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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Dragons Wild in Tabletop Games
Feb 1, 2021
Have you ever had Gamer Deja Vu? Like you know you’ve played this game before but don’t remember, or the mechanics just feel so familiar? I have it seldomly, but I still feel it at times. What I enjoy about certain games is how quick they are teach, have familiar mechanics, but also have their own twists to truly make it unique. Have I found that here with Dragons Wild?
Dragons Wild is a trick-taking game very similar to the old standard, Rummy. So like its predecessor players are trying to rid their hands of cards in order to signal the end of the game. Where this version separates is in the little details that are absent from Rummy.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign launching February 2, 2021, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup choose a dealer and a scorer (different players). The dealer will shuffle the entire deck of cards, save for the scoring cards, and deal each player seven cards. The draw deck is placed in the middle of the table and the dealer flips the top card to create the discard pile. The scorer finds the reference score card and places the dragon token on or near the “Round 1, Score 8 per card” text. The game may now begin!
Generally, the game is played much like Rummy where players are attempting to lay down melds of cards containing either runs (1, 2, 3, 4, etc) or sets (2, 2, 2 of different suits). Once a player has a meld in front of themselves they may play their cards onto other players’ melds. Players must discard a card at the end of each turn, and play continues in this manner until a player runs out of cards.
Dragons Wild, however, adds a few twists to pump up the play of traditional Rummy. Each player will need to keep track of their point totals as they will change with each play of a card. Should a player lay a meld on Round 1 they score eight VP for each card laid. In Round 2 cards are worth seven points each. Round 3 each card is worth six points and so on until Round 8 (or more) where each card is worth just one point.
Another way in which Dragons Wild differs from its older cousin is in the buying of cards (as far as I remember – I’m no Rummy expert). On their turn the active player must draw a card from either the top of the draw deck or the top of the discard pile. However, before the active player chooses, should another player wish to buy the face-up discard card the active player decides to allow or disallow the buy. With a successful buy the buying player takes the discarded card as well as the top card of the draw deck as payment. A player may buy as many as three cards in this fashion for each new active player.
Also, Dragons Wild offers a slight rule change for Wild cards in melds. Every time I have played Rummy in my lifetime any Wild is up for grabs as long as it can be replaced with a legal card from any player’s hand on their turn. This is not the case in Dragons Wild, as only Wild cards that hang on the end of a RUN of cards may be taken, replaced, or moved to the other end by the active player.
The game ends once one player is able to rid their entire hand of cards and still have one card to discard at the end of their turn. Players then total their scores from all cards played, scoring points differently depending on the Round in which they were laid. Other players still possessing cards then subtract the NUMBER of cards still held from their entire score, not their values. The player with the most points after this scoring phase is the winner!
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, and I am completely unsure which, if any, components will be upgraded as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, I can comment on a couple things. First, the art style. While it is not my cup of tea (dragons have tea parties, right?) I can see where others may quite enjoy its fancifulness and whimsy. The game is very colorful, and I do appreciate that quite a lot. The cards are laid out well, and each suit is a different species of fantastic beast (though I rarely knew which was which – I just paid attention to the background color in the corners of the cards mostly). So I have no real problems with the components at all, I just wish for different art. The designer was nice enough to send along a print of a purple phoenix with this copy, which is super rad of her, and it looks great. Maybe she will add them into the final version…
Gameplay is familiar, like I stated earlier, because I would think most people have played Rummy or a variation of it at some point. In fact, my family was big into Rummikub growing up, and my grandparents were big into Rummy proper. So this was somewhat nostalgic for me while also bringing a few house rules and art that is different from a boring deck of normal playing cards.
The rules are not at all difficult, so learning, teaching, and playing have not seemed to be an issue at all here. If players have all played a version of Rummy before then this one will fly pretty quickly. It is a simple, fast, and slightly unique version of Rummy that would be nice to keep around if you need to wait on another player to arrive and they are 10 minutes away, or as a palette cleanser between games. Definitely a filler game, and not at all a bad one!
If you are looking for a differently-themed Rummy replacement with a twist, I recommend checking out Dragons Wild. It’s cute, quick, and has dragons, for Pete’s sake. Consider backing the Kickstarter campaign or asking your LFGS to stock it upon release.
Dragons Wild is a trick-taking game very similar to the old standard, Rummy. So like its predecessor players are trying to rid their hands of cards in order to signal the end of the game. Where this version separates is in the little details that are absent from Rummy.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign launching February 2, 2021, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup choose a dealer and a scorer (different players). The dealer will shuffle the entire deck of cards, save for the scoring cards, and deal each player seven cards. The draw deck is placed in the middle of the table and the dealer flips the top card to create the discard pile. The scorer finds the reference score card and places the dragon token on or near the “Round 1, Score 8 per card” text. The game may now begin!
Generally, the game is played much like Rummy where players are attempting to lay down melds of cards containing either runs (1, 2, 3, 4, etc) or sets (2, 2, 2 of different suits). Once a player has a meld in front of themselves they may play their cards onto other players’ melds. Players must discard a card at the end of each turn, and play continues in this manner until a player runs out of cards.
Dragons Wild, however, adds a few twists to pump up the play of traditional Rummy. Each player will need to keep track of their point totals as they will change with each play of a card. Should a player lay a meld on Round 1 they score eight VP for each card laid. In Round 2 cards are worth seven points each. Round 3 each card is worth six points and so on until Round 8 (or more) where each card is worth just one point.
Another way in which Dragons Wild differs from its older cousin is in the buying of cards (as far as I remember – I’m no Rummy expert). On their turn the active player must draw a card from either the top of the draw deck or the top of the discard pile. However, before the active player chooses, should another player wish to buy the face-up discard card the active player decides to allow or disallow the buy. With a successful buy the buying player takes the discarded card as well as the top card of the draw deck as payment. A player may buy as many as three cards in this fashion for each new active player.
Also, Dragons Wild offers a slight rule change for Wild cards in melds. Every time I have played Rummy in my lifetime any Wild is up for grabs as long as it can be replaced with a legal card from any player’s hand on their turn. This is not the case in Dragons Wild, as only Wild cards that hang on the end of a RUN of cards may be taken, replaced, or moved to the other end by the active player.
The game ends once one player is able to rid their entire hand of cards and still have one card to discard at the end of their turn. Players then total their scores from all cards played, scoring points differently depending on the Round in which they were laid. Other players still possessing cards then subtract the NUMBER of cards still held from their entire score, not their values. The player with the most points after this scoring phase is the winner!
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, and I am completely unsure which, if any, components will be upgraded as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, I can comment on a couple things. First, the art style. While it is not my cup of tea (dragons have tea parties, right?) I can see where others may quite enjoy its fancifulness and whimsy. The game is very colorful, and I do appreciate that quite a lot. The cards are laid out well, and each suit is a different species of fantastic beast (though I rarely knew which was which – I just paid attention to the background color in the corners of the cards mostly). So I have no real problems with the components at all, I just wish for different art. The designer was nice enough to send along a print of a purple phoenix with this copy, which is super rad of her, and it looks great. Maybe she will add them into the final version…
Gameplay is familiar, like I stated earlier, because I would think most people have played Rummy or a variation of it at some point. In fact, my family was big into Rummikub growing up, and my grandparents were big into Rummy proper. So this was somewhat nostalgic for me while also bringing a few house rules and art that is different from a boring deck of normal playing cards.
The rules are not at all difficult, so learning, teaching, and playing have not seemed to be an issue at all here. If players have all played a version of Rummy before then this one will fly pretty quickly. It is a simple, fast, and slightly unique version of Rummy that would be nice to keep around if you need to wait on another player to arrive and they are 10 minutes away, or as a palette cleanser between games. Definitely a filler game, and not at all a bad one!
If you are looking for a differently-themed Rummy replacement with a twist, I recommend checking out Dragons Wild. It’s cute, quick, and has dragons, for Pete’s sake. Consider backing the Kickstarter campaign or asking your LFGS to stock it upon release.
5 Minute Movie Guy (379 KP) rated 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) in Movies
Aug 26, 2019
I love a good shark movie. Since as far back as I can remember, I have been fascinated by sharks. I think they’re some of the most interesting creatures on our planet. Even when I was a kid, I used to wear shark tooth necklaces because I thought they were so cool. Basically any time you’ve got sharks in a movie, I’m all in for it. Amusingly enough, that same sentiment does not apply to video games where I think they’re terrifying! (Jaws on the original Nintendo freaked-me-out as a child.) Having said all that, I was excited to see 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, even though I missed out on the original film back in 2017. Johannes Roberts, the director of the minimalistic first film, 47 Meters Down, returns for this sequel and brings back the great white sharks, but shakes up for the formula a bit by adding an underwater maze to the mix.
The sequel focuses on teenaged loner Mia (Sophie Nélisse) who has recently relocated to Mexico with her father and step-family. Her father Grant (John Corbett) scouts and maps out underwater locations for a living, and has recently discovered an ancient sunken Mayan city. With the help of his two assistants, he’s currently in the process of mapping out its maze-like design. One day, Mia joins her sister Sasha (Corinne Foxx) whose two friends, Alexa (Brianne Tju) and Nicole (Sistine Stallone), take them to a hidden local cove for a day of fun. This location turns out to be one of the entrances to the historic labyrinth that Mia’s father Grant has been exploring. Alexa, who once dated one of Grant’s assistants, had gone diving with this former boyfriend into the submerged city before. Upon finding enough extra scuba gear for all of them on a floating dock in this isolated cove, Alexa pressures her friends into joining her on a brief underwater tour that ends up being anything but.
This sunken Mayan labyrinth that the four girls go inside to explore is the setting for most of the film. They’re supposed to be following Alexa, who knows part of the maze well enough to navigate it without getting them lost, but their stubborn and defiant friend Nicole decides to venture off-course and winds up endangering them all. In the aftermath of Nicole’s senselessness, a pillar gets knocked over, creating a domino effect of destruction that causes the entrance they came in through to collapse and get sealed off. Now they’ll have to find another way out. With limited oxygen and even less light and visibility, the girls have to swim deeper into the maze to try to look for an exit.
