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In Deeper Water: Part Two (Aria & the Seven Seas, #2)
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With a new gift burning under my skin, our rag-tag delegation has entered deeper waters. In the...
Multi Partner Paranormal Romance
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Castles of Mad King Ludwig in Tabletop Games
Jun 12, 2020
“Well why CAN’T I just have a long hallway between my garden and my porch? How else am I going to get to the stairwell?” – Nobody ever.
Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a game of castle construction in the most ridiculous fashion. Oh, there ARE rules, mind you, but what results can be a ludicrous display of asinine architectural planning but also hilarity at what monstrosity you have assembled.
DISCLAIMER: I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, 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 from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. Also there is an expansion to this game, but we are not reviewing it at this time. Should we review it in the future we will either update this review or post a link to the new material here. -T
Ok, stop ranting about how stupid your castles always look at game’s end. In this game you are building a castle for an eccentric (and mad) king to appease his skewed vision of stylish housing. Setup is somewhat lengthy, so I will not detail all the steps here. Determine the starting player and give them the castleeple (grr) to denote them as the first Master Builder. As Master Builder, you will draw room tile cards that dictate from which size pile you will draw room tiles. The Master Builder will then assign each room tile a cost and place the tile next to the cost for all to see. Each player will then choose a room tile to add to their castle and pay the Master Builder the cost (or choose a corridor). The Master Builder will then choose their room tile and pay the bank the cost. For every room tile that did not get chosen a coin will be placed on it as consolation for whomever purchases it in the future.
Once you have placed your room tile you score the points printed on the room, add or subtract any bonus points for placing near other specific rooms, and check for room completion. If you have connected all entryways from a room to different rooms or corridors you may receive the benefits of room completion printed on a separate completion bonus tile. These bonuses could range from re-scoring the room, drawing extra bonus cards, or even receiving room tiles for free.
Game play continues this way until the room tile cards run out. Players take note of their position on the scoring tableau and count up any bonus cards they have completed as well as placement in the face-up public goals. Score any bonus points for leftover money and allow the winner to gloat and show off their preposterous castle… thing.
Components. There are quite a lot of components for this game. You are definitely getting your money’s worth here. The cards are of good quality. The room tiles, bonus tokens, scoring tableau, coins, and main organization board are thinner stock cardboard, but they have held up really well for me. The castleeple and scoring discs are nice, and the rule book is concise and easy to read and comprehend. The artwork is nice, and the whole package it put together really well. Ok, so I honestly don’t remember what the insert looks like because I tossed it right away, but I’m sure it was fine too?
So I gave this one some crap at the top of the review for being mostly ridiculous. And it is. But, I also really really like this game. It allows me to contrive a strategy and tactics as I play, and I feel great about what I have done by the end of the game. I did not really care for Suburbia when I played it, and though this is not a copy, it is similar. Why do I like this one so much but not the other? I really do not know. The art is way better on Castles, but surely that can’t be enough to overpower the game play right? Is it the Master Builder feature? It is the different sized and shaped room tiles that allow me to make a monster on the table in front of me? Must be all of these things. As you can see, I am not alone in my enjoyment of the game as Purple Phoenix Games gives this one an absurd 15 / 18. Get this one for all your architect aficionado friends.
Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a game of castle construction in the most ridiculous fashion. Oh, there ARE rules, mind you, but what results can be a ludicrous display of asinine architectural planning but also hilarity at what monstrosity you have assembled.
DISCLAIMER: I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, 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 from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. Also there is an expansion to this game, but we are not reviewing it at this time. Should we review it in the future we will either update this review or post a link to the new material here. -T
Ok, stop ranting about how stupid your castles always look at game’s end. In this game you are building a castle for an eccentric (and mad) king to appease his skewed vision of stylish housing. Setup is somewhat lengthy, so I will not detail all the steps here. Determine the starting player and give them the castleeple (grr) to denote them as the first Master Builder. As Master Builder, you will draw room tile cards that dictate from which size pile you will draw room tiles. The Master Builder will then assign each room tile a cost and place the tile next to the cost for all to see. Each player will then choose a room tile to add to their castle and pay the Master Builder the cost (or choose a corridor). The Master Builder will then choose their room tile and pay the bank the cost. For every room tile that did not get chosen a coin will be placed on it as consolation for whomever purchases it in the future.
