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Boy Band Builder: The Card Game
Boy Band Builder: The Card Game
2021 | Card Game, Party Game
When researching and requesting games to review and preview, I sometimes need to clarify my stance on certain things. Perhaps my thoughts on climate change, or my interest in European door decorations, or, in this case, my preferences on the era of boy bands past which we recently (and thankfully) have evolved. I was assured that my distaste for the music genre would not negatively influence my enjoyment of this game. After my plays, I must agree.

Boy Band Builder (BBB from here out) is a card drafting and band-building game for two to four players. In it, players are band managers tasked with creating the next big group of talented and attractive boys, with the winner of the game being they who earn the most money from assembling the best band and playing the most lucrative gigs.

DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T


To setup, separate the cards by type and shuffle each stack independently. The Gigs deck is placed on the table with four Gigs displayed from the top of the deck. The Artists and Star decks are placed on the table and each player is dealt three Star cards to start the game. It is now setup and managers are ready to build bands… of boys!
BBB is played over a series of rounds, where each player will take two actions each turn. These actions are Audition, Draw Star Cards, Play a Star Card, and Do a Gig. When a manager Auditions boys for the band, they draw the top three Artist cards, choose one to add to their band, and then discard the rest to the bottom of the deck. The cost to add the boy to the band is shown in the upper right hand corner and represents the number of Star cards to be discarded from hand. Artists are added to band (tableau) and ready to begin rehearsing. At least, I hope they are rehearsing.

Additionally, the active manager may Draw Star Cards to increase their hand. Simply draw two Star cards from the top of the deck. Alternatively, the manager may choose to Play a Star Card for its stats by slipping the card under a boy to increase his level of Pipes, Moves, Heat, or Cool stats (check out the photo below where I went hard on buffing Old Frank).


Finally, if the boy band members currently possess the appropriate amount of stats, the manager may choose to Do a Gig. They choose one of the face-up Gigs cards, take it to their score pile (assuming they possess the correct type and number of stats), and then do a little dance to celebrate a completed Gig. To signify the end of their turn, the active manager draws a Star card and passes to the next player. The game ends once the appropriate number of Gigs have been completed by a manager, as detailed in the rules per number of players. The manager with the highest total of money earned from Gigs cards is the winner, and receives all the Grammy nominations afforded to them.
Components. This is a bunch of cards in a tuckbox. The cards are all fine, but the true hero here is the artwork. I cannot express how much I appreciate the decision to keep the art style modern, and the faces blank. I believe it is mostly due to the fact that all of us who were not in boy bands were all a bit jealous of those who were, but I will publicly state that my official opinion is because these boys don’t really need faces. Body language speaks volumes, and the art style reflects that extremely well. Mad props from me on the artwork.

The gameplay here is very intuitive, even though I had a couple questions that were not made clear in the rulebook. You need Star cards in order to buff Boys so they can do Gigs, and making sure that your band has all the right stats to complete the more profitable Gigs. I believe the game lasts an appropriate amount of time; it does NOT overstay its welcome, which is a huge thing for a filler game such as this. I do wish there were more off-the-wall characters like Old Frank and Lil’Hop, and I also wish the Star cards’ backgrounds were a little more interesting to look at, but the game ultimately looks good and plays well too. There are a few extra surprises to be found in the game that I will let our readers discover, including some Take That card that can hinder opponents.

Boy Band Builder can be super quick and competitive, or can be more leisurely and relaxed. This is a great thing for a cute little card game, and though the theme is something with which I am not at all enamored, a love for boy bands is not required to enjoy Boy Band Builder. I can see myself breaking this out with the right people, but I don’t necessarily foresee having this on stand-by for every game night. If you are in the market for a uniquely-themed card game you can chair dance while playing, then check out Boy Band Builder. It can be found on the Amazon store by clicking this link. Enjoy!
  
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
I'd managed to see the Terminator and T2 in a double bill at the cinema and was shocked to discover I hadn't seen the first one... I really thought I had! Retro films on the big screen are amazing and I need to find the person I need to bribe to get some of my favourites shown.

Dani is working hard to help support her family, she's happy and carefree living with her father, brother and dog, Taco. But today is going to change her life forever.

Grace drops into the world violently, her mission is to protect Dani from a machine sent back to kill her. It's a familiar story, but the Rev-9's aren't like the Terminators, they're relentless and nearly indestructible. Grace and Dani find some unexpected back-up when Sarah Connor joins the hunt, aiding their escape and leading them to another ally for their mission.