Quickly the girls come to discover they’re not as alone in this labyrinth as they first thought, and they find themselves in the presence of great white sharks. These sharks, blind from living their whole lives in the darkness of this lost city, have their other senses heightened as a result, and they’re on the hunt for blood. The arrival of these sharks, however, opens up a big plot hole in the story. How is it that Mia’s father has never seen these deadly sharks nor made any reference to them when he’s already spent weeks, possibly even months, exploring this sunken city? I suppose it’s possible that in the collapse of the entrance, another passageway may have opened up that let the sharks in. However, that logic doesn’t hold up, because had they came in from outside, they wouldn’t be blind. These particular sharks evolved down here, so it’s hard to believe they were never noticed before, especially considering how violent and aggressive they are.
That’s far from being the only problem with these sharks, though. They also look flat out awful. The quality of their special effects in this film is simply pitiful. I’m not even exaggerating when I say they often reminded me of that infamously bad shark attack scene from Jaws 3D. They look so fake and unbelievable that instead of feeling any sense of fear when they randomly appeared, I couldn’t help but cringe. It literally looks almost as bad as the Sharknado movies, but the key difference is that unlike the intentionally campy Sharknado movies, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is actually trying to take itself seriously. Plus it has even has double the budget to work with.
47 Meters Down: Uncaged takes a very lazy and bare-bones approach to filmmaking. The story lacks substance, the characters and dialogue lack depth, and the visuals throughout most of the film are muddied and unclear. It’s rough on the eyes because the visuals are so obscured and are shrouded in so much darkness that it’s hard to actually see what’s happening on screen. This is often exploited as a cheap tactic to create jump scares by having the sharks suddenly appear from literally out of nowhere, which seems especially hard to believe since it’s doubtful these large sharks could smoothly navigate most of these narrow passageways in the first place. Despite the restrictive maze design, the film fails to create a sense of claustrophobia, and instead just gave me a headache.
The story progression in the film mostly feels generic and expected. There are new complications that arise and circumstances that change, but it’s all pretty standard fare. The ending, however, sets up a decent scenario, but it ends up being ruined by how unrealistic it is. Besides, after wading through all of the garbage to get there, I couldn’t be bothered to care much at that point. The acting in the film is mostly poor, but truthfully they’re never given much to work with. It’s also difficult to keep track of who is who once they’re inside the maze anyway because the visuals are so muddled. The movie does feature its share of violence and death, but its light on the gore and to me it always felt unsatisfying.
In all, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged sinks right to the bottom of my rating list as the worst movie I’ve seen in 2019. It’s lazy and bland to the point of being exhausting. There’s ultimately not one single thing about it that I can sincerely commend. The only thing I’m probably going to remember this movie for is how dreadful it looks and the 90 minutes of boredom and disappointment it caused me.
The sequel focuses on teenaged loner Mia (Sophie Nélisse) who has recently relocated to Mexico with her father and step-family. Her father Grant (John Corbett) scouts and maps out underwater locations for a living, and has recently discovered an ancient sunken Mayan city. With the help of his two assistants, he’s currently in the process of mapping out its maze-like design. One day, Mia joins her sister Sasha (Corinne Foxx) whose two friends, Alexa (Brianne Tju) and Nicole (Sistine Stallone), take them to a hidden local cove for a day of fun. This location turns out to be one of the entrances to the historic labyrinth that Mia’s father Grant has been exploring. Alexa, who once dated one of Grant’s assistants, had gone diving with this former boyfriend into the submerged city before. Upon finding enough extra scuba gear for all of them on a floating dock in this isolated cove, Alexa pressures her friends into joining her on a brief underwater tour that ends up being anything but.
This sunken Mayan labyrinth that the four girls go inside to explore is the setting for most of the film. They’re supposed to be following Alexa, who knows part of the maze well enough to navigate it without getting them lost, but their stubborn and defiant friend Nicole decides to venture off-course and winds up endangering them all. In the aftermath of Nicole’s senselessness, a pillar gets knocked over, creating a domino effect of destruction that causes the entrance they came in through to collapse and get sealed off. Now they’ll have to find another way out. With limited oxygen and even less light and visibility, the girls have to swim deeper into the maze to try to look for an exit.
Quickly the girls come to discover they’re not as alone in this labyrinth as they first thought, and they find themselves in the presence of great white sharks. These sharks, blind from living their whole lives in the darkness of this lost city, have their other senses heightened as a result, and they’re on the hunt for blood. The arrival of these sharks, however, opens up a big plot hole in the story. How is it that Mia’s father has never seen these deadly sharks nor made any reference to them when he’s already spent weeks, possibly even months, exploring this sunken city? I suppose it’s possible that in the collapse of the entrance, another passageway may have opened up that let the sharks in. However, that logic doesn’t hold up, because had they came in from outside, they wouldn’t be blind. These particular sharks evolved down here, so it’s hard to believe they were never noticed before, especially considering how violent and aggressive they are.
That’s far from being the only problem with these sharks, though. They also look flat out awful. The quality of their special effects in this film is simply pitiful. I’m not even exaggerating when I say they often reminded me of that infamously bad shark attack scene from Jaws 3D. They look so fake and unbelievable that instead of feeling any sense of fear when they randomly appeared, I couldn’t help but cringe. It literally looks almost as bad as the Sharknado movies, but the key difference is that unlike the intentionally campy Sharknado movies, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is actually trying to take itself seriously. Plus it has even has double the budget to work with.
47 Meters Down: Uncaged takes a very lazy and bare-bones approach to filmmaking. The story lacks substance, the characters and dialogue lack depth, and the visuals throughout most of the film are muddied and unclear. It’s rough on the eyes because the visuals are so obscured and are shrouded in so much darkness that it’s hard to actually see what’s happening on screen. This is often exploited as a cheap tactic to create jump scares by having the sharks suddenly appear from literally out of nowhere, which seems especially hard to believe since it’s doubtful these large sharks could smoothly navigate most of these narrow passageways in the first place. Despite the restrictive maze design, the film fails to create a sense of claustrophobia, and instead just gave me a headache.
The story progression in the film mostly feels generic and expected. There are new complications that arise and circumstances that change, but it’s all pretty standard fare. The ending, however, sets up a decent scenario, but it ends up being ruined by how unrealistic it is. Besides, after wading through all of the garbage to get there, I couldn’t be bothered to care much at that point. The acting in the film is mostly poor, but truthfully they’re never given much to work with. It’s also difficult to keep track of who is who once they’re inside the maze anyway because the visuals are so muddled. The movie does feature its share of violence and death, but its light on the gore and to me it always felt unsatisfying.
In all, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged sinks right to the bottom of my rating list as the worst movie I’ve seen in 2019. It’s lazy and bland to the point of being exhausting. There’s ultimately not one single thing about it that I can sincerely commend. The only thing I’m probably going to remember this movie for is how dreadful it looks and the 90 minutes of boredom and disappointment it caused me.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks in Tabletop Games
Sep 2, 2021
I cannot tell you what a big fan of Doctor Who I am. I have one sticker on my car, and it’s a DW TARDIS right there in the upper left. They say you’ll never forget your first Doctor, and I only started watching several years into the reboot, but started with 9. And then 10 stole my heart. 11 was also quite amazing and I always reference people who have never seen the show to please please please watch, “Vincent and the Doctor.” If you watch that episode and are not moved to tears by the sheer beauty of the story being told, you absolutely have no soul. And if after watching that episode you are not an immediately-converted Whovian, then it was never meant to be. So why then is my rating on this game so lackluster if I love the IP so?
Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks (which I will carefully refer to as DW from here on out though I would never abbreviate to Dr.) is an adventure dice racing game, even though the only official tag is dice. In it, players take on the roles of different Doctor regenerations and will travel through time and space collecting companions, Timey-Wimey cards, and Sonic Charges in order to manipulate dice rolls to defeat Dilemmas and Time Anomalies that pop up at the absolute worst times.
To setup, follow the rulebook instructions – there are just too many components to detail here. The game takes up quite a bit of table space, so do make sure to use your largest table.
On a player’s turn they will be adding Sonic Charges, shuffling up companions, and rolling the TARDIS die to determine travel. Once at a location, the Doctor (and subsequent harem) can Adventure by assessing the challenge of dice results printed on the Location board plus the Dilemma disc combined. It is these icons that must be rolled (and possibly manipulated) in order to have a successful adventure. If successful, typically this involves a reward of moving the TARDIS pawn on the main Web of Time board closer to Gallifrey, in addition to other rewards. Failure on an adventure will typically result in the Dalek ship being moved further from Skaro and closer to Gallifrey.
Once the Doctors have had their turn, the Daleks will take a turn. Immediately move the Dalek ship one space on the Web of Time track towards Gallifrey, and if they have reached Gallifrey before any Doctor, or on the same turn as a Doctor, the Daleks win and the Doctors all lose. If not, play continues in this fashion until one of those win conditions are met, along with a couple more loss conditions I will leave you to discover.
This is a very pared-down synopsis of the rules, and I have intentionally left out several rules so as not to bog down my paraphrasing with minutia. Take this into consideration when determining if this is the game for you.
Components. All in all the components in DW are absolutely stellar! All the cardboard is thick and features great art and screencaps (which is a polarizing subject that I simply don’t mind). The dice are great quality, though I wish they had chosen a different color for the blue dice so that the TARDIS die would be the only blue in the box. The minis are great, and have interchangeable bases because throughout the game the Doctors may have to regenerate, thus switching to a different Doctor mid-game (awesome mechanic for this IP by the way).
Let me tell you why I like this DW game and why I do not. Firstly, the game is just too hard for me. Maybe it’s how I roll the dice, but I feel I am almost never in possession of enough resources to be able to reroll or manually manipulate my dice results enough to have the requisite amount of successful adventures. Some challenges require the Doctor to roll six dice, but then there are restrictions in play that drop a Doctor’s dice pool down to six, thus creating a you-must-roll-EXACTLY-what-you-need-to-win scenario that is tough to swallow for a dice game. Also, this next part is completely personal opinion, I wish that 10 was included in the starter box. I got my 11, and I appreciate that, but I feel like 10 is the most widely-popular Doctor in the franchise, or at least in New Who, so the ball was dropped here. I know I can purchase 10 in an expansion pack with 5 (and kudos to whomever made THAT combination), but I want him NOW.
