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    Faityum

    Faityum

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Tabletop Game

    The oasis-like basin Faiyum was artificially built 3,900 years ago by enlarging the Bahr Yussef...

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Lottie disney bookworm (1056 KP) rated Cold Hearted in Books

Aug 30, 2021  
Cold Hearted
Cold Hearted
Serena Valentino | 2021
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
When you’re eight books into a series such as the Villain Tales by Serena Valentino you would think that I wouldn’t be smug anymore! You would think that I wouldn’t go into the book saying “I won’t end up feeling sorry for this villain”.

You would also think that I know I am always wrong!

Lady Tremaine is one of the easiest villains to hate in the Disney universe: she worked Cinderella to the bone, denied her a decent party and then locked her in the attic for good measure! These are hardly the actions of some misunderstood soul.

Until Serena Valentino comes along of course! Valentino has a truly unique way of humanising these characters that we love to hate and, with the help of the Odd Sisters, proves to us time and time again that there is more to our fairytales than meets the eye.

The previous book in the villain tales, Evil Thing, took the reader outside of the Many Kingdoms for the first time. Valentino takes advantage of this, neatly using Cold Hearted to join together Lady Tremaine’s life in London with both the Fairylands and the Many Kingdoms. This timeline means that the readers meet Lady Tremaine before her role as stepmother: we learn of her worries over indulging her two daughters and her unwillingness to move on after her husband’s death.

Cold Hearted skips time periods slightly so the reader is actually experiencing Nanny and the Fairy Godmother reading Lady Tremaine’s story. Don't worry: this doesn't mean we are deprived of our favourite creepy sisters, although this book may have you looking at the Odd Sisters in an entirely new light.

The 8th villain tale continues Valentino’s reign of brilliant, alternative views of our villains. Lady Tremaine was to be the heroine of her own fairytale; all she wanted was her own happily ever after. Where did it go so wrong?
  
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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated The Big Book of Madness in Tabletop Games

Jun 12, 2019  
The Big Book of Madness
The Big Book of Madness
2015 | Card Game, Fantasy
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Tabletop Game Rating
Man, this game looks great! The components are really cool! The premise is excellent, and something that is somewhat underused! This is going to be amazing! We get to be Harry Potter and his friends tracking down baddies and using spells to squish them back in their book!

Except, it totally misses the mark for me. -100 points to Grifflepuffinclaw.

So here you are minding your own business at magic college, when you happen past The Big Book of Madness and its pages fly open, releasing monsters onto the campus. Being the heroes that you are training to become, you leap into action to use your spells to reign them back into the book and save the day… hopefully before lunch in the caf. (Purists, I know that’s not exactly the premise, take a cold shower.)

This game uses some clever mechanics, like a shared pool of spell cards that can be used on anyone’s turn to help them with their plans, deck building (which is my favorite mechanic), variable player powers, and a super-sweet book that is assembled while setting up. The shared pool is the best part of this game. You can send cards from your hand right into the shared pool of cards that are available to everyone on their turn, should they need them to defeat curses.

We are no strangers to co-op games, so this was an easy win in my head. But, for some unfathomable reason, my playmates refused to put cards into the shared pool. Y U NO HLAP MEH, FREN?? I am almost positive that the shared pool is the key to victory, but after several plays of this game, I don’t think any of us really want to try anymore. That being said, I have since gotten rid of this game and am excited to see what will fill its shoes as the next great-looking co-op with a shared resource pool. Sorry IELLO, I typically love your products.

Purple Phoenix Games gives The Big Book of Madness a big ol score of 8 / 12.

https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2018/12/10/the-big-book-of-madness-review/