Straight off the bat I want to say I loved this film, I'm going to compare it to 2018's Halloween. Neither franchise is something I'm an expert in but these new incarnations to me feel quite respectful to the originals and manage to give us a successful modern take. They both create a homage of things that came before them, and I like that.

The film opens in a great way with the interview tape of Sarah Connor and I thought it was really clever to mix it with consistent effects onto the studio logos/trailers. I was also impressed with the flashback scene of Sarah and John... I genuinely thought I'd missed something from the previous films because I hadn't seen this footage. It was in fact done with a body double and some CGI from what I've read. The quality of the effects in this bit were amazing and I couldn't tell that it wasn't actual footage, it really threw me for a loop.

Our original characters have both developed since their outing in T2. Sarah is much more purposeful but I have to wonder what she was doing between the times she recounts during the film. The Terminator has managed to adapt to his own sort of "human" life, which again, looks like it's got a few holes in it, but neither case really had me pondering until after the film. Linda Hamilton gives a relaxed kick-ass action performance, Sarah has clearly honed her skills and has little emotion apart from hatred coursing through her veins when she's on a mission, it gave a satisfying little lift to things for me. I couldn't help but believe her attitude to everything, still a little bit of the crazy about her but her determination to keep the machines from rising gives her laser focus.

The Terminator, now going by the name Carl is left to do his own thing after completing his mission. I don't know how I feel about this, would there not have been programming beyond his original mission? Anyway, I can't go down that rabbit hole. I thought Arnie's performance was really good, he's still got that "unintentionally" funny thing down well and the chemistry between him and Hamilton really shone through. He's also done well to get Carl to be quite natural while still being a giant robot, had he played it human I don't think I'd have been so onboard... though I don't know how I felt about his new career.

Having the enhanced human character of Grace stopped the sequences from being too flat. With the emotionless side of things previously it was difficult to engage with all the scenes. Mackenzie Davis gets to do the Terminator acting while still being human, you get the human panic and the machine reacting and the blend works well. Her relationship with Dani is a nice one to follow and getting to see her backstory in flashbacks... wait, flashforwards... really added to it all.

Sadly I was disappointed with Dani in general, she's just kind of dragged along with everything and even though she was essentially our Sarah Connor of this film there's very little happening with her. Her character doesn't have enough substance, she doesn't have enough in her to play with the big boys around her. Dani is also confusing in the future story for several reasons, including issues with time travel which I'm not even going to get into.

Overall the effects were very good. The way the Rev-9 movies is unnatural and enthralling to watch and Gabriel Luna's performance was impressive when you think about how he'd have to act and react to some of the more sci-fi moments. The effects weren't great throughout though and in the underwater scene with Arnie and the Rev-9 I was frowning slightly at the screen. The whole thing had a rather misty feel to it and was much more distracting than you'd think.

The other thing I feel is worth mentioning is that there are some odd choices with slow-motion shots. I couldn't see any correlation between the shots and why they'd been chosen for this effect, some happened close together and others happened out on their own and hardly any fit naturally into the scenes. The only one that felt right was Grace sizing up her shot early on, it showed us one of her abilities and that worked well, but after that they felt more like they were trying to show off more than actually picking spots that would have any impact.

Dark Fate has a lot of nice little nods back to the originals and that made for a satisfying watch. There's subtle humour and surprisingly some emotional scenes too, I came out of this and felt really content having seen it. Despite my quibbles, or which I now realise there were many, I really enjoyed this film.

What you should do

It's definitely worth a watch, it's some good mindless action and I think it's a good follow on to the original two films.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

Some super robot enhancements wouldn't go amiss.
  
Show all 4 comments.
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Sarah (7800 KP) Nov 7, 2019

They're showing Gremlins next month? Might have to catch that.

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Lee (2222 KP) Nov 7, 2019

Yep, on the 6th December!

Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
2019 | Fantasy, Territory Building
I have often wondered how cartography actually works. How was it that people with primitive tools were able to grasp the lay of the land and sea? And are we complete in our mapping of Earth or are there more secrets we have yet to discover? Thankfully, in Cartographers we aren’t really answering those questions, but other practical questions may arise.