Time travel games are so difficult to pull off, and with Doctor Who you HAVE to consider that time travel will play a very important part in gameplay. I believe this title handles it well, and even allows for multiple Doctors to work together (let’s not talk about time paradoxes for now). That is great and allows for excellent cooperative play, so I applaud the designer for that. I also enjoy the different abilities given by each different regeneration as well as what the companions each bring to the table. Perhaps a companion will add certain colors of dice to the Dice Pool, or allow the Doctor to switch out some of his generic dice for stronger and more specific dice, or simply allow rerolls of certain colors of dice. I dig that a lot. And seeing my precious companions in the game matched up to their Doctors fills me with a sense of nostalgia that I just do not feel in other games.
While this has been the subject of much deliberation on my part, I will be keeping my copy of the game, and will most definitely be adding 5 and 10 to the mix. I really want to like this game more than I do, and maybe having 10 in my arsenal is enough to do it, though I have my doubts. I love the Doctor Who IP and love dice games. I think this is a good game overall, and will continue to explore it with other gamers. Something will click, I’m sure of it. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one wibbly-wobbly 8 / 12. If you need a difficult dice game in your collection and also love the Doctors, pick up a copy. But also do yourself a favor and grab a copy of any expansion that includes your favorite Doctor – you will thank me later. Spoilers, sweetie, that’s coming in tomorrow’s post.
Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks (which I will carefully refer to as DW from here on out though I would never abbreviate to Dr.) is an adventure dice racing game, even though the only official tag is dice. In it, players take on the roles of different Doctor regenerations and will travel through time and space collecting companions, Timey-Wimey cards, and Sonic Charges in order to manipulate dice rolls to defeat Dilemmas and Time Anomalies that pop up at the absolute worst times.
To setup, follow the rulebook instructions – there are just too many components to detail here. The game takes up quite a bit of table space, so do make sure to use your largest table.
On a player’s turn they will be adding Sonic Charges, shuffling up companions, and rolling the TARDIS die to determine travel. Once at a location, the Doctor (and subsequent harem) can Adventure by assessing the challenge of dice results printed on the Location board plus the Dilemma disc combined. It is these icons that must be rolled (and possibly manipulated) in order to have a successful adventure. If successful, typically this involves a reward of moving the TARDIS pawn on the main Web of Time board closer to Gallifrey, in addition to other rewards. Failure on an adventure will typically result in the Dalek ship being moved further from Skaro and closer to Gallifrey.
Once the Doctors have had their turn, the Daleks will take a turn. Immediately move the Dalek ship one space on the Web of Time track towards Gallifrey, and if they have reached Gallifrey before any Doctor, or on the same turn as a Doctor, the Daleks win and the Doctors all lose. If not, play continues in this fashion until one of those win conditions are met, along with a couple more loss conditions I will leave you to discover.
This is a very pared-down synopsis of the rules, and I have intentionally left out several rules so as not to bog down my paraphrasing with minutia. Take this into consideration when determining if this is the game for you.
Components. All in all the components in DW are absolutely stellar! All the cardboard is thick and features great art and screencaps (which is a polarizing subject that I simply don’t mind). The dice are great quality, though I wish they had chosen a different color for the blue dice so that the TARDIS die would be the only blue in the box. The minis are great, and have interchangeable bases because throughout the game the Doctors may have to regenerate, thus switching to a different Doctor mid-game (awesome mechanic for this IP by the way).
Let me tell you why I like this DW game and why I do not. Firstly, the game is just too hard for me. Maybe it’s how I roll the dice, but I feel I am almost never in possession of enough resources to be able to reroll or manually manipulate my dice results enough to have the requisite amount of successful adventures. Some challenges require the Doctor to roll six dice, but then there are restrictions in play that drop a Doctor’s dice pool down to six, thus creating a you-must-roll-EXACTLY-what-you-need-to-win scenario that is tough to swallow for a dice game. Also, this next part is completely personal opinion, I wish that 10 was included in the starter box. I got my 11, and I appreciate that, but I feel like 10 is the most widely-popular Doctor in the franchise, or at least in New Who, so the ball was dropped here. I know I can purchase 10 in an expansion pack with 5 (and kudos to whomever made THAT combination), but I want him NOW.
Time travel games are so difficult to pull off, and with Doctor Who you HAVE to consider that time travel will play a very important part in gameplay. I believe this title handles it well, and even allows for multiple Doctors to work together (let’s not talk about time paradoxes for now). That is great and allows for excellent cooperative play, so I applaud the designer for that. I also enjoy the different abilities given by each different regeneration as well as what the companions each bring to the table. Perhaps a companion will add certain colors of dice to the Dice Pool, or allow the Doctor to switch out some of his generic dice for stronger and more specific dice, or simply allow rerolls of certain colors of dice. I dig that a lot. And seeing my precious companions in the game matched up to their Doctors fills me with a sense of nostalgia that I just do not feel in other games.
While this has been the subject of much deliberation on my part, I will be keeping my copy of the game, and will most definitely be adding 5 and 10 to the mix. I really want to like this game more than I do, and maybe having 10 in my arsenal is enough to do it, though I have my doubts. I love the Doctor Who IP and love dice games. I think this is a good game overall, and will continue to explore it with other gamers. Something will click, I’m sure of it. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one wibbly-wobbly 8 / 12. If you need a difficult dice game in your collection and also love the Doctors, pick up a copy. But also do yourself a favor and grab a copy of any expansion that includes your favorite Doctor – you will thank me later. Spoilers, sweetie, that’s coming in tomorrow’s post.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Chronicles of Crime: 2400 in Tabletop Games
Nov 17, 2021
I have reviewed and previewed the base Chronicles of Crime, and each of the entries in the Millennium Series (1400, 1900, and now 2400). I have the Noir expansion coming in my next order from an online retailer once another title gets off the pre-order list, and will most likely be ordering Welcome to Redvale soon as well. To say I am a fan of the series is a massive understatement. The system is just so unique and I love exploring the games inside. Now, I definitely prefer 1400 to 1900, but where does this newest entry fall in the pecking order? I bet you’re… dying… to find out!
Chronicles of Crime: 2400 (which I shall shorten to 2400 for the duration of this preview) is an app-assisted campaign, murder-infested, cooperative storytelling game for one to four players. If you are familiar with the original Chronicles of Crime, you already mostly know how to play 2400 (there are a few new mechanics here). However, should ye be of the uninitiated, allow me to set the stage for this incredible gaming experience.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided an advance retail copy of this game for the purposes of this preview. These are retail copy components, so they should be exactly what you would receive in your copy. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, purchase directly from the publisher, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, place the Evidence Board in the middle of the table and the Home Location Board near. Keep all the decks of cards nearby (shuffled or unshuffled, whatever is your liking) as well as the alphabetically-labeled, double-sided Location Boards. Place out the Implant Board and the Raven card within reach (new to 2400). Fire up the Chronicles of Crime app, choose “2400,” and then choose the case you would like to play. The app will walk players through the additional setup steps for the case being played. For this solo preview the photos represent happenings in the Tutorial scenario. Also, to be completely upfront I got a perfect 100/100 for a final score… for the introductory Tutorial. Autographs can be purchased at the end of the preview.
Each of the cases will involve players traveling to different Location Boards and meeting Characters at these locations. Many cases will be involving several Special Items and, new for the 2400 version, augments to the main character, Kalia Lavel, and her cybernetically-enhanced pet Raven. The Raven (unnamed in the game) acts as a portable computer, able to access information across the web and provide insight into certain aspects of the case being solved.
By using the app and scanning the QR codes on the boards and cards players will be learning about the case, viewing the scene of the crime(s), inspecting items, chatting up locals for information, and also new for 2400: visiting new Cyberspace Locations (a la The Oasis in Ready Player One)! With so many new additions to the CoC series here in the 2400 chapter, seasoned vets will find something for which they can be excited.
Play will continue not so much in “rounds” but until the players have enough evidence and a good handle on the situation enough to return Home to recharge, or visiting HQ to divulge case information by scanning answers to their questions about the case. The app then assesses the accuracy of the answers and outputs a score. For reference, though I did receive 100/100 on my first play of 2400 I did only receive a 70/100 on my first runthrough of the original Chronicles of Crime, so playing this style of game several times seems to improve how one plays.
Components. As most items in the box of the game are card or cardboard-based, and all really great quality, I will speak on other component items. Firstly, the art and art style throughout the game is simply stunning. I mean look at those Location cards and character art! This art really speaks to me and it says, “I’m gorgeous.” As a side note, I think I will be contacting Lucky Duck Games to get my hands on the font used on the Evidence Category cards. It’s just a perfect choice in this setting.
The app. I have only great things to say about the app. It’s the same app that you would use for all Chronicles of Crime games, and operates the exact same way. For me it has been flawless to use and just a joy to bring technology into the gaming world, especially for a game set in the year 2400. I am obviously no purist game enthusiast, as I enjoy these hybrid model games. Once you play with the app you will see how ingenious a system it really is. The app coupled with the nondescript cards and other components in the game make for infinite storytelling possibilities that can only be limited by creativity and time constraints. I love the components in the box AND the marvelous app.
Gameplay for me is also just glorious. I love being able to sit down, setup the game, and let the app tell me what’s going on. So what should I do first? Oh, let’s mosey on down here to this Location Board and drum up some information. Ooh I found an Item! I should have the Raven scan it for any historical information. Hmm, it registers as being hot? Okay, time to go back to that location and speak with the other person who was in there. OH CRAP, I wasted too much (in game) time and now that other person is gone?! Uh oh, I better stop messing around here…
It’s just amazing, and I love this family of games. I am so stoked to delve more into 2400 and discover more shenanigans happening in futuristic Paris. My implants (no jokes here please), Raven, and I are out to solve all the cases and beg for more. If you are looking for a game that uses a hybrid board game/app model, are a fan of this setting, or just want to have a really great experience playing a game, I urge you to consider Chronicles of Crime: 2400. It has everything I love in a unique game and I just can’t get enough! Oh, and for me, this is the best one of the bunch. I don’t know what it is exactly that I love so much, but it adds the right amount of extra stuff to CoC that I just feel like playing these scenarios endlessly. That is, until I have run out of scenarios and have to cry to LDG or fans to create more and more. If only I were more creative.