Once you have placed your room tile you score the points printed on the room, add or subtract any bonus points for placing near other specific rooms, and check for room completion. If you have connected all entryways from a room to different rooms or corridors you may receive the benefits of room completion printed on a separate completion bonus tile. These bonuses could range from re-scoring the room, drawing extra bonus cards, or even receiving room tiles for free.
Game play continues this way until the room tile cards run out. Players take note of their position on the scoring tableau and count up any bonus cards they have completed as well as placement in the face-up public goals. Score any bonus points for leftover money and allow the winner to gloat and show off their preposterous castle… thing.
Components. There are quite a lot of components for this game. You are definitely getting your money’s worth here. The cards are of good quality. The room tiles, bonus tokens, scoring tableau, coins, and main organization board are thinner stock cardboard, but they have held up really well for me. The castleeple and scoring discs are nice, and the rule book is concise and easy to read and comprehend. The artwork is nice, and the whole package it put together really well. Ok, so I honestly don’t remember what the insert looks like because I tossed it right away, but I’m sure it was fine too?
So I gave this one some crap at the top of the review for being mostly ridiculous. And it is. But, I also really really like this game. It allows me to contrive a strategy and tactics as I play, and I feel great about what I have done by the end of the game. I did not really care for Suburbia when I played it, and though this is not a copy, it is similar. Why do I like this one so much but not the other? I really do not know. The art is way better on Castles, but surely that can’t be enough to overpower the game play right? Is it the Master Builder feature? It is the different sized and shaped room tiles that allow me to make a monster on the table in front of me? Must be all of these things. As you can see, I am not alone in my enjoyment of the game as Purple Phoenix Games gives this one an absurd 15 / 18. Get this one for all your architect aficionado friends.
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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) in Movies
Jan 18, 2019 (Updated Jan 18, 2019)
The Illusion of Choice
Contains spoilers, click to show
I should preface this review by saying a few things. First of all, I don't like Black Mirror. I have watched a handful of episodes from the first season and always felt like it wasn't as clever as it tried to be. I do however like Charlie Brooker, I am a fan of his 'Wipe,' shows and I like his no bullshit personality. Lastly, I am not a fan of games or books where the audience is asked to choose the path they want to take. I believe that the writer of the movie/game/book should be the one to dictate where the story goes, not Joe Bloggs sitting on his couch covered in Doritos powder.
With all of that said, I decided to give Bandersnatch a go last night. I was intrigued by the whole choose-your-own-adventure concept and did go in wanting to like this thing. Unfortunately, following all the hype that surrounded its release a few weeks ago, I came away pretty disappointed.
As for my spoiler free thoughts, I thought that Will Poulter was the best thing about this film and that Fionn Whitehead's performance was okay, but felt forced and cheesy at times. However, in order to discuss why Bandersnatch ultimately left me disappointed, I am going to have to spoil the movie, so if you haven't went through it for yourself yet, you should probably look away now.
3,2,1... SPOILERS!
So, it turns out that the choices that you make while watching the film don't really matter for the most part. After spending 2-3 hours with it, I discovered that there are only really 2 endings. Either Stefan kills his dad or he goes to the therapist and she breaks the fourth wall. Every other ending is not really an ending and forces you back into the last situation until you make the choice that the filmmakers clearly want you to make.
As we are pretty much controlling Stefan during the course of the story, I chose to pick the best decisions for him, rather than choosing the more cruel, sick settings just to see what would happen. However Bandersnatch doesn't want you to do that and as soon as you make one of these more pacifist decisions, it punishes you by giving you an anticlimactic non-ending and sends you back to your last decision. Being forced to make these destructive choices forces you down the narrative path set out by the writers to the two endings that I discussed earlier and that's your lot. That's really all that there is to see here other than a few surplus arbitrary scenes.
The only things that you really get to decide on is trivial nonsense that has no impact on the narrative, like what cereal to eat or what record to buy. So, why bother making this a choose-your-own-adventure story in the first place rather than just a regular episode of Black Mirror? Because, if this was just a regular episode of a TV show, it would be extremely fucking boring, monotonous and trite.
