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Song of the Huntress

Lucy Holland

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

A must-read for fans of Circe, Song of the Huntress recasts the folklore behind the Wild Hunt into a...

British Myth Historical fiction

Paul Kellett (118 KP) created a post

May 1, 2019

Played my first game of Legends Untold, a superb RPG card game with a focus on skill checks and exploration rather than combat.

There are two different games in this series - The Weeping Caves and The Great Sewers. Both play the same but come with different characters, events and locations.

The promise is simple - choose a single scenario (8 available in each set) or play the story campaign (one 8 episode campaign in each set) and set off exploring. You control 1-4 characters who are normal villagers that have taken up arms and gone adventuring (the campaign has you leading the rest of your village to a new place of safety).

As you make your way through the caves (or sewers), you have to decide which path to take and whether you will be stealthy. Different paths have different levels of light which can affect whether you spot traps or gain surprise on enemies or they see you first. When you enter a new location you roll 3d6 and check your awareness against the light level on the new location. If you pass, you are aware and gain bonuses but if you fail you will get negative modifiers to some tests and could trigger traps.

The location cards have great artwork and can be laid out in any position (lining up exits) which makes the map look great and very different from the regimented layout of other games.

Once you've dealt with any goes, you can explore your surroundings and hopefully gain some loot to help you deal with things.

Everything is resolved with skill tests, rolling 3d6 and adding your characters attribute in a relevant skill plus any modifiers (pluses for being aware, minuses for being careless, etc) from equipment or talents.

There are 4 characters to choose from and an array of weapons, items and talents. The rules give you recommended setups for each character or you can create your own. As you play through, you will level up, gaining upgraded weapons and more talents to help you along. This makes for a great deal of replayability.

The mechanisms while seem daunting at first are intuitive and mesh together really well. The rule book is fantastic and written in such a way that you can start setting up the game and start aging while reading along. Everything is clearly laid out with an index and glossary as well as some handy refer me cards so checking a rule is quick and easy.

If you want a great, quick adventure game, Legends Untold is well worth a look.

Kudos Comment

David McK (3372 KP) rated Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader

James Luceno | 2005 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

7.3

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Belonging to the 'old' no-longer-considered-Canon selection of Star Wars stories (now contained under the banner of Star Wars Legends), this novel is mainly set roughly a month or so after the events of 'Revenge of the Sith' when Vader is new to the suit, and to his new life as Vader (as opposed to whiny emo Anakin Skywalker).

The start of the novel, in fact, actually takes place during the events of Revenge of the Sith, through the period in which Order 66 is exacted, with the Jedi who are the main characters of this novel surviving that purge. Like any good master/learner relationship, the newly-minted Emperor gives Vader a task -to hunt down those Jedi - to further pull him into the Dark Side of the Force, and to cement his place in the New Order.

The result is a pretty fast-paced novel that also takes in key characters from the original trilogy (and some from the inferior prequels), laying the foundations for the Rebellion that is to come and explainuing just how the Wookie came to be an enslaved species (although that part of the novel reminded me a fair bit of the The Force Unleashed video games!).

Kudos

David McK (3372 KP) rated Hereward (Hereward, #1) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Obviously the first in a planned series of novels on Hereward 'the Wake' (in this context, 'the Wake' means wary or watchful), who was a real Saxon who lead the resistance against the Norman invaders of England in William the Conquerors time.

While largely forgotten by history, many of Herewards exploits have later been subsumed into the many legends of Robin Hood - it is easy to see the parallels between the two characters and, as such, I thought that this could prove to be an interesting read.

Unfortunately, for me, much of the novel fell flat - I was never really drawn into it all that much; never really connected with any of the main characters. Starting in 1062, the novels takes place over a span of years (up to, and slightly beyond) The Battle of Hastings in 1066 with that battle (and Stamford bridge beforehand) largely glossed over - maybe only a chapter or two devoted to the both of them. Indeed, it was only in the last 70 pages or so - with the beginnings of the English resistance - that I began to be more drawn into the novel, by which stage it was too late.

While I may read the sequels, I'm not going to be looking for them.