Chronicles of Crime: 2400 (which I shall shorten to 2400 for the duration of this preview) is an app-assisted campaign, murder-infested, cooperative storytelling game for one to four players. If you are familiar with the original Chronicles of Crime, you already mostly know how to play 2400 (there are a few new mechanics here). However, should ye be of the uninitiated, allow me to set the stage for this incredible gaming experience.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided an advance retail copy of this game for the purposes of this preview. These are retail copy components, so they should be exactly what you would receive in your copy. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, purchase directly from the publisher, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, place the Evidence Board in the middle of the table and the Home Location Board near. Keep all the decks of cards nearby (shuffled or unshuffled, whatever is your liking) as well as the alphabetically-labeled, double-sided Location Boards. Place out the Implant Board and the Raven card within reach (new to 2400). Fire up the Chronicles of Crime app, choose “2400,” and then choose the case you would like to play. The app will walk players through the additional setup steps for the case being played. For this solo preview the photos represent happenings in the Tutorial scenario. Also, to be completely upfront I got a perfect 100/100 for a final score… for the introductory Tutorial. Autographs can be purchased at the end of the preview.
Each of the cases will involve players traveling to different Location Boards and meeting Characters at these locations. Many cases will be involving several Special Items and, new for the 2400 version, augments to the main character, Kalia Lavel, and her cybernetically-enhanced pet Raven. The Raven (unnamed in the game) acts as a portable computer, able to access information across the web and provide insight into certain aspects of the case being solved.
By using the app and scanning the QR codes on the boards and cards players will be learning about the case, viewing the scene of the crime(s), inspecting items, chatting up locals for information, and also new for 2400: visiting new Cyberspace Locations (a la The Oasis in Ready Player One)! With so many new additions to the CoC series here in the 2400 chapter, seasoned vets will find something for which they can be excited.
Play will continue not so much in “rounds” but until the players have enough evidence and a good handle on the situation enough to return Home to recharge, or visiting HQ to divulge case information by scanning answers to their questions about the case. The app then assesses the accuracy of the answers and outputs a score. For reference, though I did receive 100/100 on my first play of 2400 I did only receive a 70/100 on my first runthrough of the original Chronicles of Crime, so playing this style of game several times seems to improve how one plays.
Components. As most items in the box of the game are card or cardboard-based, and all really great quality, I will speak on other component items. Firstly, the art and art style throughout the game is simply stunning. I mean look at those Location cards and character art! This art really speaks to me and it says, “I’m gorgeous.” As a side note, I think I will be contacting Lucky Duck Games to get my hands on the font used on the Evidence Category cards. It’s just a perfect choice in this setting.
The app. I have only great things to say about the app. It’s the same app that you would use for all Chronicles of Crime games, and operates the exact same way. For me it has been flawless to use and just a joy to bring technology into the gaming world, especially for a game set in the year 2400. I am obviously no purist game enthusiast, as I enjoy these hybrid model games. Once you play with the app you will see how ingenious a system it really is. The app coupled with the nondescript cards and other components in the game make for infinite storytelling possibilities that can only be limited by creativity and time constraints. I love the components in the box AND the marvelous app.
Gameplay for me is also just glorious. I love being able to sit down, setup the game, and let the app tell me what’s going on. So what should I do first? Oh, let’s mosey on down here to this Location Board and drum up some information. Ooh I found an Item! I should have the Raven scan it for any historical information. Hmm, it registers as being hot? Okay, time to go back to that location and speak with the other person who was in there. OH CRAP, I wasted too much (in game) time and now that other person is gone?! Uh oh, I better stop messing around here…
It’s just amazing, and I love this family of games. I am so stoked to delve more into 2400 and discover more shenanigans happening in futuristic Paris. My implants (no jokes here please), Raven, and I are out to solve all the cases and beg for more. If you are looking for a game that uses a hybrid board game/app model, are a fan of this setting, or just want to have a really great experience playing a game, I urge you to consider Chronicles of Crime: 2400. It has everything I love in a unique game and I just can’t get enough! Oh, and for me, this is the best one of the bunch. I don’t know what it is exactly that I love so much, but it adds the right amount of extra stuff to CoC that I just feel like playing these scenarios endlessly. That is, until I have run out of scenarios and have to cry to LDG or fans to create more and more. If only I were more creative.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Fantasy Ranch in Tabletop Games
Jun 12, 2019 (Updated Jun 12, 2019)
Little known fact: my family used to be involved with local harness racing and horse training. Not much actually rubbed off on me, personally, but I do remember going to the stables to visit with the horses, and I was even allowed to ride the stable goat since I wasn’t yet big enough to get on the horses. Ahh, memories. So when I heard that a game existed with a horse ranching theme, I just HAD to get it to the table. Is it a good game though? Let’s find out! (spoilers: IT’S EXCELLENT!)
DISCLAIMER: The game comes with three modes of difficulty AND an included children’s game that also can be played on three modes of difficulty. For this review we are concentrating only on adult mode two. We felt mode one was too introductory, but we did not want to go all in right away on mode three. -T
As with most board games, you are trying to amass trophies (VP) and the winner at the end of five rounds is the rancher with the most trophies. On your turn you can take one Limited (standard) Action and as many Free Actions as you would like. Limited Actions include: buy a horse, buy a location on your ranch board, or farm your ranch for goods. Free Actions include: sell a horse, move horses to/from your home area to/from a different area on your ranch board, or trade goods at a 2:1 ratio. Once every player has taken their turn, you enter a show using the horses you have collected.
Buying a horse requires different amounts of food (in carrots) that you gain from different actions (farming your ranch, selling a horse). Luckily, spending food is a one-time action and you don’t have to feed your horses every turn. A great improvement over other “feed your villagers” games, in my opinion – yeah, I said it. Buying a location on your ranch board/playmat requires “tack,” which is symbolized by boot tokens (as seen below). You can always get more food and tack by farming your ranch, and you receive six goods of any combination, but that’s a Limited Action and prevents you from doing the other actions.
Selling a horse is easy, yet the separation anxiety is real, as you simply discard the horse for the amount of food it costs to purchase. Moving horses is easy too – your Home area of your ranch/playmat can only hold so many horses, so you will need to move horses of certain types to unlocked (purchased) matching areas on your ranch. This is important, as you cannot keep buying red horses or you will certainly run out of room for them, even if you unlock the red area on your ranch board. Plus unlocking sections of your ranch provides you with trophies at game end. The last free action is trading goods, which you do at a 2:1 ratio. So trade in two food for a tack or vice versa.
At shows you use horses for their specific specialty skills plus a die roll. Each horse has specialty in one area, and some skill in other areas. The number associated with a skill icon indicates the starting skill “strength” that you will add to your die roll. You roll all three dice of your color, take the highest result from the roll, and add the skill strength of the horse skill. That’s your score for the show. The highest number is awarded 1st place and the rewards printed, and so on and so forth for the other placing horses. This could result in more food or tack, or even your choice of horses for free from the sales barn.
On the very last turn of the game you will compete in three shows (instead of the normal two shows at the end of each turn) and can only use World Class horses, or buy your way into the show with food. The show process is the same, but it is the final push to earn as many trophies as possible before game end. And that’s it!
Components: This game is FULL of components. It’s a pretty stocked and heavy box, but still only the size of a Ticket to Ride box. The playmats, game boards, and cardboard chits are all of really great quality. The cards are great quality as well with photos of real existing horses (as well as the photos of real existing ranches on the giant ranch cards that are essentially beautiful player reference cards and resource holders). The best components of the game are the super cute little horeeples (oh no, that can’t possibly be correct). Horse-meeples. They come in different colors to match the areas on your ranch that you need to unlock and move them into so you don’t overcrowd your Home area. Even though my copy came with a green horse who lost his front legs, we know that he competes hard and lives his best life. The art is really really great and, though busy on the board at times, the game looks really good on the table. No qualms with the components on this one at all.
Here’s what I really like about this one. It’s a euro through and through, but it’s a euro that is actually exciting, with a unique theme, and one that I genuinely cannot wait to play again. I want to try mode three as soon as I can, and I really want to introduce my son to the game as soon as he is able to handle it. I am finding it really really hard to think of a game that comes ready to play three ways for adults, has components included to play the game three ways with children, and is actually super fun. I can’t think of any. This game is truly in a class by itself.
I love that no matter how tactical you play or how strategic you want to make it, sometimes the dice love/hate you and it could make all the difference. As you can see in the scores, we all love it (with the exception of my cousin Tony who rated it a three because of the dice – WHICH is odd because it is his father that was the harness racing jockey of the family). This review would have been live a week ago, but immediately after playing last weekend Josh said he would like to bring it home to play with his family. His wife is from Kentucky, and they kinda like horses and horse racing there. Well, his wife and son also rated this game out of 6. His wife gave Fantasy Ranch a 15 and his son rated it a 16. As that completely throws off my rating scale I did not add them, but as you can see we at Purple Phoenix Games give this one a very boot-kickin’ 19 / 24. If only we hadn’t invited Tony over to destroy the scores… We highly recommend you check this winner out. Seriously, it’s great.
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/06/04/fantasy-ranch-review/
DISCLAIMER: The game comes with three modes of difficulty AND an included children’s game that also can be played on three modes of difficulty. For this review we are concentrating only on adult mode two. We felt mode one was too introductory, but we did not want to go all in right away on mode three. -T
As with most board games, you are trying to amass trophies (VP) and the winner at the end of five rounds is the rancher with the most trophies. On your turn you can take one Limited (standard) Action and as many Free Actions as you would like. Limited Actions include: buy a horse, buy a location on your ranch board, or farm your ranch for goods. Free Actions include: sell a horse, move horses to/from your home area to/from a different area on your ranch board, or trade goods at a 2:1 ratio. Once every player has taken their turn, you enter a show using the horses you have collected.
Buying a horse requires different amounts of food (in carrots) that you gain from different actions (farming your ranch, selling a horse). Luckily, spending food is a one-time action and you don’t have to feed your horses every turn. A great improvement over other “feed your villagers” games, in my opinion – yeah, I said it. Buying a location on your ranch board/playmat requires “tack,” which is symbolized by boot tokens (as seen below). You can always get more food and tack by farming your ranch, and you receive six goods of any combination, but that’s a Limited Action and prevents you from doing the other actions.
Selling a horse is easy, yet the separation anxiety is real, as you simply discard the horse for the amount of food it costs to purchase. Moving horses is easy too – your Home area of your ranch/playmat can only hold so many horses, so you will need to move horses of certain types to unlocked (purchased) matching areas on your ranch. This is important, as you cannot keep buying red horses or you will certainly run out of room for them, even if you unlock the red area on your ranch board. Plus unlocking sections of your ranch provides you with trophies at game end. The last free action is trading goods, which you do at a 2:1 ratio. So trade in two food for a tack or vice versa.
