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Cindr
Cindr
2020 | Dice Game, Fantasy, Humor
Finally! A game to simulate dating dragons. I have been waiting for this theme all my life and it’s now a reality!! Well, okay, I have never really considered dating a dragon. But I know I would be signing up for a service app like Cindr to find my true dragon mate FO SHO if it were real. So how does a card game dragon sim play?

Cindr has players taking on the persona of a lonely fantasy creature looking for dragon love on a dating app. Players will be building their character by making choices and then swiping left or right to attempt going on dates with dragons that may be a great match. Roll the dice well and things may go to the Next Step, or even the Next Level. Roll poorly and your dear dragon date may send you home aflame.

DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. Furthermore I will be covering the game using the Solo rules (which are no different than the multiplayer rules). For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T


To setup, each player (or just yourself if playing the solo rules as I am) will choose a Character Profile card, filling in the blanks and circling choices to build their new fantasy persona. Each player will take one Try Again card that is useful during game play. Shuffle each Cindr App Dragon Profile and Whelp App Location card deck and place near each other. The dice will be placed near all the cards as well and the game is ready to begin!
On a turn a player will do each of these steps in order: Choose a Dragon to Date, Assemble the Dice Pool, Draw a Location Card, Check Dragon Powers & Location Bonuses, The Date / Roll Dice, Burned by a Dragon, and End of Turn. In the solo game players will be playing long enough to complete five dragon dates.

Choosing a Dragon to Date consists of reading the profile on the top of the deck and deciding whether to date or not. If not, swipe the profile into The Dating Pool below the deck. Players may swipe twice for free, and pay for additional swipes. After a dragon has been chosen, players will Assemble the Dice Pool by flipping the profile card and comparing with the stats they had made for their character at the beginning of the game. For each match players will receive a green die. For each value one space away a blue die, and for two spaces away a red die. Each die color has a different value of faces, but all have hearts and fires. Next the player(s) will Draw a Location Card from the top of the deck, read the front, then flip to the back. The back of the card will list any die up/downgrades and bonuses that may activate at different times during the date. Checking Dragon Powers & Location Bonuses will happen next and are self-explanatory.

Now that a dragon date has been procured and a location chosen, The Date may occur! When on the date, players will roll the four dice up to three times. The first time they are rolled is considered the Meet Up. The Next Step and The Next Level are the second and third rolls respectively. To be considered a full date, players will need to at least roll a second time. It is during The Date that players will be collecting hearts and trying to avoid fires. Three fires and the hearts are lost and the turn over. Players may stop rolling any time they wish and bank the hearts they have won to that point. The hearts then transfer to Love Points that are tracked at the bottom of the Character Profile card.


Should a player roll three flames and have no way to mitigate them, they lose all earned hearts for that round and their turn is over. They were, after all, Burned by a Dragon. The End of Turn is a cleanup phase to setup for the next player (or next round if playing solo). Play continues in this fashion until a player reaches 21+ Love Points in a multiplayer game or after the solo player has gone on five complete dates. Total the points to see who is the winner, or compare against the Love Meter card to see where you stack up.
Components. I’m just going to come out and say it now: I love everything about the components in this game. The dice are excellent and feature GOOD colors (not just boring primary colors). The app cards look like a phone’s screen and that’s brilliant. The Location cards are using a review service named Whelp, and also a stroke of brilliance. The art is amazing, save for the somewhat boring Second Chance cards, and one of the fonts is the same as my favorite game of all time – Valeria: Card Kingdoms, so I am fan for sure.

It’s no use hiding the fact that I am giddy playing this game. Even solo! Yes, I missed out on being able to date dragons from other players’ Dating Pools, but I have access to all the dragons anyway! Being able to adjust your choices during the game as a result of dragon powers or location powers is a neat twist that I wasn’t expecting. Those powers and bonuses are great and can really change the game, and contribute to an already large replayability score from me. It’s just a superb game that I love more and more every time I play it.

