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Shadows and Reflections by Marc Almond
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‘Shadows And Reflections’ features sumptuous arrangements of iconic torch songs and 60’s...
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Shelle Perry (66 KP) rated Falling into Magic (Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic #1) in Books
Sep 1, 2021
It is truly a magical place.
Welcome to Destiny Falls. It is truly a magical place. Hayden Caldwell has had a good life in Seattle with her grandmothers, her best friend (and business partner) Luna, and her pampered cat, Sassy. A fall into a construction hole, and a flash of light, has her awakening in an alternate world with her long-lost older brother, in fact, she finds a whole family she never knew she had. She discovers she is part of a family that has been chosen to care for the town of Destiny Falls. However, her trip back home wasn’t an accident, and danger is very close to her and her newfound family.
This book is disguised as a cozy mystery, really though, it is just a fun time romp. Imagine a world where the Iphones and magic coexist in a seamless way. Where your pet has a telepathic connection with you and your home invites you to stay by creating a room for you to live in. The reader is as enchanted as Hayden learning alongside her how this world she has been dropped into works. The clues to the mystery are woven terrifically into the larger story, which is inexorably leading to the big question… What really did happen to Hayden’s mother?
One reviewer describes the book as “Harry Potter collides with the Hallmark channel and Law and Order”, and I can’t think of a more apt interpretation. The author’s descriptions of the town and the surrounding area, are wonderful examples. Classic Americana with a supernatural twinge. A library that behaves as if it wants to outdo HP’s undetectable extension charm, hiking trails that take longer on the return trip, a ferry that just might have you disembark at the end of your trip right where you started, and if you are really very lucky you might actually be allowed to see the second waterfall at Twin Falls Lake.
This is a place that is as fascinating as the story and can really be considered a character in itself, especially as it goes out of its way to remain unnoticed by the world at large. The characters in this book, by the way, are also both very fantastical, exactly like one would expect to find in this type of world, and yet they are also exactly the kind of folks you would find living on Main St. in Anytown USA. Hayden’s Grandmother (capital G) scares me just a little, but I adore her younger siblings. With Hayden’s interest in not one, but two local bachelors (both of whom seem quite dreamy to me) it is obvious that there is a place in this remarkable world for Hayden’s future and you can be sure I will be stopping by later books to see how it goes.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This book is disguised as a cozy mystery, really though, it is just a fun time romp. Imagine a world where the Iphones and magic coexist in a seamless way. Where your pet has a telepathic connection with you and your home invites you to stay by creating a room for you to live in. The reader is as enchanted as Hayden learning alongside her how this world she has been dropped into works. The clues to the mystery are woven terrifically into the larger story, which is inexorably leading to the big question… What really did happen to Hayden’s mother?
One reviewer describes the book as “Harry Potter collides with the Hallmark channel and Law and Order”, and I can’t think of a more apt interpretation. The author’s descriptions of the town and the surrounding area, are wonderful examples. Classic Americana with a supernatural twinge. A library that behaves as if it wants to outdo HP’s undetectable extension charm, hiking trails that take longer on the return trip, a ferry that just might have you disembark at the end of your trip right where you started, and if you are really very lucky you might actually be allowed to see the second waterfall at Twin Falls Lake.
This is a place that is as fascinating as the story and can really be considered a character in itself, especially as it goes out of its way to remain unnoticed by the world at large. The characters in this book, by the way, are also both very fantastical, exactly like one would expect to find in this type of world, and yet they are also exactly the kind of folks you would find living on Main St. in Anytown USA. Hayden’s Grandmother (capital G) scares me just a little, but I adore her younger siblings. With Hayden’s interest in not one, but two local bachelors (both of whom seem quite dreamy to me) it is obvious that there is a place in this remarkable world for Hayden’s future and you can be sure I will be stopping by later books to see how it goes.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1 - Director's Cut in Books
Sep 16, 2021
Lone Turtle On A Quest For Revenge
New York City has become a dark and depressing place as the Foot Clan has taken over quadrants of the city, with "synthetic ninja" or "synja's". It's ruled by totalitarianism and meticulous fascism at the hands of Oroku Hiroto, grandson of the Shredder. The last of the Ninja Turtles works hard to end Hiroto's evil reign. Alone and outnumbered he seeks to avenge his dead brothers, a seemingly hopeless mission and kill Hiroto, whom he blames for their murders.
So first off I think this comic is pretty bad ass. I had heard about it and decided to check it out and I totally liked the whole premise for it and how the story plays out in this first issue. The artwork was nice and there was plenty of action but what hooked me was the whole quest for revenge. I think I've said it before but if you don't know this about me, I'm a sucker for a good revenge story. I don't know what it is about being wronged or having something so bad happen to the hero/protagonist in stories but I immediately put myself in their place and think about what I would do if I was them. Plus it's always satisfying to see the bad guy get his "just desserts". I have to say that I'm a huge TMNT fan but I've actually never really read any of the comic stuff. I remember reading a crossover or team up of them with Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon but that's about the only thing I've ever seen or checked out before. So I might be a little biased but the story is also really compelling.
I like the way it starts off with the lone ninja turtle making his way into the city, sneaking into the Foot controlled zone by climbing over the wall. How they complain about the water being ruined from global warming and years of pollution as he has to swim through it. I like how people are talking to him the whole time and it's a shock to find out who they are. I really like the artwork, like the character designs and how they make it a mystery as to which Ninja Turtle is the one who survived. They even make him use various weapons instead of their signature one to keep the mystery going throughout the issue. I liked the way the city looked, it had modern looking places and but then futuristic parts with flying cars and stuff too. There's plenty of action as they take on plenty of "synja's" as well as elite ninja and some "Stockman tech", mainly some flying "mousers". Don't want to give away too much since this is my first comic book review and haven't figured out a format for it yet and if I'm going to do non-spoiler/spoiler style or not but I think this is where I'll leave it for now.
So first off I think this comic is pretty bad ass. I had heard about it and decided to check it out and I totally liked the whole premise for it and how the story plays out in this first issue. The artwork was nice and there was plenty of action but what hooked me was the whole quest for revenge. I think I've said it before but if you don't know this about me, I'm a sucker for a good revenge story. I don't know what it is about being wronged or having something so bad happen to the hero/protagonist in stories but I immediately put myself in their place and think about what I would do if I was them. Plus it's always satisfying to see the bad guy get his "just desserts". I have to say that I'm a huge TMNT fan but I've actually never really read any of the comic stuff. I remember reading a crossover or team up of them with Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon but that's about the only thing I've ever seen or checked out before. So I might be a little biased but the story is also really compelling.
I like the way it starts off with the lone ninja turtle making his way into the city, sneaking into the Foot controlled zone by climbing over the wall. How they complain about the water being ruined from global warming and years of pollution as he has to swim through it. I like how people are talking to him the whole time and it's a shock to find out who they are. I really like the artwork, like the character designs and how they make it a mystery as to which Ninja Turtle is the one who survived. They even make him use various weapons instead of their signature one to keep the mystery going throughout the issue. I liked the way the city looked, it had modern looking places and but then futuristic parts with flying cars and stuff too. There's plenty of action as they take on plenty of "synja's" as well as elite ninja and some "Stockman tech", mainly some flying "mousers". Don't want to give away too much since this is my first comic book review and haven't figured out a format for it yet and if I'm going to do non-spoiler/spoiler style or not but I think this is where I'll leave it for now.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tumble Town in Tabletop Games
Mar 5, 2020
Fun fact about me: I used to live in Le Claire, Iowa (birthplace of “Buffalo Bill” Cody) on a street named Wild West Drive. While the town named many of their streets after American West figures and items, it was not your typical Iowa ghost town – if there are such things. That said, I do have an affinity for the Wild West in my gaming preferences, so when I heard about a dice/building game with an American West theme designed by Kevin Russ (who also recently designed Calico) I was immediately interested. But how does this one… stack up?
Tumble Town is dice rolling, structure building, drafting game with variable player powers. You are charged with choosing building plans to be added to Main Street of Tumble Town. You do this throughout the game by selecting the plans that will make best use of the resources (dice) you gain. The buildings that you construct may allow you special powers to be used on future turns, or one-time bonuses to be used once built. The player who can turn the greatest profit (in terms of VP) at the end of the game will be the winner!