Cartographers is a flip-and-write style game where players are competing to gain the queen’s favor and become the royal cartographer. While the main game focuses on finishing with a greater score than your opponent(s) the solo game is more relaxed. The solo player will be competing against their previous scores and comparing against the queen’s title matrix. Each game will be played over four seasons (rounds) and once the year is over the winner or title is claimed. Can you score 30 or more points to become a “Legendary Cartographer?”
To setup, lay out the Queen’s Edict cards that show A, B, C, and D. Shuffle each small deck of like-backed Scoring Cards and randomly place one from each deck underneath the Edict cards. Remove all the enemy Ambush Cards and shuffle one into the main deck of Explore Cards. Set the Season Cards in order: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Each player will receive one Map Sheet and a pencil. The game may now begin!

Each Season Card will feature a time threshold number that when met or exceeded will end the season. This corresponds to the time markings on each Explore Card drawn from the deck. For example, Spring allows 8 measures of time before it will switch to Summer. Explore Cards will usually show from 0-2 time measures on it, so seasons could change after four or more cards. At the start of each season, the player will flip an Explore Card to reveal which type of map element is requested and of which shape. The map elements are Forest, Farm, Water, Village, Mountain, and Monster. The shapes shown on the cards are reminiscent of Tetris-style shapes and also some others as well.

Once a card has been revealed, the player now will draw on their sheet the shape (or one of the shapes if more than one are shown) and fill it in with the matching symbol for map element type. If during this phase of the round the player surrounds the four sides of a pre-printed Mountain square they will score one coin and mark it at the bottom of their Map Sheet.

Should a Ruins card be revealed the player will flip another card to reveal the next card in line. Whatever shape and element is shown on the card AFTER the Ruins card will be used, with a twist. The shape shown on this card will now be required to encompass one of the pre-printed Ruins squares on the Map Sheet. If there are no legal spaces to place these shapes (or any shape on future cards) the player will be allowed to place a single 1×1 square on their Map Sheet anywhere they wish.

Should an enemy Ambush card be revealed the player will check which corner of the map the ambush takes place and will draw the provided monster shape in the closest area to the corner as possible. These are awarded negative points at the end of the seasons and can make large impacts on final scores.

After the elements have been drawn on the Map Sheet the player will check if the season ends. The season will end if the total number of revealed cards’ time measures equal or exceed the time printed on the Season Card (again, for example, Spring lasts 8 time). If not, then the player resumes another card reveal. If the time threshold has been met or exceeded then the player will score for the season by referencing the Scoring Cards that were placed under the Edicts at setup. For Spring the player scores Edict Cards A and B. Mark the score in the space provided at the bottom of the Scoring Sheet and flip the Season Card to the next season to begin a new round.


Play continues in this fashion until all four seasons have been played. At the end of the fourth season the game ends and the player will tally up their score to compare against the queen’s title matrix at the back of the rulebook. Not to brag, but my first game scored over 30 points, so I began this journey as a Legendary Cartographer.
Components. This game is 100 double-sided Map Sheets, four golf pencils, and a bunch of cards. The sheets and pencils are just fine, and the cards are good quality. What I really enjoy about the components is that this is “A Roll Player Tale,” meaning that many of the components and art hearken back to the original Roll Player game. As I love Roll Player’s art style, I also love that of Cartographers. There isn’t a ton of art in the game, more of graphic design, the art that IS provided is stellar Roll Player fare. I have no complaints about the components here except my wife thinks the pencil erasers could be better.

I skipped backing this one on Kickstarter and have only recently come to acquire it. I am definitely kicking myself in the rear for that decision because this is an excellent game. Obviously, anything that is enjoyable solo AND multiplayer is a huge boon (my wife scored it a 5!), and being able to play it multiple times in a row is a benefit as well.

We both love the decision-making in Cartographers, and when we first played together I had to shield my map sheet from my wife because she was copying! SHE was copying ME! She ended up handing me my booty in that game (of course) but we both had a great time plotting out our map elements. Determining where and which direction a shape should be placed can certainly be frustrating, but seeing your well-laid plans come to life is very rewarding. I am definitely seeing myself needing to download and print off more map sheets in the future because I have a feeling I am going to be playing the mess out of this one.

If you are looking for something special for your collection, check out Cartographers. If you already enjoy Roll Player, this will feel homey to you while offering a completely different style of game. My wife and I love it, and I am not sure I know anyone who would turn their nose up at it. Once we get into the Post-COVID era I plan to play this all the time at game nights.