Cindr will probably never make my Top 10 Games of All Time, but it will most certainly remain in my Top 100 for years. Again, I wish I had not missed out on the Kickstarter for this one as I am gluttonous for KS stretch goal extras, but I am quite happy with where this game is at retail level. If you are looking for a great game with a hilarious and wonderful theme, plays quickly, and is excellent as a solo game too, then check out Cindr. You will never look at dragon dating sites the same way again. I promise.
  
Blue Moon City
Blue Moon City
2006 | City Building, Fantasy
Ahh Blue Moon. Delicious on a hot Summer day night. Hefeweizen is my favorite type of beer, but most places do not serve my all-time fave Hefe: Paulaner Hefe-Weizen. If you haven’t yet tried it, you must. I’m no snob or anything, so I’ll take the Blue Moon when I can’t have the Paulaner, but I wanted you all to know my tastes. So when I heard about a game that was all about a city named after a beer I enjoy (but only with an orange slice) I had to try it. Did it live up to my expectations or did it- wait, this game isn’t about beer? Why the heck did I-


Blue Moon City is a fantasy-set, hand management, set collection, city rebuilding game for two to four players. In it players are attempting to help reconstruct the war-ravaged Blue Moon City to its former glory by utilizing its citizens at crucial construction sites in order to earn crystals. It sounds weird, and it is, but read further to understand why. Oh and there are dragons that act like supervisors or teachers when they come stand by you to watch you take a test and judge you from behind the whole time.
To setup, place the Courtyard tile in the middle of the table and build the city in a 5×5 grid minus the corner tiles. Each player chooses their color and takes the mini and discs of that color. Place the dragons nearby, along with the Obelisk token, draw deck of cards, crystal chits, and dragon scale chits. Deal each player a hand of eight cards and the game may begin!

Blue Moon City is played over a series of turns, and each turn is divided into four phases: Movement, Contribution, Reset, Pass Turn. During the optional Movement phase, a player may move their pawn one to two orthagonal spaces (N/E/S/W) or use cards from their hand for their special movement powers for player pawn AND/OR dragon movement.

Next, a player may discard cards from their hand to contribute to the reconstruction of a building during this optional Contribution phase. By discarding a number of cards whose values equal or exceed the printed value on the matching-colored building tile a player will be able to place a disc upon the tile. Once the tile’s contribution spaces have been filled with discs it can be scored. To score a building tile, determine majority presence on the tile and award the Majority Bonus to that player. Any disc presence in minority will receive the Construction Bonus, including the majority winner. If a player had contributed on a tile that also was hosting a dragon mini, that player would earn a dragon scale from said dragon supervisor. Players may also make their way back to the Courtyard tile in order to donate crystals to the Obelisk. Doing so will allow the player to place one of their discs on the Obelisk itself, and the game ends when a player has placed the proper number of discs upon the Obelisk per the number of players.

When the pile of dragon scale tokens has been exhausted, players will check who currently holds the majority of scales. They will be awarded with six crystals, and any player holding three or more will receive three crystals. Turn all the dragon scales back into the supply to be earned again.

During the Reset phase a player may discard any number of cards from their hand and draw back as many cards plus two. So if a player discards zero cards from hand they would still draw two from the deck. Discarded four cards? Well redraw six.

Finally the active player will Pass Turn to the player on their left, who will complete their turn of the same four phases.


Play continues in this fashion until one player has placed the target number of discs on the Obelisk token to claim victory and dragon approval!
Components. Okay, this is a tough one because overall I love the components in the game. The dragons and player pawns are cool minis (from CMON that just makes sense). The Obelisk token is huge and I love how it looks. The art overall is really creepy, but well done, and enjoyable to behold. The player discs, though poo-pooed by other more-renowned reviewers, I find to be just fine. They are a smooth plastic in the player color and I have no problems with their quality. But speaking of colors… I agree with others that have stated the colors of some cards (or suits, if you prefer) should have been made a different color. What I mean is that the game is very greige-heavy throughout. The card suits (except the red, yellow, and blue) are a variation of the same greige that makes eyes strain to determine exactly which color they are holding. I understand that a certain aesthetic was targeted, and they certainly achieved that, but these colors do make it more difficult to play, especially for us that are starting to over-ripen with age.