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and the final components will definitely be 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 back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, from your FLGS, or through any other retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, deal each player a packet of starting components: a unique Horse card, two reference cards, Storehouse card, Main Street card, and two brown (they are red in the prototype) dice to be rolled and placed within the Storehouse. Shuffle and display the 1-, 2-, and 3-cactus building cards per the rulebook instructions to form the market. Set aside a number of each die type per the rulebook (both the building cards and dice are determined by number of players). Determine the first player and give them the first player token (a colorful rubber potted cactus). Players will connect their two Main Street cards at the central icon to create a two-card street (we chose the wagon wheel – Easy) and the game can begin!
Turns in Tumble Town consist of four mini-phases that flow into each other rather naturally. The first phase will have the players choosing a revealed building plan card from the offer market. The face-down draw stack will inform the active player as to how many and which type of dice they must draw and roll. Once they have these dice in their Storehouse, the player may now build plans using the dice they control. Buildings can be constructed and placed right onto Main Street, or be placed on the plan card to be placed on Main Street on a later turn. If the player has collected more dice than their Storehouse can hold, they must discard any of the dice they wish. This concludes a turn and the next player can begin their turn.
Certain iconography on the building plan cards allow players to use special powers throughout the game once built, and there are three types. Cards with the silvery bottom panel of symbols and the 1x notation are powers that must be used only once and only when the building is constructed. These powers could be collecting a die of the player’s choice, or receiving various dice counters. The building plan cards that feature a circular arrow notation are powers that can be used once per turn, every turn, if wished. These powers are found on each player’s Horse as well and can be adjusting a die’s face value, or re-rolling two dice, as examples. The third type of power is from the golden paneled cards that have an arrow pointing to a vertical line. These powers are only activated at the end of the game and mostly include scoring variances, like 1VP for each building a player has constructed that has a vulture icon (or a windmill, for example) featured on the card art.
Once a building is erected, the player may choose to place it onto their Main Street cards. When they place them, the player will need to choose where on Main Street these buildings should live. Like Bob Ross always says, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.” A player can place their buildings anywhere they wish on Main Street, but the Main Street cards will give extra bonuses to those players who plan ahead and place their buildings strategically. Some plots will ask for a building of a specific height (one die high or three dice high). Some will ask for the base level of the structure to be made of a specific material/die color (brown wood, black coal, silver metal, and gold… gold). Extra points are awarded if one-die-width alleyways are allotted, and these Main Street placements can score a bunch of endgame points.
Turns can be very quick or very deliberate, depending on the types of players involved. AP-prone players will take longer on their turns as they internalize all possibilities of their rolled results, while people like me just fly by the seats of our breeches. The game continues in this fashion: four mini-phases of drafting cards from the market, grabbing the associated dice, rolling them, and attempting to erect the best buildings on Main Street until two dice pools contain two or fewer dice. The current turn order finishes and the game is over.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, and the publisher was decent enough to include a listing of items to be improved in the final version (like the red dice being poured brown in final – that really messed up someone’s strategy during a play-through for us because they kept forgetting that red is actually brown). The overall art style is very simplistic and I do NOT mean that negatively. The graphics and artwork are great, and give exactly what is needed without being so distracting that you cannot concentrate on your strategy. The dice are normal dice quality (that always seem to roll poorly when I’m rolling… hmm…). Once you see the photos of how the game will look during production, you will appreciate how great this is going to look on the table. No problems with components at all, save for the red vs. brown debacle that happened on our table. I really hope they keep the awwwwesome rubber cactus first player marker because it’s amazing.
I absolutely loved this one. I have always enjoyed using items for purposes other than originally intended – in this case, using dice as building materials. Of course, playing any game with dice introduces a bit of luck and instability in strategy, but Tumble Town offers quite a bit of manipulation of dice rolls that keeps almost all dice results feasible and useful. I really enjoyed the stacking, the quick turns, and the desperation when someone takes the last wood die when I was gunning for a wood-based building on my next turn. This game is light, but is chocked full of difficult decisions and luck of the roll. Tumble Town is for people who enjoy the rolling and stacking from FUSE (minus the frenzy), and the spatial building placement chaining of Villages of Valeria.
If this is the game for you, then we highly encourage you to check out the Kickstarter campaign which is running until Thursday, March 26. Tumble Town has already exceeding the funding goal at time of this review, but all future pledges will contribute to stretch goals that will improve components and add other components (spoiler?). So get out there and build up Tumble Town, ya yella-bellied greenhorns!
Tumble Town is dice rolling, structure building, drafting game with variable player powers. You are charged with choosing building plans to be added to Main Street of Tumble Town. You do this throughout the game by selecting the plans that will make best use of the resources (dice) you gain. The buildings that you construct may allow you special powers to be used on future turns, or one-time bonuses to be used once built. The player who can turn the greatest profit (in terms of VP) at the end of the game will be the winner!
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and the final components will definitely be 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 back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, from your FLGS, or through any other retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, deal each player a packet of starting components: a unique Horse card, two reference cards, Storehouse card, Main Street card, and two brown (they are red in the prototype) dice to be rolled and placed within the Storehouse. Shuffle and display the 1-, 2-, and 3-cactus building cards per the rulebook instructions to form the market. Set aside a number of each die type per the rulebook (both the building cards and dice are determined by number of players). Determine the first player and give them the first player token (a colorful rubber potted cactus). Players will connect their two Main Street cards at the central icon to create a two-card street (we chose the wagon wheel – Easy) and the game can begin!
Turns in Tumble Town consist of four mini-phases that flow into each other rather naturally. The first phase will have the players choosing a revealed building plan card from the offer market. The face-down draw stack will inform the active player as to how many and which type of dice they must draw and roll. Once they have these dice in their Storehouse, the player may now build plans using the dice they control. Buildings can be constructed and placed right onto Main Street, or be placed on the plan card to be placed on Main Street on a later turn. If the player has collected more dice than their Storehouse can hold, they must discard any of the dice they wish. This concludes a turn and the next player can begin their turn.
Certain iconography on the building plan cards allow players to use special powers throughout the game once built, and there are three types. Cards with the silvery bottom panel of symbols and the 1x notation are powers that must be used only once and only when the building is constructed. These powers could be collecting a die of the player’s choice, or receiving various dice counters. The building plan cards that feature a circular arrow notation are powers that can be used once per turn, every turn, if wished. These powers are found on each player’s Horse as well and can be adjusting a die’s face value, or re-rolling two dice, as examples. The third type of power is from the golden paneled cards that have an arrow pointing to a vertical line. These powers are only activated at the end of the game and mostly include scoring variances, like 1VP for each building a player has constructed that has a vulture icon (or a windmill, for example) featured on the card art.
Once a building is erected, the player may choose to place it onto their Main Street cards. When they place them, the player will need to choose where on Main Street these buildings should live. Like Bob Ross always says, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.” A player can place their buildings anywhere they wish on Main Street, but the Main Street cards will give extra bonuses to those players who plan ahead and place their buildings strategically. Some plots will ask for a building of a specific height (one die high or three dice high). Some will ask for the base level of the structure to be made of a specific material/die color (brown wood, black coal, silver metal, and gold… gold). Extra points are awarded if one-die-width alleyways are allotted, and these Main Street placements can score a bunch of endgame points.
Turns can be very quick or very deliberate, depending on the types of players involved. AP-prone players will take longer on their turns as they internalize all possibilities of their rolled results, while people like me just fly by the seats of our breeches. The game continues in this fashion: four mini-phases of drafting cards from the market, grabbing the associated dice, rolling them, and attempting to erect the best buildings on Main Street until two dice pools contain two or fewer dice. The current turn order finishes and the game is over.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, and the publisher was decent enough to include a listing of items to be improved in the final version (like the red dice being poured brown in final – that really messed up someone’s strategy during a play-through for us because they kept forgetting that red is actually brown). The overall art style is very simplistic and I do NOT mean that negatively. The graphics and artwork are great, and give exactly what is needed without being so distracting that you cannot concentrate on your strategy. The dice are normal dice quality (that always seem to roll poorly when I’m rolling… hmm…). Once you see the photos of how the game will look during production, you will appreciate how great this is going to look on the table. No problems with components at all, save for the red vs. brown debacle that happened on our table. I really hope they keep the awwwwesome rubber cactus first player marker because it’s amazing.