At shows you use horses for their specific specialty skills plus a die roll. Each horse has specialty in one area, and some skill in other areas. The number associated with a skill icon indicates the starting skill “strength” that you will add to your die roll. You roll all three dice of your color, take the highest result from the roll, and add the skill strength of the horse skill. That’s your score for the show. The highest number is awarded 1st place and the rewards printed, and so on and so forth for the other placing horses. This could result in more food or tack, or even your choice of horses for free from the sales barn.
On the very last turn of the game you will compete in three shows (instead of the normal two shows at the end of each turn) and can only use World Class horses, or buy your way into the show with food. The show process is the same, but it is the final push to earn as many trophies as possible before game end. And that’s it!
Components: This game is FULL of components. It’s a pretty stocked and heavy box, but still only the size of a Ticket to Ride box. The playmats, game boards, and cardboard chits are all of really great quality. The cards are great quality as well with photos of real existing horses (as well as the photos of real existing ranches on the giant ranch cards that are essentially beautiful player reference cards and resource holders). The best components of the game are the super cute little horeeples (oh no, that can’t possibly be correct). Horse-meeples. They come in different colors to match the areas on your ranch that you need to unlock and move them into so you don’t overcrowd your Home area. Even though my copy came with a green horse who lost his front legs, we know that he competes hard and lives his best life. The art is really really great and, though busy on the board at times, the game looks really good on the table. No qualms with the components on this one at all.
Here’s what I really like about this one. It’s a euro through and through, but it’s a euro that is actually exciting, with a unique theme, and one that I genuinely cannot wait to play again. I want to try mode three as soon as I can, and I really want to introduce my son to the game as soon as he is able to handle it. I am finding it really really hard to think of a game that comes ready to play three ways for adults, has components included to play the game three ways with children, and is actually super fun. I can’t think of any. This game is truly in a class by itself.
I love that no matter how tactical you play or how strategic you want to make it, sometimes the dice love/hate you and it could make all the difference. As you can see in the scores, we all love it (with the exception of my cousin Tony who rated it a three because of the dice – WHICH is odd because it is his father that was the harness racing jockey of the family). This review would have been live a week ago, but immediately after playing last weekend Josh said he would like to bring it home to play with his family. His wife is from Kentucky, and they kinda like horses and horse racing there. Well, his wife and son also rated this game out of 6. His wife gave Fantasy Ranch a 15 and his son rated it a 16. As that completely throws off my rating scale I did not add them, but as you can see we at Purple Phoenix Games give this one a very boot-kickin’ 19 / 24. If only we hadn’t invited Tony over to destroy the scores… We highly recommend you check this winner out. Seriously, it’s great.
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/06/04/fantasy-ranch-review/
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Dance of the Dead (2008) in Movies
Jun 18, 2019
Jimmy Dunn (Jared Kusnitz) never seems to take anything seriously. He likes to spend more time in detention than he does in class. So it’s no surprise that Lindsey (Greyson Chadwick), the girl Jimmy was going to take to prom, decides to not go with him after realizing that Jimmy has no ambition. To make matters worse, something weird is going on in the graveyard next to the nuclear power plant in town. The dead are walking and they’re headed to the prom. The town is now in the hands of the losers who couldn’t get dates to the prom. There goes the neighborhood and here comes the pain; that is something that is certainly meant in more ways than one.
This is the type of horror film you have the urge to turn off as soon as it starts. Written by Joe Ballarini (My Little Pony: The Movie) and directed by Gregg Bishop (the “Dante the Great” segment of V/H/S Viral), Dance of the Dead is a part of the eight films that made up Ghost House Underground; horror films from all over the world chosen by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert supposedly representing a “fresh” perspective of the horror genre. The problem is that most people would seek out one of these films and then never bother with the rest because why would you torture yourself any further?
The first 20 or so minutes of the film revolve around high school melodrama and the prom. This is supposedly where you get accustomed to the film’s humor, but it’s mostly nothing more than high school kids being obnoxious and unbearable. The graveyard scene is where things get even worse. Zombies start rising from beyond the grave and decomposing hands start bursting through headstones since that makes more sense than soil. Emerging from the ground simply wasn’t enough either; these zombies explode from their graves with smoke and a loud crash. Moments later during the same sequence, there are zombies jumping several feet into the air out of the ground, landing on their feet, and running after these kids. If it sounds cool in the slightest, then this description isn’t doing this dumpster fire justice.
The zombies are all over the place in Dance of the Dead. They start off as the zombies that run similar to the zombies in Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake. Later on in the film, they stumble around and are slow like George Romero’s zombies. Even later after that, the zombies are running again while some attempt to speak, say, “Brains!” and then get in a car and drive off. Someone had pointed out that the zombies in the film who are fresh out of the ground run while older ones move slower, which only makes this turd milkshake slightly less nutty. Dance of the Dead also can’t decide what zombie films to pay homage to either. Return of the Living Dead has a massive influence, but the film clearly pays tribute to Night of the Living Dead when the kids reach a house and decide to board up all the windows and take shelter. It seems like the one consistent aspect this film has is to be inconsistent.
Did you know zombies can be held at bay solely by the power of rocking out? Three stoners in a band (a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer) inadvertently discover that their music stops zombies in their tracks. A bit later in the film during the prom, the gymnasium is full of zombies. There’s music playing and it shows three zombies on stage playing musical instruments; a guitar, a bass, and a drum set. Fast forward a little more and the three stoners are back again playing their stoner rock and the zombies are back to being frozen during their performance. There’s no consistency when it comes to what they play or how it affects zombies.
“In extreme circumstances, the assailants can be stopped by removing the head or destroying the brain.” Do you remember this quote from Shaun of the Dead? Try to keep it in mind, especially the, “removing the head,” part. A guy gets his head torn off by a zombie and you’d think he’d be dead, but this actually turns his decapitated head into a zombie. He comes back later on; his headless corpse carrying his decapitated head around. It’s one thing to try and reinvent a genre, but when you have so many reinventions along with homage out to wazoo you’re basically throwing cow pies at a brick wall and seeing what sticks.
Zombies shouldn’t make out with each other. Vampires shouldn’t sparkle and Warm Bodies isn’t canon. Two students turn into zombies and still end up in a giant make out session after they’ve turned. The kiss turns awkward as they start chewing on each other mid-kiss. They start taking bites out of each other while they’re still sucking face. This is the scariest aspect of the film considering that maybe most of us don’t want our eyeballs chewed out of our skulls during something so intimate.
When the special effects aren’t being a complete eyesore from being so cheap and ugly, the gore in Dance of the Dead is decent. Blood splattering everywhere is pretty common throughout the film. The acting isn’t completely terrible either. It absolutely isn’t good by any means. Dance of the Dead is basically Degrassi with zombies and everything lame you’re expecting to tag along with that reference. Lucas Till (X-Men: First Class, MacGyver) has a brief cameo as one of the rockers in the film and he's probably the only cast member you'll recognize.
The jumbled mass of homage and redefining of zombie lore in Dance of the Dead throws a monkey wrench in calling the film stereotypical and cliché, but it certainly feels that way. It seems like a rejected, alternate, first draft of a film you’ve already seen rather than a film that attempts to stand on its own two legs. It may be fun for fans of campy horror films, but its originality is borderline offensive since Dance of the Dead seems to just combine everything you know about zombies or purposely does the opposite at an attempt at being a different chomp of undead horror. Unfortunately though, Dance of the Dead is too overwhelmingly absurd for its own good as its gore feels like the drunken antics of a washed up clown rather than a competent horror film.
Dance of the Dead is available to stream on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Google Play for $1.99, Vudu for $2.99, and iTunes for $5.99. The DVD is $7.72 on Amazon while the Blu-ray (which is Region 2 only) is $25.52 from a third party seller. The DVD is $7.49 in new condition and with free shipping on eBay or $4 with $2.99 shipping pre-owned. If you enjoy terrible things, the eight disc set of all the Ghost House Underground titles are available as a boxed set on Amazon for $179.74 and on eBay for $39.99 in brand new condition and with free shipping.
This is the type of horror film you have the urge to turn off as soon as it starts. Written by Joe Ballarini (My Little Pony: The Movie) and directed by Gregg Bishop (the “Dante the Great” segment of V/H/S Viral), Dance of the Dead is a part of the eight films that made up Ghost House Underground; horror films from all over the world chosen by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert supposedly representing a “fresh” perspective of the horror genre. The problem is that most people would seek out one of these films and then never bother with the rest because why would you torture yourself any further?
The first 20 or so minutes of the film revolve around high school melodrama and the prom. This is supposedly where you get accustomed to the film’s humor, but it’s mostly nothing more than high school kids being obnoxious and unbearable. The graveyard scene is where things get even worse. Zombies start rising from beyond the grave and decomposing hands start bursting through headstones since that makes more sense than soil. Emerging from the ground simply wasn’t enough either; these zombies explode from their graves with smoke and a loud crash. Moments later during the same sequence, there are zombies jumping several feet into the air out of the ground, landing on their feet, and running after these kids. If it sounds cool in the slightest, then this description isn’t doing this dumpster fire justice.
The zombies are all over the place in Dance of the Dead. They start off as the zombies that run similar to the zombies in Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake. Later on in the film, they stumble around and are slow like George Romero’s zombies. Even later after that, the zombies are running again while some attempt to speak, say, “Brains!” and then get in a car and drive off. Someone had pointed out that the zombies in the film who are fresh out of the ground run while older ones move slower, which only makes this turd milkshake slightly less nutty. Dance of the Dead also can’t decide what zombie films to pay homage to either. Return of the Living Dead has a massive influence, but the film clearly pays tribute to Night of the Living Dead when the kids reach a house and decide to board up all the windows and take shelter. It seems like the one consistent aspect this film has is to be inconsistent.
Did you know zombies can be held at bay solely by the power of rocking out? Three stoners in a band (a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer) inadvertently discover that their music stops zombies in their tracks. A bit later in the film during the prom, the gymnasium is full of zombies. There’s music playing and it shows three zombies on stage playing musical instruments; a guitar, a bass, and a drum set. Fast forward a little more and the three stoners are back again playing their stoner rock and the zombies are back to being frozen during their performance. There’s no consistency when it comes to what they play or how it affects zombies.
