before they caught up with me, I took a circuitous route, planting traps and stumbling blocks in as many cities as I could. Eventually, as the Hunters again closed in, I made for Castle Dracula. I was now at 5 vampire points and the dawn of the sixth day was approaching. Therefore, I threw up a roadblock between Klausenburg and Castle Dracula, pretty much revealing for sure where I was.
Dr. Seward was first to move, summoning the last of the Hunters' resolve to move swiftly and join me in Klausenburg. After facing and neutralizing the encounter I had planned for him, however, he was literally dragged away to Budapest by Wild Horses. Van Helsing, my old nemesis, also felt the same Sense of Emergency and likewise assaulted me in Klausenburg.
For most of the game, the Hunters had been aided by Sister Agatha, an ally which causes Dracula to lose 2 blood any time he uses his claws or tries to escape combat. Since I had totally avoided combat for the entire game, however, it had not been a big deal. At this point, with only 6 blood remaining and facing a well-armed expert vampire hunter, it was huge. Risking everything on one roll of the die, I decided to Flee as Mist anyway, taking the blood loss but winning the roll and surviving the combat. I then fortified myself in the Castle, drinking from my supply of blood there to go back up to 6 blood. The Hunters worked their way around my roadblock, closing in again to try and destroy me.
Time was almost up, however, and only a Long Day card could save them. Mina used her ability to draw two event cards, hoping to find one, but instead handed me another Evasion event that allowed me to slip quietly out of my Castle to watch the dawn from my stronghold at Cagliari. My work was done. My power was finally complete, and at last was I rid of the meddlesome bother of those pesky Hunters.
This time, the gameplay was smooth and we didn't make any mistakes. The Hunters were consistently one or two steps behind me; enough to neutralize most of my plans but not close enough to confront me directly and eliminate me.
Personally, I felt a real sense of tension as we played our cat-and-mouse game. Unfortunately, the closeness of the game also made for a very long game, running over the three hour mark. This, more than anything, seemed to push the game beyond its welcome for the rest of the players, and their ratings therefore did not increase after the second playing.
Time: 200 minutes
Score: Me (Dracula) 6 Points, The Hunters (Chris, Sabrina, Mark) had me down to 6 blood
Ratings:Chris 6, Sabrina 7, Mark 7.5, Me 8.5
So, as we wrap up October, I can certainly say that we have discovered some real gems for our Halloween theme. For a more concise summary, check out my personal blog entry about the games we played.
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Posted Mon Oct 8, 2007 3:31 am
I've been collecting this data for a while and wanted to see if it added anything to the reports...
Number of times we played Betrayal this month -- 5 (duh)
Total number of minutes spent playing Betrayal (accounting for rules look-ups and interpreatations, plus time reading for each Haunt) -- 340; individual session times were 45, 59 (rounded up to the full 60), 55, 95, and 85 minutes.
Number of times we played Fury of Dracula -- 2.
Total number of minutes spent playing Fury (plus the occasional rules issue) -- 340, off session times of 140 and 200.
Since I clearly remember Sabrina being selected as traitor because she was sitting to the left of the Haunt revealer (i.e., me), that means that I was the one who triggered every Haunt this month!