I absolutely loved this one. I have always enjoyed using items for purposes other than originally intended – in this case, using dice as building materials. Of course, playing any game with dice introduces a bit of luck and instability in strategy, but Tumble Town offers quite a bit of manipulation of dice rolls that keeps almost all dice results feasible and useful. I really enjoyed the stacking, the quick turns, and the desperation when someone takes the last wood die when I was gunning for a wood-based building on my next turn. This game is light, but is chocked full of difficult decisions and luck of the roll. Tumble Town is for people who enjoy the rolling and stacking from FUSE (minus the frenzy), and the spatial building placement chaining of Villages of Valeria.
If this is the game for you, then we highly encourage you to check out the Kickstarter campaign which is running until Thursday, March 26. Tumble Town has already exceeding the funding goal at time of this review, but all future pledges will contribute to stretch goals that will improve components and add other components (spoiler?). So get out there and build up Tumble Town, ya yella-bellied greenhorns!
Inky Books (3 KP) rated The Queen of the Tearling in Books
Jun 21, 2018
Here’s the book I’ve been looking for! I’ve been waiting and searching and looking for a book that would hold my interest long enough to get through it. While I listened to the book instead of reading it because of the little time I have because of school and work (six classes plus 20 hours a week, why do I do this to myself?) plus trying to train my new puppy, I just haven’t had enough time to sleep, let alone read a book. So listening to books on my 1 hour + commute to and from school and work six days a week was the only option.
I’m so glad I found this book because I could borrow it right away from the library. I had seen it, decided a few times not to buy the book because of the books I still haven’t read, so I just jumped at the chance.
So, let us start at the beginning. It was slow to start. I wasn’t connected to any of the characters, I didn’t have much of an interest other than just entertainment. There were a lot of people introduced at once and I had a hard time keeping them straight at first. Over time the characters got sorted out and each had their own personality.
This book was told from a few different perspectives, but for the most part it added important details to the story. It was interesting to see the thoughts of some people other than Kelsea, and it rounded out the story better than if it would have been just her perspective.
However, with the change in perspectives I found that I had a few issues with one character in particular. Javel is a complicated character, and not in the way most people like. His inner monologue has him come off as a strong character, one that doesn’t take crap. His actions and words tell a completely different story. Javel is a weak man. I was very unimpressed with his character and his story until the very, very end. He only had that one redeeming quality, but it paled against everything else about him.
Kelsea is a character I can defiantly stand behind, though there are two things that irked me. This is more about the writing of the book than it is about Kelsea herself, but that fact that she’s plain, not beautiful, was mentioned so often that I got very annoyed. She’s not as beautiful as her mother was, so what? She looked plain standing next to this woman. Yeah, so what’s your point? I get that she is plain but it doesn’t need to be mentioned multiple times in the first chapter and at least once in all the other chapters. The second was that she sees beauty as vanity. Just because a women is beautiful doesn’t mean she’s automatically a rival or that she’s worthless. It annoyed me that every woman was more beautiful than Kelsea could have imagined. Yeah, well get used to it. You’re the queen now, you’re going to be surrounded by beautiful people.
The one other issue I had was with the timing of everything. I can’t get a sense of how long it was from the begging of the book to the end, and it jumps forward weeks ahead with little explanation.
Despite those problems that I have with the book I really enjoyed it. Very rarely do I get to read about queens taking their keep by storm and upturning everything in her wake. Usually Princesses or other random girls are the main character, and this made me happy. It gave me an insight to what her life was like as queen without boring me.
The plot twist was rather predictable, I had it figured out from halfway through the book, but the way it was handled in the end was interesting.
This author isn’t afraid of killing her characters or going into details most would just briefly skim over. It was refreshing. I can’t wait to listen to or read the next book to see what happens from here!
I’m so glad I found this book because I could borrow it right away from the library. I had seen it, decided a few times not to buy the book because of the books I still haven’t read, so I just jumped at the chance.
So, let us start at the beginning. It was slow to start. I wasn’t connected to any of the characters, I didn’t have much of an interest other than just entertainment. There were a lot of people introduced at once and I had a hard time keeping them straight at first. Over time the characters got sorted out and each had their own personality.
This book was told from a few different perspectives, but for the most part it added important details to the story. It was interesting to see the thoughts of some people other than Kelsea, and it rounded out the story better than if it would have been just her perspective.
However, with the change in perspectives I found that I had a few issues with one character in particular. Javel is a complicated character, and not in the way most people like. His inner monologue has him come off as a strong character, one that doesn’t take crap. His actions and words tell a completely different story. Javel is a weak man. I was very unimpressed with his character and his story until the very, very end. He only had that one redeeming quality, but it paled against everything else about him.
Kelsea is a character I can defiantly stand behind, though there are two things that irked me. This is more about the writing of the book than it is about Kelsea herself, but that fact that she’s plain, not beautiful, was mentioned so often that I got very annoyed. She’s not as beautiful as her mother was, so what? She looked plain standing next to this woman. Yeah, so what’s your point? I get that she is plain but it doesn’t need to be mentioned multiple times in the first chapter and at least once in all the other chapters. The second was that she sees beauty as vanity. Just because a women is beautiful doesn’t mean she’s automatically a rival or that she’s worthless. It annoyed me that every woman was more beautiful than Kelsea could have imagined. Yeah, well get used to it. You’re the queen now, you’re going to be surrounded by beautiful people.
The one other issue I had was with the timing of everything. I can’t get a sense of how long it was from the begging of the book to the end, and it jumps forward weeks ahead with little explanation.
Despite those problems that I have with the book I really enjoyed it. Very rarely do I get to read about queens taking their keep by storm and upturning everything in her wake. Usually Princesses or other random girls are the main character, and this made me happy. It gave me an insight to what her life was like as queen without boring me.
The plot twist was rather predictable, I had it figured out from halfway through the book, but the way it was handled in the end was interesting.
This author isn’t afraid of killing her characters or going into details most would just briefly skim over. It was refreshing. I can’t wait to listen to or read the next book to see what happens from here!
Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated The House by the Cemetery in Books
Jan 31, 2019 (Updated Feb 2, 2019)
I have a love-hate relationship with The House by the Cemetery by John Everson, and it’s really tearing me apart. I absolutely enjoyed the story itself, but there’s a few issues, one of which is a huge red flag, that I simply can’t allow to go unspoken–and if other reviews are any clue, I’m not the only one that’s immensely bothered by it.
The story involves a witch that died in 1963, a haunted house, a haunted house attraction, and a lot of characters (too many to keep track of without a notebook, actually). Hired to repair the haunted house so that guests can safely walk through it, Mike Kostner spends much of his time drinking beer and talking with the girls, Katie and Emery. At the same time, Jeanie’s been hired on as a makeup artist for the upcoming attraction and drags her boyfriend, Bong, into it. Then there’s Jillie and Ted, paranormal investigators. And then there are three other groups of people to form more members of the cast, which I found to be extremely overwhelming.
At this point in my review, I usually talk about characters and their development, what I like about them, what I don’t, etc. In this case, I can’t really do that. The only character I managed to forge any sort of emotional connection with was Jeanie, and it’s mainly sympathetic. As for the rest of the roles played, I’m largely disappointed. Why? Because there’s a severe lack of sensitivity in this novel–which has been mentioned in several other reviews. There are four characters whose sole defining characteristic is either their race or their weight. There’s no depth given beyond that to them as an individual. The remarks dealing with weight are largely shaming and those dealing with race are stereotypical. And here’s where I’m going to take a moment to discuss the character Bong, which I feel is the most blatant insult to another race’s customs that I’ve seen in a long time.
Bong’s full name is Bong-soon Mon. Phonetically, that sounds a lot like “bong soon man.” It’s not overly obvious if you’re not familiar with Korean names, and Bong-soon is an actual name used in the drama Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. However, in this case, Everson shortens Bong-soon, which is actually the character’s name (whether it’s his first or last, I’m not sure), to Bong. Thus he makes it more of a laughing matter (really, it’s not funny), whether it’s intentional or unintentional. Usually I’m not sensitive to these types of material, but in this book the way it comes across is really bothersome and, like several other readers, I agree with the idea that this book desperately needs an edit for sensitivity. Please bear in mind that I read an arc of this book and so I’m not sure if any of these issues were addressed in the final publication.