Those component gripes aside, this is an incredible game. The color choices aside, I love everything about it! The movement from tile to tile, and trying to align movement with the cards in hand and keeping some back so that you can use them to move the dragon to your spot as well is just fun mental exercise. Each value 1 and 2 card has a special ability, be it movement bonuses, changing other cards’ colors, or just being straight up wild cards, and having to choose to use the cards as either the special power or for contribution values creates tons of crunchy gamer choices. Not super-crunchy. Turns won’t be mentally debated for 10 minutes, but deciding how best to use the hand of cards you hold is great.

I also very much enjoy the theme of the game, even though I was hoodwinked by the title (not really, just trying to tie it all back). I love fantasy worlds and having a unique theme is a definite plus for me. I haven’t yet thrown in the expansion tiles, but I will the next time I play. If you need a relatively quick-playing jaunt through a ravaged city, I recommend you check out Blue Moon City. Purple Phoenix Games give it a 10 / 12. It has nothing to do with beer, which would be another great theme idea – drunken dragons – but I will be holding onto this one for quite a while.
  
Fire in His Blood (Fireblood Dragon, #1)
Fire in His Blood (Fireblood Dragon, #1)
Ruby Dixon | 2017 | Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm.
https://www.beckiebookworm.com
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&#x1f31f;&#x1f31f;&#x1f31f;1/2 STARS
"Fire in the blood" was a surprisingly delightful read.
I have previously read Some of Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarian series and loved them.
This, in my opinion, was on an equal par with them and I do Love a sexy dragon shifter so I was on to a winner straight from the get-go.
This story is set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, where a few years previously rifts opened up in the sky and through these tear's came the dragons.
laying waste and destroying cities, Humanity is in hiding and the worlds gone to pot, everyone's only out for themselves.
Enter our gal Claudia, after being caught scavenging and thrown into a cell she earns an awful fate.
To be used as dragon bait, to see if she can tame a dragon.
Convinced she is going to be Scooby snack Claudia is astounded when the gold dragon flashes into a human, well almost human looking, he has claws and fangs and a kind of dappled skin and horn-like protrusions on his head.
With an inability to communicate there at a disadvantage.
The dragon "Kael" is his name recognises Claudia as his mate.
And she seems to help hold the madness at bay for him, the madness all dragons are afflicted with since they were pulled through the rift.
Claudia and Kael start a comical but sweet courtship, where he brings her dead goats and spit roasts her meals, he even offers to eat her enemies sweet ay?
Kaels just desperate for his Claudia to give him a chance.
But she still can't get her friend and sister Amy out of her head, needing to do something to rescue them from there life at the fort.
I found myself smiling a lot through this as these two found their way.
It was lovely just to read some uncomplicated fun romance.
was their slight repetitions and an annoying whiny heroine here, Oh Yes!! but honestly, that didn't really bother me as Buff Hunky Kael with the dragon heart of gold certainly made up for it.
He was a sexy Sweetheart even in his dragon form, he adored his Claudia and was prepared to do anything to assure her happiness.
Thankfully Claudia got less annoying as the story progressed and by the end I actually quite liked her.
so if you're looking for a lighthearted read with some sexy shifting and a dragon the size of a bus give this a go, it really was an enjoyable read and a great start to a new series.
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Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.beckiebookworm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
  
    Wild Animals Online(WAO)

    Wild Animals Online(WAO)

    Games and Entertainment

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    Welcome to the best animal game, Wild Animals Online (WAO) "Go fight! If you don’t fight,...