“In extreme circumstances, the assailants can be stopped by removing the head or destroying the brain.” Do you remember this quote from Shaun of the Dead? Try to keep it in mind, especially the, “removing the head,” part. A guy gets his head torn off by a zombie and you’d think he’d be dead, but this actually turns his decapitated head into a zombie. He comes back later on; his headless corpse carrying his decapitated head around. It’s one thing to try and reinvent a genre, but when you have so many reinventions along with homage out to wazoo you’re basically throwing cow pies at a brick wall and seeing what sticks.
Zombies shouldn’t make out with each other. Vampires shouldn’t sparkle and Warm Bodies isn’t canon. Two students turn into zombies and still end up in a giant make out session after they’ve turned. The kiss turns awkward as they start chewing on each other mid-kiss. They start taking bites out of each other while they’re still sucking face. This is the scariest aspect of the film considering that maybe most of us don’t want our eyeballs chewed out of our skulls during something so intimate.
When the special effects aren’t being a complete eyesore from being so cheap and ugly, the gore in Dance of the Dead is decent. Blood splattering everywhere is pretty common throughout the film. The acting isn’t completely terrible either. It absolutely isn’t good by any means. Dance of the Dead is basically Degrassi with zombies and everything lame you’re expecting to tag along with that reference. Lucas Till (X-Men: First Class, MacGyver) has a brief cameo as one of the rockers in the film and he's probably the only cast member you'll recognize.
The jumbled mass of homage and redefining of zombie lore in Dance of the Dead throws a monkey wrench in calling the film stereotypical and cliché, but it certainly feels that way. It seems like a rejected, alternate, first draft of a film you’ve already seen rather than a film that attempts to stand on its own two legs. It may be fun for fans of campy horror films, but its originality is borderline offensive since Dance of the Dead seems to just combine everything you know about zombies or purposely does the opposite at an attempt at being a different chomp of undead horror. Unfortunately though, Dance of the Dead is too overwhelmingly absurd for its own good as its gore feels like the drunken antics of a washed up clown rather than a competent horror film.
Dance of the Dead is available to stream on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Google Play for $1.99, Vudu for $2.99, and iTunes for $5.99. The DVD is $7.72 on Amazon while the Blu-ray (which is Region 2 only) is $25.52 from a third party seller. The DVD is $7.49 in new condition and with free shipping on eBay or $4 with $2.99 shipping pre-owned. If you enjoy terrible things, the eight disc set of all the Ghost House Underground titles are available as a boxed set on Amazon for $179.74 and on eBay for $39.99 in brand new condition and with free shipping.
The China Factor: Leveraging Emerging Business Strategies to Compete, Grow, and Win in the New Global Economy
Wiley, Amy Karam and Ken Wilcox
Book
The Innovation of Globalization proven strategies to succeed and out-compete emerging competition...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Gift of Tulips in Tabletop Games
Mar 2, 2021
Admittedly, I have never attended a tulip festival. Nor a Renaissance faire. Nor many other festivals that are niche and awesome. I would love to attend one in the future, but I cannot see myself traveling all the way to Amsterdam for the great Tulip Festival. Luckily, I no longer need to, as Gift of Tulips has arrived to my doorstep! But someone please invite me to a Ren Faire when we are able to commune once again.
Gift of Tulips is a game of choices. In it players are attendees at the festival attempting to gather the most beautiful bouquet of flowers for themselves as well as gifting some to friends. The winner of the game is the player who can best decide which tulips should be kept, which should be gifted, and which should be donated to the secret festival.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup refer to the rulebook to adjust the deck of tulip cards per number of players. Shuffle this deck and place aside for now. Each player receives a scoring card, reference card, favorite color player cube, and two tulip cards from the deck. Per number of players set the appropriate Festival Cards on the table from 1st Place through 4th Place. Draw two cards from the deck and place the highest-numbered card under the 1st Place Festival Card and the lower valued tulip card under 2nd Place. Each player then looks at their dealt cards and decides which they would like to keep to start their personal bouquet and which they wish to donate face-down to the secret festival stack. The game is now ready to begin!
On a turn the active player will draw one card from the deck and then perform one action. Next they will draw a second card and perform a different action (not the same action as the first). The available actions are keeping a tulip for the bouquet, gifting the tulip to a friend, or adding a card to either the festival or the secret festival stack.
Keeping a tulip for the player’s bouquet is simply that: place the card face-up in front of the player and score immediate points depending on the tulip type’s position in the festival. This is also important when scoring for gifting. As tulips are added to their types in the festival, their placement in the festival can change. So while a purple tulip, for example, begins the game as the highest numbered tulip in the 1st position, another tulip type, orange maybe, may possibly overtake the 1st position cards by having a larger total value in tulips. When this happens, the newly-increased-in-rank tulip stack pushes the next highest into the lower position. Each position’s festival card will contain icons that award points for when that type of tulip is kept, given, and when majority of cards is owned at endgame.
Similarly, when a player opts to gift a tulip for an action, they simply choose an opponent (well, friend) and give them the card. By referencing the tulip type’s current position in the festival the player may score immediate points.
Lastly the player may choose to donate their tulip to the festival (face-up under the Festival Cards or face-down into the secret festival stack). By donating to the festival proper they will add the card to the appropriate type stack and adjust the total value and position within the festival. Should the player wish to add the card to the secret festival stack, they simply add it face-down.
Once all cards have been drawn and played from the deck the game is over and final scoring may begin. Firstly the secret festival cards are to be shuffled and five from this deck will be added to the festival proper to fine-tune some value adjustments (so that is why players may want to add to the secret festival during play). Once the five cards have been added players will address each tulip type by placement in the festival. The tulip type under the 1st Place card will score majority points to the player with the majority of that type of card (not value, but number of flowers). Similarly, the player with the second most of that type will score the second majority and so on through 4th Place. The player with the most points at the end of the game has won and will now owe the other players a bouquet of real flowers. Well, maybe not that last part.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game so components may be different as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, this is a bunch of cards and some token markers (cubes in the prototype). The cards all feature incredible botanical artwork that is simply beautiful to behold. The card backs and Festival Cards all feature a lovely delftware pattern from the Netherlands. The artwork on this game is amazing and really colorful, like so many from Weird Giraffe Games.
But do I enjoy the gameplay? Absolutely. It reminds my wife and me of a great little game called Biblios where players are choosing where to allocate cards, and are not allowed to simply gobble them for themselves. Being able to adjust the market, if you will, is also a mechanic that I truly enjoy. A static market is fine, but those kinds of games are a little easier to abuse. Constantly shifting markets is where it’s at.
Being able to gift your opponents higher cards for those immediate points is new and clever, but you have to always be keeping track of the number of cards given per type. Obviously shuffling all your blue tulips to the same person may result in that person holding majority at endgame. But then again, there are ways to adjust the market to counter that. It is just so fun to think about and play.
I also am in love with the art. I mentioned this in my components review but I simply love the way this game looks. Art and theme go a long way with me, and this one certainly has both in spades.
So if you are a fan of beautiful games with a quick teach and light to medium gameplay, I urge you to check this out. The art and theme are strong, the gameplay is super solid and fun, and you feel great donating so many lovely flowers at the end of the game. If you are looking for that gorgeous game to complete your collection, or you need a game to fill that empty Netherlands slot in your collection, please consider backing Gift of Tulips. When you have a game that uses both orange and purple as main colors you KNOW it’s going to be great!
Gift of Tulips is a game of choices. In it players are attendees at the festival attempting to gather the most beautiful bouquet of flowers for themselves as well as gifting some to friends. The winner of the game is the player who can best decide which tulips should be kept, which should be gifted, and which should be donated to the secret festival.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup refer to the rulebook to adjust the deck of tulip cards per number of players. Shuffle this deck and place aside for now. Each player receives a scoring card, reference card, favorite color player cube, and two tulip cards from the deck. Per number of players set the appropriate Festival Cards on the table from 1st Place through 4th Place. Draw two cards from the deck and place the highest-numbered card under the 1st Place Festival Card and the lower valued tulip card under 2nd Place. Each player then looks at their dealt cards and decides which they would like to keep to start their personal bouquet and which they wish to donate face-down to the secret festival stack. The game is now ready to begin!
On a turn the active player will draw one card from the deck and then perform one action. Next they will draw a second card and perform a different action (not the same action as the first). The available actions are keeping a tulip for the bouquet, gifting the tulip to a friend, or adding a card to either the festival or the secret festival stack.
Keeping a tulip for the player’s bouquet is simply that: place the card face-up in front of the player and score immediate points depending on the tulip type’s position in the festival. This is also important when scoring for gifting. As tulips are added to their types in the festival, their placement in the festival can change. So while a purple tulip, for example, begins the game as the highest numbered tulip in the 1st position, another tulip type, orange maybe, may possibly overtake the 1st position cards by having a larger total value in tulips. When this happens, the newly-increased-in-rank tulip stack pushes the next highest into the lower position. Each position’s festival card will contain icons that award points for when that type of tulip is kept, given, and when majority of cards is owned at endgame.
Similarly, when a player opts to gift a tulip for an action, they simply choose an opponent (well, friend) and give them the card. By referencing the tulip type’s current position in the festival the player may score immediate points.
Lastly the player may choose to donate their tulip to the festival (face-up under the Festival Cards or face-down into the secret festival stack). By donating to the festival proper they will add the card to the appropriate type stack and adjust the total value and position within the festival. Should the player wish to add the card to the secret festival stack, they simply add it face-down.
Once all cards have been drawn and played from the deck the game is over and final scoring may begin. Firstly the secret festival cards are to be shuffled and five from this deck will be added to the festival proper to fine-tune some value adjustments (so that is why players may want to add to the secret festival during play). Once the five cards have been added players will address each tulip type by placement in the festival. The tulip type under the 1st Place card will score majority points to the player with the majority of that type of card (not value, but number of flowers). Similarly, the player with the second most of that type will score the second majority and so on through 4th Place. The player with the most points at the end of the game has won and will now owe the other players a bouquet of real flowers. Well, maybe not that last part.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game so components may be different as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, this is a bunch of cards and some token markers (cubes in the prototype). The cards all feature incredible botanical artwork that is simply beautiful to behold. The card backs and Festival Cards all feature a lovely delftware pattern from the Netherlands. The artwork on this game is amazing and really colorful, like so many from Weird Giraffe Games.