EDIT: After speaking with the author, he explained to me that the reason he shortened the name as he did comes from personal experience with someone that had the same name, and what they went by. Everson also assured me it was not his intent to fat shame those characters. I really appreciate that he reached out to me, and feel it's important that my misconception be corrected, but not hidden.
Plotwise, I adored this book. I can’t go too much into detail without sharing spoilers, but I can say this: the Everson does have a talent for creating beautifully grisly, albeit somewhat repetitive, scenes. The bloodbath that takes place near the end of the book is a glorious gore-fest that I felt the rest of the story worked up to quite well, even if it crawled earlier on while Mike was working on the house. As for the setting, it’s well written. I liked the idea of a house next to a cemetery, and its easy to infer its age without being told: it’s too close to a turnpike to have been put there before the turnpike was built. I was, however, confused by the juxtaposition of a heavily wooded house and cemetery in close proximity to a city or town, as in my experience turnpikes usually don’t have exits between major locales. At least, not very many present-day ones do, as most of them have been converted to, or created as, a controlled-access highway, where intersecting roads tend to cross over or under so that they do not impede traffic. That said, it strikes me as weird that a single house and cemetery would have an exit from a turnpike.
So I decided to google cemeteries and turnpikes, and what did I find? Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery is an actual haunted locale found in the suburbs of Chicago. And yes, it actually is that close to a turnpike! If you like to watch Ghost Adventures, the cemetery was featured in a 2012 episode. Also, the cemetery is extremely old. Even better? Many of the ghost stories referenced in the book are actual tales surrounding the cemetery. It’s actually pretty fascinating and I wouldn’t even have known about it were it not for Everson’s book.
Overall, I did enjoy reading this book. I loved the homage to horror movies of all types, including lesser known genres. I absolutely adored the way in which some of the characters were manipulated, too. Hence why I stated early in this review that I have a love-hate relationship with it. Because of the lack of sensitivity though, and the way I was made to feel as a reader because of it (I’m overweight, after all), I can’t give it more than three skulls.
I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book for review.
The story involves a witch that died in 1963, a haunted house, a haunted house attraction, and a lot of characters (too many to keep track of without a notebook, actually). Hired to repair the haunted house so that guests can safely walk through it, Mike Kostner spends much of his time drinking beer and talking with the girls, Katie and Emery. At the same time, Jeanie’s been hired on as a makeup artist for the upcoming attraction and drags her boyfriend, Bong, into it. Then there’s Jillie and Ted, paranormal investigators. And then there are three other groups of people to form more members of the cast, which I found to be extremely overwhelming.
At this point in my review, I usually talk about characters and their development, what I like about them, what I don’t, etc. In this case, I can’t really do that. The only character I managed to forge any sort of emotional connection with was Jeanie, and it’s mainly sympathetic. As for the rest of the roles played, I’m largely disappointed. Why? Because there’s a severe lack of sensitivity in this novel–which has been mentioned in several other reviews. There are four characters whose sole defining characteristic is either their race or their weight. There’s no depth given beyond that to them as an individual. The remarks dealing with weight are largely shaming and those dealing with race are stereotypical. And here’s where I’m going to take a moment to discuss the character Bong, which I feel is the most blatant insult to another race’s customs that I’ve seen in a long time.
Bong’s full name is Bong-soon Mon. Phonetically, that sounds a lot like “bong soon man.” It’s not overly obvious if you’re not familiar with Korean names, and Bong-soon is an actual name used in the drama Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. However, in this case, Everson shortens Bong-soon, which is actually the character’s name (whether it’s his first or last, I’m not sure), to Bong. Thus he makes it more of a laughing matter (really, it’s not funny), whether it’s intentional or unintentional. Usually I’m not sensitive to these types of material, but in this book the way it comes across is really bothersome and, like several other readers, I agree with the idea that this book desperately needs an edit for sensitivity. Please bear in mind that I read an arc of this book and so I’m not sure if any of these issues were addressed in the final publication.
EDIT: After speaking with the author, he explained to me that the reason he shortened the name as he did comes from personal experience with someone that had the same name, and what they went by. Everson also assured me it was not his intent to fat shame those characters. I really appreciate that he reached out to me, and feel it's important that my misconception be corrected, but not hidden.
Plotwise, I adored this book. I can’t go too much into detail without sharing spoilers, but I can say this: the Everson does have a talent for creating beautifully grisly, albeit somewhat repetitive, scenes. The bloodbath that takes place near the end of the book is a glorious gore-fest that I felt the rest of the story worked up to quite well, even if it crawled earlier on while Mike was working on the house. As for the setting, it’s well written. I liked the idea of a house next to a cemetery, and its easy to infer its age without being told: it’s too close to a turnpike to have been put there before the turnpike was built. I was, however, confused by the juxtaposition of a heavily wooded house and cemetery in close proximity to a city or town, as in my experience turnpikes usually don’t have exits between major locales. At least, not very many present-day ones do, as most of them have been converted to, or created as, a controlled-access highway, where intersecting roads tend to cross over or under so that they do not impede traffic. That said, it strikes me as weird that a single house and cemetery would have an exit from a turnpike.
So I decided to google cemeteries and turnpikes, and what did I find? Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery is an actual haunted locale found in the suburbs of Chicago. And yes, it actually is that close to a turnpike! If you like to watch Ghost Adventures, the cemetery was featured in a 2012 episode. Also, the cemetery is extremely old. Even better? Many of the ghost stories referenced in the book are actual tales surrounding the cemetery. It’s actually pretty fascinating and I wouldn’t even have known about it were it not for Everson’s book.
Overall, I did enjoy reading this book. I loved the homage to horror movies of all types, including lesser known genres. I absolutely adored the way in which some of the characters were manipulated, too. Hence why I stated early in this review that I have a love-hate relationship with it. Because of the lack of sensitivity though, and the way I was made to feel as a reader because of it (I’m overweight, after all), I can’t give it more than three skulls.
I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book for review.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated The Road to Canterbury in Tabletop Games
Oct 4, 2021
I am not a sinless man. In fact, it’s been years since I’ve been to confession, and at this point I’m afraid I would be there for hours just spilling the beans. I know many pious people, but alas, I am not one. However, I do appreciate those that attempt to live that holy life. It takes a lot of guts and a lot of hard work. I guess I’m a little slothy when it comes to that, personally. Anyway, I know of the Seven Deadly Sins, Cardinal Sins, Capital Vices, or whatever you’d like to call them. In fact, I really like the movie Seven – I think it’s great! That said, let’s find out just “what’s in the box?”
The Road To Canterbury is a game of medieval hand management and area influence. In it players are false pardoners stalking the road to the city of Canterbury as pilgrims make their way there from London. As their companies run across these pardoners, they are offered the chance to purchase pardons – salvation and forgiveness for their sins. However, these pardoners are also keen to help the pilgrims along the path of sin, thus making their faux pardons worth even more money! The pardoner who ends the game with the most money will win along The Road to Canterbury.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of the Impoverished Pilgrim Edition (2nd edition) 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. -T
To setup, follow the rulebook, as there are many components to track. The main areas are the Circle of Sin mat that holds the Parson pawn, the decks area that hold the various decks of cards from which players will be drawing, and each player’s personal area where players will hide their earnings and hand of cards behind the privacy screen. Once all is setup somewhat correctly, it should look similar to the photo below. Warning: When I set this up and took the photo, I neglected to realize the red company and the map tiles were translated to the wrong spaces, so just switch those.
The Road to Canterbury is a game of rounds, and each round players will be taking similar steps: Play One Card, Redraw, Perform a Reckoning of Sin. Players will have access to three different types of cards that can be played during the Play One Card phase: Sin cards (five of which are dealt at setup), Pardon cards, and Relic cards. During this phase, the active player can play a Sin card to one of the active Pilgrims to tempt them towards committing that sin. The first time the player adds a Sin card to a Pilgrim, they place one of their corruption cubes on the matching sin on the Circle of Sin. Alternatively, they may play a powerful Relic card that offers adjustments to the rules, or has some interesting results. When a player feels that enough Sin cards of a specific type have been played on a Pilgrim, they may opt to play a matching Pardon card in order to gain precious coin to their pockets. Each Pardon card essentially pardons ALL the sins of that type on the Pilgrim, and the player then collects coins exponentially for a larger total of matching Sin cards on that Pilgrim. If the Parson is currently sitting on the matching sin, the pardoner receives extra coin for it being an especially egregious sin in the eyes of the church. Each time the Pilgrim is pardoned, the pardoner places one of their corruption cubes upon the Pilgrim.