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2011 | Role-Playing
Gameplay (4 more)
Size of the map
Sheer amount to do
Replayability
Decent main story with tonnes of minor story missions
Glitches inherent to Bethesda games (1 more)
Some of the NPC's are very vanilla and interchangeable
Too good to miss out on!
A massive game that is awesome fun from the moment you turn it on to when you finally put it down tens of not hundreds of hours later! This game is a true masterpiece by Bethesda having already provided an incredible game earlier in the series with Oblivion.

The main storyline is engaging and takes a fair amount of time to accomplish however it is the build quests, the minor missions and the sheer number of caves, buildings, dungeons and so forth that can be found all across the map which is where this game truly shines.


The combat mechanics are great, not overly simplistic and not too challenging but a decent happy medium. The graphics for the game, for the time, were about as good as they get.


True to Bethesda the game is not without its issues, bizarre graphical glitches, dragons flying backwards in game breaking mechanics can sometimes lead to frustration especially if you've played for several hours without saving!


The skill tree has also been completely altered from Oblivions game and whilst some may feel it is overly simplistic it does allow newbies to get to grips with the game much easier than its predecessor.


All in all its a game that is hard to put down once you start and with dlc that provides additional content, including a whole new island, this is one of those games worth every single penny.
  
Marabel and the Book of Fate
Marabel and the Book of Fate
Tracy Barrett | 2018 | Children, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was the first Tracy Barrett novel that I have read and I have to say I'm really impressed. This book has all of the elements I love mashed into one story. On this middle grade adventure book you get to explore the kingdom of Magikos. Magikos is a magic free kingdom. The only magic that is allowed are the "Evils" (AKA magical creatures) that are kept in Zoos, and stables. If you want to experience magic you have to go to the Barrens. The Barrens are where you'll find all sorts of fantastical creatures including but not limited to faeries, ogres, dragons, and giants.

The plot was well thought out and developed and it was fun to join Marabel on her journey through the Barrens. I could go into more depth but I fear that it might contain spoilers so I will just say, that I enjoyed the girl power nature of this book.

Something else that I liked were the characters. Many times an author will make the rightful heir hated and a jerk, what I liked is that Marco was lovable. He seemed to truly care about Marabel and was a good brother. I loved it. Marabel was lovable as well and though there were times where she could have been self pitting she never once stopped with her adventure. My only issue was that the characters didn't have much depth to them. I would have loved to see more growth in all of the characters.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. I'm giving it 4 stars because I loved the fast paced nature of the book but I also wanted a little more depth.
  
IC
Into Coraira (Legend of Rhyme, #2)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>This eBook was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Into Coraira</i> is Jaime Lee Mann’s second book in the <i>Legend of Rhyme</i> series for older children. Previously twins, Ariana and Asher, have been reunited after being separated for most of their childhood. They have also helped to defeat an evil witch, but their troubles are only just beginning.

When the witch, Elora, was sent to the dark realm, the most powerful and evilest sorcerer escaped. If he gets access to the magical realm of Coraira, all hell will break loose. Ariana and Asher are only just learning about their own magical powers; ones they never knew they had. Eager to show off this newfound magic, they inadvertently aid the villain in his quest to regain his wicked rule over the world.

In a world where it is not clear who to trust, <i>Into Coraira</i> is full of twists and turns as the characters begin to learn the truth about their friends and family. With an exciting central plot, children will be fully engaged with the magical story enfolding on the pages in front of them. Alongside the fantastic creatures featured in the first book are unicorns, mermaids and dragons. Such beasts will amaze and inspire young minds and imaginations.

Although only a hundred pages, there is so much adventure crammed into this book. Two books into the series and enough surprises have happened fill a lifetime. Once again readers are faced with a cliffhanger, urging them to purchase the next installment. Whatever will happen to Ariana and Asher next?
  
    Drakenlords: CCG Card Duels

    Drakenlords: CCG Card Duels

    Games, Entertainment and Stickers

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    Welcome to one of the best CCG games on mobile! Drakenlords is a multiplayer fantasy card game where...