But do I enjoy the gameplay? Absolutely. It reminds my wife and me of a great little game called Biblios where players are choosing where to allocate cards, and are not allowed to simply gobble them for themselves. Being able to adjust the market, if you will, is also a mechanic that I truly enjoy. A static market is fine, but those kinds of games are a little easier to abuse. Constantly shifting markets is where it’s at.
Being able to gift your opponents higher cards for those immediate points is new and clever, but you have to always be keeping track of the number of cards given per type. Obviously shuffling all your blue tulips to the same person may result in that person holding majority at endgame. But then again, there are ways to adjust the market to counter that. It is just so fun to think about and play.
I also am in love with the art. I mentioned this in my components review but I simply love the way this game looks. Art and theme go a long way with me, and this one certainly has both in spades.
So if you are a fan of beautiful games with a quick teach and light to medium gameplay, I urge you to check this out. The art and theme are strong, the gameplay is super solid and fun, and you feel great donating so many lovely flowers at the end of the game. If you are looking for that gorgeous game to complete your collection, or you need a game to fill that empty Netherlands slot in your collection, please consider backing Gift of Tulips. When you have a game that uses both orange and purple as main colors you KNOW it’s going to be great!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Millennial Manatees in Tabletop Games
Mar 11, 2021
I am totes Gen X. Tail end, mind you, but still not a Millennial. That said, I can still appreciate things I have missed out on due to age gaps and generational differences. I want to make so many jokes right now but I genuinely do not want to offend anyone, let alone an entire generation of people. So I won’t. Enjoy the review.
Millennial Manatees is a worker-placement(ish) card(ish) game for one to four players. In it players are assuming roles of manatees tasked with paying off their identical student loan debt: 20 coins. The first player to make wise venture investments and create the best ROI will be crowned the winner! Please keep reading. This game is not at all a powerhouse economic simulation. It’s a fun game with manatees, avocado toast, and IT COMES IN A FANNY PACK.
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 fanny pack. 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. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online directly from the publisher (or Amazon if you wish) or from your FLGS. -T
To setup carefully empty the contents of the fanny pack game box(?) and unfold the game board. Upon it will be placed separated (but shuffled) face-up decks for Basic, Salty, and Big Mood venture cards. Next to these shuffle the Volunteer cards and place the deck face-down. Shuffle the remaining Manatee cards and place somewhere around the game board. Each player chooses a color of manatee and takes all the components matching its shirt color. Unlike the photo below place all “fanatee pack” tokens with the 7 coins side face-up and each player will start the game with three coins. The players will set their debt trackers at the starting position of the debt track, and the first player receives the avocado toast token. Yes, the big one you see below.
Each round begins with the avocado toast holder and continues around the table. The first player will place their manateeple (ooh I like that one) on any card or printed space on the game board. Options include: Basic, Salty, or Big Mood venture cards, Volunteer cards, Boomer Handout board space, Take the Toast board space, and Pay Back Student Debt board space. Once the current toast holder has placed their manateeple the next player may place on any other non-occupied space or card available. Note: the Pay Back Student Debt space is always available for any number of manateeples.
For the cost in coins printed on the cards, the Basic, Salty, and Big Mood venture cards can be purchased and placed in the player’s tableau of cards. This represents the player investing in certain business ventures in the hopes of earning more coins in the long run. Once a player has a venture card in front of them the card will specify how it will be activated and the benefit therein. Many cards allow the player to collect coins, but sometimes cards allow for stealing of other players’ coins or other nefarious doings.
The volunteer cards are drawn face-down and once read by the drawing player are kept face-down in their tableau until the proper game phase activates it or the player plays it to the discard pile.
Once a player decides they want to pay down their debt they will visit the Pay Back Student Debt space on the board. When they do this they will immediately use ALL coins they have earned and apply it directly to their debt by moving their tracker down the line by the amount paid.
By placing the manateeple on the Take the Toast space, that player simply takes the toast token and becomes the first player of the next round. By placing the manateeple on the Boomer Handout space the player will gain one coin during the Manatee phase.
The Manatee phase consists of the first player flipping the top card of the Manatee deck. Most of the cards in this deck are art depictions of manatees in different attire and hairstyles. When a Manatee card is flipped during this phase, all players reference any venture cards in their tableau to see if the manatee will trigger their card. For example, a manatee may be dressed in an orange shirt, wearing sunglasses, and holding a yoga mat. For those players whose venture cards are triggered by any of these items, their cards will bestow their benefits. There are two other types of cards in this deck as well, but I will let you experience these when you play.
Turns continue in this fashion of placing manateeples in unique spaces or cards, resolving any immediate effects, playing volunteer cards, flipping and resolving Manatee cards, and paying down student debt until one player has paid off the entire sum and wins the game! Then the hardest part of the game will commence: attempting to put all the components back in the fanny pack so that they are not damaged. Good luck.
Components. This game has some pretty spectacular components coupled with some really great art. Obviously, having a game packaged in a fanny pack is just delightful, even though I typically despise non-boxed games. Secondly, all the wooden manateeples and avocado toast tokens are just amazing to behold and handle. The cards are good quality and the game features incredible art throughout. I am a big fan of this art style – it is very cartoony and very cool. This theme is just perfection and the game that lies beneath the theme is very surprising.
I say the game beneath the great art and theme is surprising because I was completely not expecting to like this one as much as I do. At its heart it is a very light worker-placement game with hints of take that and based on using currency as victory points. I like all of those mechanics quite a bit, so combining these with aforementioned art and theme works for me on another level.
I feel this game is something I can bring out with almost any crowd of adults and have a smashing great time. There are so many little jokes packed into this little game that make me giggle every time I see them. And come on, a first player token that is avocado toast? It’s too good! I love all the colors assaulting my eyes, and I love all the hate-placement that happens, and I didn’t know that I love manatees as much as I now do.
Look, I am usually pretty positive about the games I play. But I also play a lot of stinkers. This one, thankfully, delivers a super fun game experience in an hour or less, even though the theme is absolutely ridiculous. But I also find that so charming. If you are looking for that special WOW game that is relatively light but incredibly satisfying to play, I strongly recommend checking out Millennial Manatees. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one 10 / 12 soy super americanos (is that a thing?). Display the pink fanny pack with pride next to all your super-serious games and watch as your visitors flock to it and ask what it is. Then play it with them and watch them fall in love as we did. I am very happy to now have this one in my collection.
Millennial Manatees is a worker-placement(ish) card(ish) game for one to four players. In it players are assuming roles of manatees tasked with paying off their identical student loan debt: 20 coins. The first player to make wise venture investments and create the best ROI will be crowned the winner! Please keep reading. This game is not at all a powerhouse economic simulation. It’s a fun game with manatees, avocado toast, and IT COMES IN A FANNY PACK.
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 fanny pack. 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. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online directly from the publisher (or Amazon if you wish) or from your FLGS. -T
To setup carefully empty the contents of the fanny pack game box(?) and unfold the game board. Upon it will be placed separated (but shuffled) face-up decks for Basic, Salty, and Big Mood venture cards. Next to these shuffle the Volunteer cards and place the deck face-down. Shuffle the remaining Manatee cards and place somewhere around the game board. Each player chooses a color of manatee and takes all the components matching its shirt color. Unlike the photo below place all “fanatee pack” tokens with the 7 coins side face-up and each player will start the game with three coins. The players will set their debt trackers at the starting position of the debt track, and the first player receives the avocado toast token. Yes, the big one you see below.
Each round begins with the avocado toast holder and continues around the table. The first player will place their manateeple (ooh I like that one) on any card or printed space on the game board. Options include: Basic, Salty, or Big Mood venture cards, Volunteer cards, Boomer Handout board space, Take the Toast board space, and Pay Back Student Debt board space. Once the current toast holder has placed their manateeple the next player may place on any other non-occupied space or card available. Note: the Pay Back Student Debt space is always available for any number of manateeples.
For the cost in coins printed on the cards, the Basic, Salty, and Big Mood venture cards can be purchased and placed in the player’s tableau of cards. This represents the player investing in certain business ventures in the hopes of earning more coins in the long run. Once a player has a venture card in front of them the card will specify how it will be activated and the benefit therein. Many cards allow the player to collect coins, but sometimes cards allow for stealing of other players’ coins or other nefarious doings.
The volunteer cards are drawn face-down and once read by the drawing player are kept face-down in their tableau until the proper game phase activates it or the player plays it to the discard pile.
Once a player decides they want to pay down their debt they will visit the Pay Back Student Debt space on the board. When they do this they will immediately use ALL coins they have earned and apply it directly to their debt by moving their tracker down the line by the amount paid.
By placing the manateeple on the Take the Toast space, that player simply takes the toast token and becomes the first player of the next round. By placing the manateeple on the Boomer Handout space the player will gain one coin during the Manatee phase.
The Manatee phase consists of the first player flipping the top card of the Manatee deck. Most of the cards in this deck are art depictions of manatees in different attire and hairstyles. When a Manatee card is flipped during this phase, all players reference any venture cards in their tableau to see if the manatee will trigger their card. For example, a manatee may be dressed in an orange shirt, wearing sunglasses, and holding a yoga mat. For those players whose venture cards are triggered by any of these items, their cards will bestow their benefits. There are two other types of cards in this deck as well, but I will let you experience these when you play.
Turns continue in this fashion of placing manateeples in unique spaces or cards, resolving any immediate effects, playing volunteer cards, flipping and resolving Manatee cards, and paying down student debt until one player has paid off the entire sum and wins the game! Then the hardest part of the game will commence: attempting to put all the components back in the fanny pack so that they are not damaged. Good luck.
Components. This game has some pretty spectacular components coupled with some really great art. Obviously, having a game packaged in a fanny pack is just delightful, even though I typically despise non-boxed games. Secondly, all the wooden manateeples and avocado toast tokens are just amazing to behold and handle. The cards are good quality and the game features incredible art throughout. I am a big fan of this art style – it is very cartoony and very cool. This theme is just perfection and the game that lies beneath the theme is very surprising.
I say the game beneath the great art and theme is surprising because I was completely not expecting to like this one as much as I do. At its heart it is a very light worker-placement game with hints of take that and based on using currency as victory points. I like all of those mechanics quite a bit, so combining these with aforementioned art and theme works for me on another level.