After the active player has played their card, they must Redraw their hand back to five cards, choosing to draw from the Sin, Pardon, or Relic offerings. Some Sin cards may be drawn that are Death Approaches cards. When these surface, they are immediately attached to the Pilgrim whose color matches that of the drawn card’s border color. This essentially eats up a slot on the Pilgrim that could be used for a Sin card to be pardoned.
Once the player has redrawn cards to their hand they must next Perform a Reckoning of Sin. The active player assesses each active Pilgrim to see if they have seven or more cards attached to them. If so, that Pilgrim will perish from the “deadly” sins. Whichever player has placed the most number of corruption cubes upon the Pilgrim is considered present at time of death and will receive credit for the sending to the heavens. They move one of the cubes upon the Pilgrim to the first space on the map tile, earning bonus points and a Last Rites token. Last Rites may be performed immediately to take another turn, or may be held until the end of the game for a 3 VP bonus per token. The most interesting aspect of a Pilgrim dying is the fact that their card now becomes a permanent placeholder underneath their company’s colored banner. So the next Pilgrim to enter play for that company will need only six additional cards to kick the bucket, and so on.
Play continues in this fashion of players taking turns through their three phases. The game ends when all the spaces on the map tile are filled with cubes. Bonus points are counted, coins are added, and the player with the most money/highest score is the winner! The best temptress and pardoner this side of Yorkshire!
Components. I have no experience with the first edition of The Road to Canterbury, so unfortunately I cannot compare and contrast components. However, I have seen many photos and even checked out a review video or two. What I can say about components is that this edition has refreshed the look of nearly everything, and so much for the better. Instead of boring plain cards, there’s just a little more decoration. Not so much to be invasive or distracting, but very tasteful. The component quality throughout is quite stellar. There’s a lot of cardboard in this box, and it all looks and feels great. I do quite like the art style, even though it’s all medievall-y and too artsy for my normal preference. All in all a great quality box of game.
So like I said, I have no experience with this game prior to receiving it and playing through it now. It certainly doesn’t feel like a 10-year-old game, nor does it really feel like many of the Alf Seegert games I have played in the past. Neither of these points are bad at all, just some thoughts I had.
It should be obvious by my ratings graphic that I dig this game a lot. I have nothing like it in my collection, and I am super excited to really bring this out with different types of gamers to see how it fares (once the COVID is no longer an issue, of course). I see this being a hit with my family, who enjoys a lot of take that style games. I see this being a hit with my more thinky gamer friends, because there are just so many juicy choices to be had every turn. I can see this even being a hit with my more gateway friends, because it isn’t terribly heavy, has some humor in it, and I can see the prospect of sowing sin and killing off innocent Pilgrims being attractive to some of my more morbid friends.
For me, I love the ability to take every turn and make important decisions. I try to make every turn meaningful to my agenda, but tactical with what may be at my disposal at the time. When should I play this Relic? Why is named something ridiculous? Should I wait a while longer to pardon this sin, or should I pile on another and then pardon next turn? Ooh, but what if my opponent has the same Pardon card. Am I truly happy that this poor Wife of Bath is about to kick it? GAAHHHHH!
Now it’s no secret that I am a big fan of Dr. Seegert’s games, as I have previously reviewed Fantastiqa and Haven with very high ratings. So, I was not at all surprised that I would love this one as well. It offers so many great choices, looks great on the table, fills a unique void that was present in my collection, and can be played with various types of gamers, even though it is designed for two or three players total. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one an unapologetic 5 / 6. I don’t think it will break into my Top 10, but I certainly won’t rule it out quite yet. More plays with different types of gamers may change my mind on that statement, and I eagerly await my plateful of crow. So if you are like me in your gaming preferences, check out this version of The Road to Canterbury. Let me know how often you tend to grab Relics too, because I feel like I need to utilize them more, but it is so hard to pass up a Sin or Pardon. I Lust after them so very badly.
The Road To Canterbury is a game of medieval hand management and area influence. In it players are false pardoners stalking the road to the city of Canterbury as pilgrims make their way there from London. As their companies run across these pardoners, they are offered the chance to purchase pardons – salvation and forgiveness for their sins. However, these pardoners are also keen to help the pilgrims along the path of sin, thus making their faux pardons worth even more money! The pardoner who ends the game with the most money will win along The Road to Canterbury.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of the Impoverished Pilgrim Edition (2nd edition) 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. -T
To setup, follow the rulebook, as there are many components to track. The main areas are the Circle of Sin mat that holds the Parson pawn, the decks area that hold the various decks of cards from which players will be drawing, and each player’s personal area where players will hide their earnings and hand of cards behind the privacy screen. Once all is setup somewhat correctly, it should look similar to the photo below. Warning: When I set this up and took the photo, I neglected to realize the red company and the map tiles were translated to the wrong spaces, so just switch those.
The Road to Canterbury is a game of rounds, and each round players will be taking similar steps: Play One Card, Redraw, Perform a Reckoning of Sin. Players will have access to three different types of cards that can be played during the Play One Card phase: Sin cards (five of which are dealt at setup), Pardon cards, and Relic cards. During this phase, the active player can play a Sin card to one of the active Pilgrims to tempt them towards committing that sin. The first time the player adds a Sin card to a Pilgrim, they place one of their corruption cubes on the matching sin on the Circle of Sin. Alternatively, they may play a powerful Relic card that offers adjustments to the rules, or has some interesting results. When a player feels that enough Sin cards of a specific type have been played on a Pilgrim, they may opt to play a matching Pardon card in order to gain precious coin to their pockets. Each Pardon card essentially pardons ALL the sins of that type on the Pilgrim, and the player then collects coins exponentially for a larger total of matching Sin cards on that Pilgrim. If the Parson is currently sitting on the matching sin, the pardoner receives extra coin for it being an especially egregious sin in the eyes of the church. Each time the Pilgrim is pardoned, the pardoner places one of their corruption cubes upon the Pilgrim.
After the active player has played their card, they must Redraw their hand back to five cards, choosing to draw from the Sin, Pardon, or Relic offerings. Some Sin cards may be drawn that are Death Approaches cards. When these surface, they are immediately attached to the Pilgrim whose color matches that of the drawn card’s border color. This essentially eats up a slot on the Pilgrim that could be used for a Sin card to be pardoned.
Once the player has redrawn cards to their hand they must next Perform a Reckoning of Sin. The active player assesses each active Pilgrim to see if they have seven or more cards attached to them. If so, that Pilgrim will perish from the “deadly” sins. Whichever player has placed the most number of corruption cubes upon the Pilgrim is considered present at time of death and will receive credit for the sending to the heavens. They move one of the cubes upon the Pilgrim to the first space on the map tile, earning bonus points and a Last Rites token. Last Rites may be performed immediately to take another turn, or may be held until the end of the game for a 3 VP bonus per token. The most interesting aspect of a Pilgrim dying is the fact that their card now becomes a permanent placeholder underneath their company’s colored banner. So the next Pilgrim to enter play for that company will need only six additional cards to kick the bucket, and so on.
Play continues in this fashion of players taking turns through their three phases. The game ends when all the spaces on the map tile are filled with cubes. Bonus points are counted, coins are added, and the player with the most money/highest score is the winner! The best temptress and pardoner this side of Yorkshire!
Components. I have no experience with the first edition of The Road to Canterbury, so unfortunately I cannot compare and contrast components. However, I have seen many photos and even checked out a review video or two. What I can say about components is that this edition has refreshed the look of nearly everything, and so much for the better. Instead of boring plain cards, there’s just a little more decoration. Not so much to be invasive or distracting, but very tasteful. The component quality throughout is quite stellar. There’s a lot of cardboard in this box, and it all looks and feels great. I do quite like the art style, even though it’s all medievall-y and too artsy for my normal preference. All in all a great quality box of game.
So like I said, I have no experience with this game prior to receiving it and playing through it now. It certainly doesn’t feel like a 10-year-old game, nor does it really feel like many of the Alf Seegert games I have played in the past. Neither of these points are bad at all, just some thoughts I had.