The show tries to defend itself in these aspects. It insinuates the idea that just as we are controlling Stefan and forcing him to make certain decisions, Charlie Brooker as the writer is controlling us and forcing us to make certain decisions, hence the absence of any real choice for the viewer. I call bullshit on this idea, it's just down to lazy writing to be honest. When the therapist breaks the fourth wall, she also suggests that if this was a TV show that someone was watching for entertainment, it would have to be more exciting and less bland and dull. Pointing out that your show is bland and dull doesn't save it from being just as fucking bland and dull as it would be if you hadn't highlighted it in your script.
The show puts these elements in so that when it is questioned, it can respond saying that you as an audience member are just not clever enough to get it. Unfortunately the fact is that Bandersnatch, - just like Black Mirror - before it, isn't as clever or as cool as it thinks it is and works far better as an idea than it does in execution.
Overall, that's what this is; it's a cool idea executed poorly. I really wish that they had done more with it. It does seem to be a hit though, so for better or worse we can probably expect to see more and more of these crop up on Netflix. Will Poulter was the one saving grace of this thing and he inexplicably vanishes halfway through the story in most of the threads. It did get a reaction out of me though, which is probably what Brooker and his team wanted, it was just an extremely negative reaction due to the realisation that I had wasted my time going through this thing. If you like Black Mirror, you will probably enjoy this, but I'm afraid that it's just not for me.
With all of that said, I decided to give Bandersnatch a go last night. I was intrigued by the whole choose-your-own-adventure concept and did go in wanting to like this thing. Unfortunately, following all the hype that surrounded its release a few weeks ago, I came away pretty disappointed.
As for my spoiler free thoughts, I thought that Will Poulter was the best thing about this film and that Fionn Whitehead's performance was okay, but felt forced and cheesy at times. However, in order to discuss why Bandersnatch ultimately left me disappointed, I am going to have to spoil the movie, so if you haven't went through it for yourself yet, you should probably look away now.
3,2,1... SPOILERS!
So, it turns out that the choices that you make while watching the film don't really matter for the most part. After spending 2-3 hours with it, I discovered that there are only really 2 endings. Either Stefan kills his dad or he goes to the therapist and she breaks the fourth wall. Every other ending is not really an ending and forces you back into the last situation until you make the choice that the filmmakers clearly want you to make.
As we are pretty much controlling Stefan during the course of the story, I chose to pick the best decisions for him, rather than choosing the more cruel, sick settings just to see what would happen. However Bandersnatch doesn't want you to do that and as soon as you make one of these more pacifist decisions, it punishes you by giving you an anticlimactic non-ending and sends you back to your last decision. Being forced to make these destructive choices forces you down the narrative path set out by the writers to the two endings that I discussed earlier and that's your lot. That's really all that there is to see here other than a few surplus arbitrary scenes.
The only things that you really get to decide on is trivial nonsense that has no impact on the narrative, like what cereal to eat or what record to buy. So, why bother making this a choose-your-own-adventure story in the first place rather than just a regular episode of Black Mirror? Because, if this was just a regular episode of a TV show, it would be extremely fucking boring, monotonous and trite.
The show tries to defend itself in these aspects. It insinuates the idea that just as we are controlling Stefan and forcing him to make certain decisions, Charlie Brooker as the writer is controlling us and forcing us to make certain decisions, hence the absence of any real choice for the viewer. I call bullshit on this idea, it's just down to lazy writing to be honest. When the therapist breaks the fourth wall, she also suggests that if this was a TV show that someone was watching for entertainment, it would have to be more exciting and less bland and dull. Pointing out that your show is bland and dull doesn't save it from being just as fucking bland and dull as it would be if you hadn't highlighted it in your script.
The show puts these elements in so that when it is questioned, it can respond saying that you as an audience member are just not clever enough to get it. Unfortunately the fact is that Bandersnatch, - just like Black Mirror - before it, isn't as clever or as cool as it thinks it is and works far better as an idea than it does in execution.
Overall, that's what this is; it's a cool idea executed poorly. I really wish that they had done more with it. It does seem to be a hit though, so for better or worse we can probably expect to see more and more of these crop up on Netflix. Will Poulter was the one saving grace of this thing and he inexplicably vanishes halfway through the story in most of the threads. It did get a reaction out of me though, which is probably what Brooker and his team wanted, it was just an extremely negative reaction due to the realisation that I had wasted my time going through this thing. If you like Black Mirror, you will probably enjoy this, but I'm afraid that it's just not for me.