I feel this game is something I can bring out with almost any crowd of adults and have a smashing great time. There are so many little jokes packed into this little game that make me giggle every time I see them. And come on, a first player token that is avocado toast? It’s too good! I love all the colors assaulting my eyes, and I love all the hate-placement that happens, and I didn’t know that I love manatees as much as I now do.
Look, I am usually pretty positive about the games I play. But I also play a lot of stinkers. This one, thankfully, delivers a super fun game experience in an hour or less, even though the theme is absolutely ridiculous. But I also find that so charming. If you are looking for that special WOW game that is relatively light but incredibly satisfying to play, I strongly recommend checking out Millennial Manatees. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one 10 / 12 soy super americanos (is that a thing?). Display the pink fanny pack with pride next to all your super-serious games and watch as your visitors flock to it and ask what it is. Then play it with them and watch them fall in love as we did. I am very happy to now have this one in my collection.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated The Grimm Masquerade in Tabletop Games
Apr 8, 2021
Have you ever been to a proper masquerade? I have not, though I would enjoy it, I think. I would enjoy it even more if I were competing against the other attendees to figure out who is who (and avoid having to do those Victorian square dances). But what if I were actually fairytale folk cavorting around with others trying to gain artifacts that speak to me while refusing any artifacts that may hurt me. Well now you understand my plight and the premise of this game.
The Grimm Masquerade is a hidden role competitive bluffing game for two to five players. In it player take on the roles of well-known fairytale folk attending a magical masquerade thrown by The Beast (I mean, he has a name, right? Not just “The Beast…”). Attendees are tasked with trying to unmask other attendees while earning magical roses in the process. The winner is the player who can earn the most roses at the end of three rounds of bluffing and guessing, unless one player is able to earn 10 roses before the end.
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. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. Also, this review concentrates on the two-player variant for the game as I played it mostly with my wife. -T
To setup, place the main board showing all the fairytale folk in the middle of the table. Each player will receive two (one if playing multi-player rules) Character cards, all Evidence Markers of their chosen color, and Reference cards. Around the board is placed the remaining Character cards, the Artifact deck, the stack of Broken Mirror tokens, the pile of roses, and the Action Board with two random Action cards revealed on either side. For the two-player game six Artifact cards are revealed in a line and each player will choose one Artifact for each of their two characters they are playing. The unchosen Artifacts will form the discard pile near the Artifact draw pile. Whomever most recently wore a costume will be the lead player and the game may begin!
The game is played in rounds, with each turn of a round consisting of two steps. First, the active player draws an Artifact card and decides to keep it in their face-up tableau of Artifacts for all to see or give the Artifact to another player. Then the active player will draw a second card and either keep or give, whichever is opposite of their first choice. For example, should the first card drawn be kept, the next card would need to be given away. Each character has one Boon suit (which they love), and one Bane suit (which they despise). If at any time a character receives a card to create a matching pair in their tableau they must indicate whether that Artifact is in fact their Bane suit or not. They do this by placing one of their Evidence Markers on the character who owns that suit’s Bane value. However, if the player is actually the character who has that suit as their Bane, they have been unmasked and will play their other character in hopes of winning with them.
Should a player receive a card that would cause a set of three matching suit cards, they must indicate that they have either won the round or that they are not the character that matches that suit’s Boon value. For example, should a player receive their third Treats card they must declare they have won the round (if they happen to be Red Riding Hood), or that they are not indeed Red Riding Hood by placing an Evidence Marker on Red Riding Hood.
After this card play at the beginning of their turn the active player may choose to discard a matching pair of Artifact cards in order to activate an Action available (optional step). The Actions available are on the revealed Action cards on either side of the Action Board (which also shows an always-available Action of Point the Finger). So by discarding a pair of Crowns, for example, a player could utilize the Action card Eavesdrop in order to force the other player(s) to place Evidence Markers on characters they are NOT. This gives the active player more insight into who the other player(s) may actually BE.
Once cards have been drawn and the optional Actions taken, play passes to the next player. Players win the round by collecting three matching Boon Artifact cards or by unmasking all other characters in play. Whichever player wins the round also takes the Rose Trophy depending on which of the three rounds was just completed (value 1 for the first round, 3 for the second, and 5 for the third). At the end of the third round players count up their total roses (unless one player has earned 10 or more at the end of a previous round) and whomever has collected the most is the winner of The Grimm Masquerade!
Components. I have to say, every game I have played by Druid City Games has had amazing components, and this one is certainly no different. All the cardboard pieces, the cards, and the wooden discs are all excellent quality. But what I want to concentrate on here is the perfect choice to employ Mr. Cuddington for the art. Every time I see Mr. Cuddington on the credits for a game I know I am going to love looking at it on the table. They just have amazing style and everything is so detailed and perfectly matched for the setting. This FEELS like a Grimm’s Fairy Tales game for sure, and I love it.
It is definitely no secret that I love this one. I enjoy hidden role games to begin with (The Resistance: Avalon also being one of my favorites), and this setting feels excellently matched to the genre and the execution is wonderful. I really have a great time sussing out who is who and giving those final Artifacts in order to unmask players that are perceived to be leading is so fulfilling. Being able to spend matching cards in order to use Actions is also great design, especially when you can bluff by discarding your Boon cards to throw opponents off your trail. So much deceit in a fun package.
If you have few hidden role games and you want something with a light theme and relatively quick playtime, please do yourself a favor and check out The Grimm Masquerade. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a playful 15 / 18. If you are like us and enjoy games where you control some information and can guess other players’ identities, but also like games where you can still play on even when you have been found out, this one is for you. If only this could support even more players, I could see it unseating Avalon for me. As it is, I may still end up using this one more often than Avalon unless I have a larger group of people at the table. That is a big statement from me as Avalon is a proven winner and has been a staple of my collection for years. But The Grimm Masquerade is that good. Play it and let me know if you agree.
The Grimm Masquerade is a hidden role competitive bluffing game for two to five players. In it player take on the roles of well-known fairytale folk attending a magical masquerade thrown by The Beast (I mean, he has a name, right? Not just “The Beast…”). Attendees are tasked with trying to unmask other attendees while earning magical roses in the process. The winner is the player who can earn the most roses at the end of three rounds of bluffing and guessing, unless one player is able to earn 10 roses before the end.
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. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. Also, this review concentrates on the two-player variant for the game as I played it mostly with my wife. -T
To setup, place the main board showing all the fairytale folk in the middle of the table. Each player will receive two (one if playing multi-player rules) Character cards, all Evidence Markers of their chosen color, and Reference cards. Around the board is placed the remaining Character cards, the Artifact deck, the stack of Broken Mirror tokens, the pile of roses, and the Action Board with two random Action cards revealed on either side. For the two-player game six Artifact cards are revealed in a line and each player will choose one Artifact for each of their two characters they are playing. The unchosen Artifacts will form the discard pile near the Artifact draw pile. Whomever most recently wore a costume will be the lead player and the game may begin!
The game is played in rounds, with each turn of a round consisting of two steps. First, the active player draws an Artifact card and decides to keep it in their face-up tableau of Artifacts for all to see or give the Artifact to another player. Then the active player will draw a second card and either keep or give, whichever is opposite of their first choice. For example, should the first card drawn be kept, the next card would need to be given away. Each character has one Boon suit (which they love), and one Bane suit (which they despise). If at any time a character receives a card to create a matching pair in their tableau they must indicate whether that Artifact is in fact their Bane suit or not. They do this by placing one of their Evidence Markers on the character who owns that suit’s Bane value. However, if the player is actually the character who has that suit as their Bane, they have been unmasked and will play their other character in hopes of winning with them.
Should a player receive a card that would cause a set of three matching suit cards, they must indicate that they have either won the round or that they are not the character that matches that suit’s Boon value. For example, should a player receive their third Treats card they must declare they have won the round (if they happen to be Red Riding Hood), or that they are not indeed Red Riding Hood by placing an Evidence Marker on Red Riding Hood.
After this card play at the beginning of their turn the active player may choose to discard a matching pair of Artifact cards in order to activate an Action available (optional step). The Actions available are on the revealed Action cards on either side of the Action Board (which also shows an always-available Action of Point the Finger). So by discarding a pair of Crowns, for example, a player could utilize the Action card Eavesdrop in order to force the other player(s) to place Evidence Markers on characters they are NOT. This gives the active player more insight into who the other player(s) may actually BE.
Once cards have been drawn and the optional Actions taken, play passes to the next player. Players win the round by collecting three matching Boon Artifact cards or by unmasking all other characters in play. Whichever player wins the round also takes the Rose Trophy depending on which of the three rounds was just completed (value 1 for the first round, 3 for the second, and 5 for the third). At the end of the third round players count up their total roses (unless one player has earned 10 or more at the end of a previous round) and whomever has collected the most is the winner of The Grimm Masquerade!
Components. I have to say, every game I have played by Druid City Games has had amazing components, and this one is certainly no different. All the cardboard pieces, the cards, and the wooden discs are all excellent quality. But what I want to concentrate on here is the perfect choice to employ Mr. Cuddington for the art. Every time I see Mr. Cuddington on the credits for a game I know I am going to love looking at it on the table. They just have amazing style and everything is so detailed and perfectly matched for the setting. This FEELS like a Grimm’s Fairy Tales game for sure, and I love it.
It is definitely no secret that I love this one. I enjoy hidden role games to begin with (The Resistance: Avalon also being one of my favorites), and this setting feels excellently matched to the genre and the execution is wonderful. I really have a great time sussing out who is who and giving those final Artifacts in order to unmask players that are perceived to be leading is so fulfilling. Being able to spend matching cards in order to use Actions is also great design, especially when you can bluff by discarding your Boon cards to throw opponents off your trail. So much deceit in a fun package.
If you have few hidden role games and you want something with a light theme and relatively quick playtime, please do yourself a favor and check out The Grimm Masquerade. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a playful 15 / 18. If you are like us and enjoy games where you control some information and can guess other players’ identities, but also like games where you can still play on even when you have been found out, this one is for you. If only this could support even more players, I could see it unseating Avalon for me. As it is, I may still end up using this one more often than Avalon unless I have a larger group of people at the table. That is a big statement from me as Avalon is a proven winner and has been a staple of my collection for years. But The Grimm Masquerade is that good. Play it and let me know if you agree.