It should be obvious by my ratings graphic that I dig this game a lot. I have nothing like it in my collection, and I am super excited to really bring this out with different types of gamers to see how it fares (once the COVID is no longer an issue, of course). I see this being a hit with my family, who enjoys a lot of take that style games. I see this being a hit with my more thinky gamer friends, because there are just so many juicy choices to be had every turn. I can see this even being a hit with my more gateway friends, because it isn’t terribly heavy, has some humor in it, and I can see the prospect of sowing sin and killing off innocent Pilgrims being attractive to some of my more morbid friends.
For me, I love the ability to take every turn and make important decisions. I try to make every turn meaningful to my agenda, but tactical with what may be at my disposal at the time. When should I play this Relic? Why is named something ridiculous? Should I wait a while longer to pardon this sin, or should I pile on another and then pardon next turn? Ooh, but what if my opponent has the same Pardon card. Am I truly happy that this poor Wife of Bath is about to kick it? GAAHHHHH!
Now it’s no secret that I am a big fan of Dr. Seegert’s games, as I have previously reviewed Fantastiqa and Haven with very high ratings. So, I was not at all surprised that I would love this one as well. It offers so many great choices, looks great on the table, fills a unique void that was present in my collection, and can be played with various types of gamers, even though it is designed for two or three players total. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one an unapologetic 5 / 6. I don’t think it will break into my Top 10, but I certainly won’t rule it out quite yet. More plays with different types of gamers may change my mind on that statement, and I eagerly await my plateful of crow. So if you are like me in your gaming preferences, check out this version of The Road to Canterbury. Let me know how often you tend to grab Relics too, because I feel like I need to utilize them more, but it is so hard to pass up a Sin or Pardon. I Lust after them so very badly.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Peak Oil Profiteer in Tabletop Games
Jun 11, 2021
One of the most important energy resources in the world is oil. We have a finite amount, it is used in our everyday lives, and it is always in demand. So imagine if a country found a new supply of oil – everyone would be fighting for a piece! Enter Peak Oil Profiteer, a game that puts you in charge of an oil corporation vying for money and oil in this new-found oil vein. Sound like something you might be interested in? Keep reading and see what it’s all about!
Disclaimer: For this preview, we played the Tabletopia version of the game. The pictures you will see below are screenshots from my plays online. Also, I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. For a more in-depth look, check it out when it hits Kickstarter! -L
Peak Oil Profiteer is an economic game of area majority/movement, network building, and simultaneous action selection in which players take on the roles of oil corporations competing to make the most money in an oil-rich country before corruption overtakes the land. There is a power struggle between 3 Factions, so play your cards right (literally) to come out ahead. To setup for a game, set the board in the middle of the table, populate the 3 Faction Tracks with their corresponding cubes, place the Corruption cube on 93%, create the Contingency deck (as described in the rules), shuffle the Blackmail deck, and give each player their 5 Action cards, starting Money, and 3 Pawns in their color. Flip all 9 Leader tokens face-down, shuffle them, and randomly give one to each player, placing the remaining Leader tokens face-up near the board.
The game is played over a series of rounds. At the start of every round, one card from the Contingency deck will be revealed/resolved. Contingency cards will either be Events (that will most likely alter the rules for the current round), or Consultants (to be ‘hired’ by an individual player for special abilities). Once the Contingency card has been dealt with, the round moves to the next phase: Action Selection. All players have the same 5 Action cards, numbered 1-5, available to them every round. Players will select one of their 5 Action cards and place it face-down in front of them. Then, in numerical order, all Action cards will be resolved. When your Action number has been called, you will reveal your Action card, perform the corresponding action, and take the card back into your hand. Once all players have performed their Action for the round, check the Corruption track – if it has reached 100% then the game ends, and if not then the game moves to a new round.
The 5 Actions available to all player are: 1. Networking, 2. Sell Weapons, 3. Buy Drilling Rights, 4. Sell Oil, and 5. Contingency. Networking allows you to collect Blackmail in order to win control of Faction Leaders. You may only Sell Weapons to a Faction if you control at least one of its Leaders. You will earn a set amount of Money, and a new Troop cube will be added to the game board. To Buy Drilling Rights from a Faction, you again need to control at least one of its Leaders. Pay for the rights, and then add one of your Pawns to that region of the board. Once you’ve got Drilling Rights, you can Sell Oil. Remove your Pawn from the corresponding region, and collect the appropriate amount of Money. And lastly, Contingency allows you to either ‘hire’ a Consultant, or perform an extra action as a result of an Event.
The amount of Money that you pay/earn for each of the actions is dictated by the Faction Tracks. For example, the price of Weapons decreases as Factions get more Troops on the board, which means you won’t earn as much selling to a Faction with lots of Troops in play. You have to time your Actions wisely in order to maximize your profit! If, at the end of a round, the Corruption track has reached 100%, the game ends. Players count up their Money, and the player with the highest earnings is declared the winner.
Although the theme isn’t something that would normally appeal to me, I have to say that Peak Oil
Profiteer is a solid game. The gameplay is straightforward, the player interaction is competitive but not combative, and the strategy keeps you engaged all game. The ultimate goal is to earn the most Money, and the Faction Track creates sort of a “commodity speculation” type mechanic to the gameplay. The costs vary depending on the Faction Track, and it can be manipulated by all players. That in and of itself creates some fun player interaction because the Faction Track affects all players. Doing something to block an opponent now may come back to bite you next round. Another neat element about Peak Oil Profiteer is that players select their Actions simultaneously, and they are then resolved in numerical order. Depending on where your turn falls in the round, you might be able to do just what you had planned, unless an opponent went before you and changed the game layout. There is an amount of uncertainty that forces players to adjust their strategy on the fly and adapt to the current situation.
I will say that resolving Actions in numerical order does kind of add an element of Action Programming, if you will. Once you have selected your Action this round, you are locked in. No matter what happens before your turn, you must perform your selected Action if at all possible. It creates some neat strategic opportunities, but at the same time, can feel like you’ve been blocked out. Just something to consider! Normally, I would touch on components, but as this was a Tabletopia version of the game, I can’t really do so. I will say that the art style and card/board layouts online are thematic and immersive. If the physical version of the game looks anything like this digital version, it’ll be a good looking game! One component that I especially appreciated was that each player gets a Player Reference/Round Reference card. It gives you the information you need without being too wordy, and it stops you from having to refer back to the rule book every turn. So big thanks from me for that!
Having never played the original Peak Oil game, I have to say that Peak Oil Profiteer made a good impression on me. It’s fast to teach and learn, engaging, and strategic enough to keep you thinking. The fluctuation of the Faction Track, and the order of Action resolution add elements of uncertainty and ‘luck’ (if you will) that keep the game from having a clear run-away winner. Everyone is in it until the very end, and the race for the most Money is a nail-biter for sure. If you’re looking for something interactive but not too confrontational, while also putting your strategic chops to the test, consider backing Peak Oil Profiteer on Kickstarter!
Disclaimer: For this preview, we played the Tabletopia version of the game. The pictures you will see below are screenshots from my plays online. Also, I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. For a more in-depth look, check it out when it hits Kickstarter! -L
Peak Oil Profiteer is an economic game of area majority/movement, network building, and simultaneous action selection in which players take on the roles of oil corporations competing to make the most money in an oil-rich country before corruption overtakes the land. There is a power struggle between 3 Factions, so play your cards right (literally) to come out ahead. To setup for a game, set the board in the middle of the table, populate the 3 Faction Tracks with their corresponding cubes, place the Corruption cube on 93%, create the Contingency deck (as described in the rules), shuffle the Blackmail deck, and give each player their 5 Action cards, starting Money, and 3 Pawns in their color. Flip all 9 Leader tokens face-down, shuffle them, and randomly give one to each player, placing the remaining Leader tokens face-up near the board.
The game is played over a series of rounds. At the start of every round, one card from the Contingency deck will be revealed/resolved. Contingency cards will either be Events (that will most likely alter the rules for the current round), or Consultants (to be ‘hired’ by an individual player for special abilities). Once the Contingency card has been dealt with, the round moves to the next phase: Action Selection. All players have the same 5 Action cards, numbered 1-5, available to them every round. Players will select one of their 5 Action cards and place it face-down in front of them. Then, in numerical order, all Action cards will be resolved. When your Action number has been called, you will reveal your Action card, perform the corresponding action, and take the card back into your hand. Once all players have performed their Action for the round, check the Corruption track – if it has reached 100% then the game ends, and if not then the game moves to a new round.
The 5 Actions available to all player are: 1. Networking, 2. Sell Weapons, 3. Buy Drilling Rights, 4. Sell Oil, and 5. Contingency. Networking allows you to collect Blackmail in order to win control of Faction Leaders. You may only Sell Weapons to a Faction if you control at least one of its Leaders. You will earn a set amount of Money, and a new Troop cube will be added to the game board. To Buy Drilling Rights from a Faction, you again need to control at least one of its Leaders. Pay for the rights, and then add one of your Pawns to that region of the board. Once you’ve got Drilling Rights, you can Sell Oil. Remove your Pawn from the corresponding region, and collect the appropriate amount of Money. And lastly, Contingency allows you to either ‘hire’ a Consultant, or perform an extra action as a result of an Event.
The amount of Money that you pay/earn for each of the actions is dictated by the Faction Tracks. For example, the price of Weapons decreases as Factions get more Troops on the board, which means you won’t earn as much selling to a Faction with lots of Troops in play. You have to time your Actions wisely in order to maximize your profit! If, at the end of a round, the Corruption track has reached 100%, the game ends. Players count up their Money, and the player with the highest earnings is declared the winner.
Although the theme isn’t something that would normally appeal to me, I have to say that Peak Oil
Profiteer is a solid game. The gameplay is straightforward, the player interaction is competitive but not combative, and the strategy keeps you engaged all game. The ultimate goal is to earn the most Money, and the Faction Track creates sort of a “commodity speculation” type mechanic to the gameplay. The costs vary depending on the Faction Track, and it can be manipulated by all players. That in and of itself creates some fun player interaction because the Faction Track affects all players. Doing something to block an opponent now may come back to bite you next round. Another neat element about Peak Oil Profiteer is that players select their Actions simultaneously, and they are then resolved in numerical order. Depending on where your turn falls in the round, you might be able to do just what you had planned, unless an opponent went before you and changed the game layout. There is an amount of uncertainty that forces players to adjust their strategy on the fly and adapt to the current situation.
I will say that resolving Actions in numerical order does kind of add an element of Action Programming, if you will. Once you have selected your Action this round, you are locked in. No matter what happens before your turn, you must perform your selected Action if at all possible. It creates some neat strategic opportunities, but at the same time, can feel like you’ve been blocked out. Just something to consider! Normally, I would touch on components, but as this was a Tabletopia version of the game, I can’t really do so. I will say that the art style and card/board layouts online are thematic and immersive. If the physical version of the game looks anything like this digital version, it’ll be a good looking game! One component that I especially appreciated was that each player gets a Player Reference/Round Reference card. It gives you the information you need without being too wordy, and it stops you from having to refer back to the rule book every turn. So big thanks from me for that!
Having never played the original Peak Oil game, I have to say that Peak Oil Profiteer made a good impression on me. It’s fast to teach and learn, engaging, and strategic enough to keep you thinking. The fluctuation of the Faction Track, and the order of Action resolution add elements of uncertainty and ‘luck’ (if you will) that keep the game from having a clear run-away winner. Everyone is in it until the very end, and the race for the most Money is a nail-biter for sure. If you’re looking for something interactive but not too confrontational, while also putting your strategic chops to the test, consider backing Peak Oil Profiteer on Kickstarter!
Alice (12 KP) rated The Copper Promise (The Copper Cat, #1) in Books
Jul 3, 2018
The Copper Promise was one of those books that I stumbled upon on Friday a fortnight ago, I picked up the kindle sample – a grand total of 5 chapters – and sat there and devoured it. By Saturday evening I was in possession of a paperback and by Sunday I was over 100 pages in; I read between 50-80 pages per day and finished it on Thursday 17th November – a whole 5 days after purchase.
I’m a rare 5 star reviewer and a book has to tick every single tiny little box for me to even consider going past 4 stars. I’ve also never picked up a sample and ordered a book within 24 hours, I usually sit and think about it for a while but The Copper Promise was one of those books. I was about 70 pages in to The Copper Promise when I bought its sequels The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide. This never happens – ever.
From the get go, Jen Williams’ characters and world building was on point. The story follows what will eventually become The Black Feather Three – Wydrin of Crosshaven, Sir Sebastian Carverson of Ynnsmouth and Lord Aaron Frith of The Blackwood:-
Wydrin of Crosshaven is a foul-mouthed, crass, violently aggressive and sarcastic pirate-cum-sell-sword and she’s AMAZING!
Sir Sebastian Carverson of Ynnsmouth is a disgraced Knight of Ynnsmouth, sword-sworn to the god-peak Isu turned sell-sword for hire with a heart of gold.
And last but certainly not least Lord Aaron Frith of Blackwood, last surviving heir of the The Blackwood, tortured soul (and I mean this in the literal sense) and one confused man with a neat newly acquired trick.
∞
Frith has hired Wydrin and Sebastian and a weird little fella called Gallo to take him to The Citadel as a means to exact revenge on the people who gravely injured him and murdered his family. Gallo goes on ahead as he’s impatient and things go a little belly-up for him; Frith, Wydrin and Sebastian go to the Citadel, go exploring in the creepy castle and see Gallo who they assumed was dead, the trio of adventurers unknowingly unleash a god in the form of a dragon which in turn unleashes several far-ranging ramifications – Frith absorbs a lot of magic and knowledge, Sebastian almost dies because of Gallo’s betrayal but pulls through because of a mystic connection he forges at death’s door and The Copper Cat goes about her business.
This Citadel invasion and ultimate unleashing of a long-believed dead god sets the story up nicely for its onward and upward momentum. Frith absorbs the power he was searching for in the lake hidden at the bottom of the Citadel and becomes a force to be reckoned with (eventually) but not only do they release a dragon they also release her brood army – neat green and golden dragon-hybrid things with a connection to both Y’Ruen (the dragon) and Sebastian – cue his nightmares.
The book as a debut was stunningly well written with characters that were neatly rounded off with few cliffhangers and a nicely written flow and mixture of present and past tense. The characters (particularly Wydrin) were superb and I couldn’t get enough of her utter crassness and her unrelenting torment of Frith – brilliantly written.
∞
I really liked the fact that Jen Williams also gave us chapters from the point of view of the brood army as they traverse Ede destroying any and everything. She shows us the stark contrast of them being a number (The Thirty-Third) and of them becoming a unique being (Ephemeral) with their own thoughts and feelings – some remained purely numbers but a large amount of them became individuals and “broke” from the brood.
There have been some mixed reviews on this book but my opinion is this book was amazing. An outstanding read of amusing proportions where plenty of banter, adventure, magic and mayhem abound. Although the ending closes off some individual story arcs it also opens the door to many more which continue in the next book – my overall feeling towards The Copper Promise was along the lines of “Please don’t leave me!” and “Oh dear god I need more. Right now.”
As mentioned above I bought the next two instalments and I’m 150 pages through the second one and it is just as good as the first one! I can’t wait to see where this story goes!
I’m a rare 5 star reviewer and a book has to tick every single tiny little box for me to even consider going past 4 stars. I’ve also never picked up a sample and ordered a book within 24 hours, I usually sit and think about it for a while but The Copper Promise was one of those books. I was about 70 pages in to The Copper Promise when I bought its sequels The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide. This never happens – ever.
From the get go, Jen Williams’ characters and world building was on point. The story follows what will eventually become The Black Feather Three – Wydrin of Crosshaven, Sir Sebastian Carverson of Ynnsmouth and Lord Aaron Frith of The Blackwood:-
Wydrin of Crosshaven is a foul-mouthed, crass, violently aggressive and sarcastic pirate-cum-sell-sword and she’s AMAZING!
Sir Sebastian Carverson of Ynnsmouth is a disgraced Knight of Ynnsmouth, sword-sworn to the god-peak Isu turned sell-sword for hire with a heart of gold.
And last but certainly not least Lord Aaron Frith of Blackwood, last surviving heir of the The Blackwood, tortured soul (and I mean this in the literal sense) and one confused man with a neat newly acquired trick.
∞
Frith has hired Wydrin and Sebastian and a weird little fella called Gallo to take him to The Citadel as a means to exact revenge on the people who gravely injured him and murdered his family. Gallo goes on ahead as he’s impatient and things go a little belly-up for him; Frith, Wydrin and Sebastian go to the Citadel, go exploring in the creepy castle and see Gallo who they assumed was dead, the trio of adventurers unknowingly unleash a god in the form of a dragon which in turn unleashes several far-ranging ramifications – Frith absorbs a lot of magic and knowledge, Sebastian almost dies because of Gallo’s betrayal but pulls through because of a mystic connection he forges at death’s door and The Copper Cat goes about her business.
This Citadel invasion and ultimate unleashing of a long-believed dead god sets the story up nicely for its onward and upward momentum. Frith absorbs the power he was searching for in the lake hidden at the bottom of the Citadel and becomes a force to be reckoned with (eventually) but not only do they release a dragon they also release her brood army – neat green and golden dragon-hybrid things with a connection to both Y’Ruen (the dragon) and Sebastian – cue his nightmares.
The book as a debut was stunningly well written with characters that were neatly rounded off with few cliffhangers and a nicely written flow and mixture of present and past tense. The characters (particularly Wydrin) were superb and I couldn’t get enough of her utter crassness and her unrelenting torment of Frith – brilliantly written.
∞
I really liked the fact that Jen Williams also gave us chapters from the point of view of the brood army as they traverse Ede destroying any and everything. She shows us the stark contrast of them being a number (The Thirty-Third) and of them becoming a unique being (Ephemeral) with their own thoughts and feelings – some remained purely numbers but a large amount of them became individuals and “broke” from the brood.
There have been some mixed reviews on this book but my opinion is this book was amazing. An outstanding read of amusing proportions where plenty of banter, adventure, magic and mayhem abound. Although the ending closes off some individual story arcs it also opens the door to many more which continue in the next book – my overall feeling towards The Copper Promise was along the lines of “Please don’t leave me!” and “Oh dear god I need more. Right now.”
As mentioned above I bought the next two instalments and I’m 150 pages through the second one and it is just as good as the first one! I can’t wait to see where this story goes!
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Warlords (Tau ming chong) (2010) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
General Pang Qing Yun is the sole survivor of his entire battalion. The Ching army was taken out against Taiping rebels in Hechuan. Pang meets a woman and spends the night with her while she leaves before he wakes up the next morning. Some bandits ride into the town Pang is in. One of them, Jiang Wuyang, notices Pang and challenges him. Pang makes short work of Jiang. Jiang, impressed with Pang, introduces Pang to Zhao Er Hu. Pang follows Jiang and Er Hu back to their village where he notices that same woman he spent the night with. Her name is Lian and she's Er Hu's wife.
The village is very poor and in desperate need of food, so they decide to attack a passing food convoy. In the midst of the battle, Pang saves Jiang from certain death. The bandits successful, they bring food back to their families. Kui troops, the imperial army, invade the village and usurps the food that they stole. Now without food or money, the bandits are starving and unsure of what lies ahead for them. Pang suggests to Er Hu that they should join Lord Chen's army as they could earn wages for their families and actually have something to be proud of. Questioning Pang's reasoning since he abandoned his army once before, Jiang suggests that Pang, himself, and Er Hu take a blood oath. The pact made them blood brothers on that day.
After joining the army, their 800 soldiers go after Shu City, which has an army of 5,000. They somehow manage to get the upper hand and with the help of 1,500 imperial soldiers, they get a victory. It'll be the first of many for them as they move up in rank rapidly. With plans to overthrow Suzhou and then Nanjing, the capital, they have their work set out for them. The brothers soon begin to fall apart on their rise to the top though. Er Hu tends to be loyal with his word and his brothers no matter what as Pang will sacrifice anyone and even make deals with his enemies just to win while Jiang is stuck between them.
Let me just start this by saying, I loved this movie. The battle sequences are stunning, the cinematography was brilliant, and the acting was pretty much right on the money. The Warlords took everything I loved about Mongol and made it just a little bit better. Jet Li deserves a mention. After seeing Unleashed and Fearless, it was nice to see him actually show his acting chops. So I've wanted to see him show those off again. Luckily, he did a great job in this as he showed just about every emotion in this film at some time or another. His fight scenes were also incredible, but that comes to be expected with just about any film he's involved in. I think Andy Lau deserves a nod, as well. His character is just so passionate about being honorable and loyal that when things go wrong, his reaction is just explosive. He has some really powerful scenes where he's fighting for what he thinks is right, but I can't really mention with spoiling anything. There is a scene where he's having dinner and there's play going on that's mocking him, Pang, and Jiang. He begins to laugh, which leads to him crying uncontrollably, and then he begins laughing again. He just managed to pull it off flawlessly and I was incredibly impressed.
The battle scenes didn't pull any punches either. Blood flies across the screen as limbs roll on the ground. It's truly fantastic. They were truly the highlight of the film for me as the first half of the film doesn't seem to let up from the battlefield. The film is also extremely colorful. Every scene is stunningly vibrant. There are also so many memorable scenes from the film and half of that is due to how they were shot. There's a scene where Er Hu runs into this coliseum where there are just hundreds of dead bodies lying on the ground and the camera kind of spins around him capturing his emotions and the devastation that lies around him. It's truly something worth seeing for yourself.
The Warlords is one of the best feudal Japan films I've ever seen. If you were a fan of films like Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan, The Last Samurai, or Seven Samurai, then I highly recommend this.
The village is very poor and in desperate need of food, so they decide to attack a passing food convoy. In the midst of the battle, Pang saves Jiang from certain death. The bandits successful, they bring food back to their families. Kui troops, the imperial army, invade the village and usurps the food that they stole. Now without food or money, the bandits are starving and unsure of what lies ahead for them. Pang suggests to Er Hu that they should join Lord Chen's army as they could earn wages for their families and actually have something to be proud of. Questioning Pang's reasoning since he abandoned his army once before, Jiang suggests that Pang, himself, and Er Hu take a blood oath. The pact made them blood brothers on that day.
After joining the army, their 800 soldiers go after Shu City, which has an army of 5,000. They somehow manage to get the upper hand and with the help of 1,500 imperial soldiers, they get a victory. It'll be the first of many for them as they move up in rank rapidly. With plans to overthrow Suzhou and then Nanjing, the capital, they have their work set out for them. The brothers soon begin to fall apart on their rise to the top though. Er Hu tends to be loyal with his word and his brothers no matter what as Pang will sacrifice anyone and even make deals with his enemies just to win while Jiang is stuck between them.
Let me just start this by saying, I loved this movie. The battle sequences are stunning, the cinematography was brilliant, and the acting was pretty much right on the money. The Warlords took everything I loved about Mongol and made it just a little bit better. Jet Li deserves a mention. After seeing Unleashed and Fearless, it was nice to see him actually show his acting chops. So I've wanted to see him show those off again. Luckily, he did a great job in this as he showed just about every emotion in this film at some time or another. His fight scenes were also incredible, but that comes to be expected with just about any film he's involved in. I think Andy Lau deserves a nod, as well. His character is just so passionate about being honorable and loyal that when things go wrong, his reaction is just explosive. He has some really powerful scenes where he's fighting for what he thinks is right, but I can't really mention with spoiling anything. There is a scene where he's having dinner and there's play going on that's mocking him, Pang, and Jiang. He begins to laugh, which leads to him crying uncontrollably, and then he begins laughing again. He just managed to pull it off flawlessly and I was incredibly impressed.
The battle scenes didn't pull any punches either. Blood flies across the screen as limbs roll on the ground. It's truly fantastic. They were truly the highlight of the film for me as the first half of the film doesn't seem to let up from the battlefield. The film is also extremely colorful. Every scene is stunningly vibrant. There are also so many memorable scenes from the film and half of that is due to how they were shot. There's a scene where Er Hu runs into this coliseum where there are just hundreds of dead bodies lying on the ground and the camera kind of spins around him capturing his emotions and the devastation that lies around him. It's truly something worth seeing for yourself.
The Warlords is one of the best feudal Japan films I've ever seen. If you were a fan of films like Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan, The Last Samurai, or Seven Samurai, then I highly recommend this.
