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Fog of Love
Fog of Love
2017 | Bluff, Card Game, Deduction
Unique (1 more)
Fun
Low replayability (0 more)
This is unlike any other game we play, it involves a bit of roleplay and gives you the chance to create some ridiculous characters, so we have had a lot of fun with it. I really like the tutorial element to this game as it allows you to play through it immediately - as someone who usually loses the will to live halfway though being told the rules, it is a breath of fresh air just being able to get on with things. The same scenario cards do start popping up after a couple of replays, which is to be expected, but if you're imaginative and getting into different characters each time then it might not be too much of a problem.
Some reviewers advise against playing this with a spouse, but happily our marriage has (so far) been able to withstand playing Fog of Love.
  
    Galaxy of Pen & Paper

    Galaxy of Pen & Paper

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    *** NO IN-APP PURCHASES! *** *** PREMIUM FOREVER *** THE ULTIMATE ROLE-PLAYING SIMULATION GOES TO...

Every review I've read has been bad. Honestly, this novel was no better or worse than any of Frost's other books, in my opinions. The main complaint I've seen is that the book isn't about Cat and Bones. Well, their story has pretty much been told in the four Night Huntress novels, and now Frost is moving on to other people in that world.

Given, I was never terribly attached to Cat or Bones, and apparently some fans were. I would advise them to write fan fiction or roleplay or do whatever it is that other obsessive fans do when their favorite authors stop writing about their favorite characters rather than writing negative reviews of Frost's newer fiction because they want it to be more like her older books. (<b>Please</b> note that I have absolutely no idea what Frost's position on such things is, and would strongly recommend querying her or her authorized representative on the matter before acting. Some authors are fine with fanfic/RPing, and some are rabidly against both. I can think of examples who go to extremes each way.)

While Denise never made a big impression on me while reading the NH books, it is nice to find out what happened to her after her husband was slaughtered and her life was screwed up so badly. While minor characters are often affected in Very Bad Ways during the course of paranormal romance novels, we seldom see them getting any kind of compensation. And who could possibly compensate anyone for the loss of a loved one, anyway?

That said, this is not a fantasy novel. Sometimes I waver on how a "paranormal romance" novel should be classified, but that isn't the case here. This is a romance with urban fantasy features tossed in. There's a damsel in distress saved by a hero. There's an obstacle to be overcome before they can be together, blah blah blah. The whole formula is there.

It doesn't suck terribly, but I don't recommend it to anyone who doesn't already like the setting to some extent. If you truly hate the romance formula, don't bother with this one.
  
Shadows of Malice
Shadows of Malice
2014 | Adventure, Fantasy
Great framework for narrating an adventure (2 more)
Good solo game
Interesting mechanisms
A lot of fiddly tokens (1 more)
Slightly heavy rules
A different take on the adventure board game
Shadows of Malice is an interesting take on the adventure game. Aside from the introduction explaining that you are heroes on a quest to find and activate mystical light wells and defeat the demon and his shadows before they can break through from the shadow realm and capture the wells for evil, there is no fancy artwork, immersive flavour text or even the well known fantasy monsters.


Instead, you get plain cards with simple line art and either just an icon/dice modifier or a short line of text explaining the effect. These cards are items of armour, weapons or other loot, potions, skill masteries, fate effects or abilities. A selection of these make up your character. Again, there are no defined heroes, you can be whatever you fancy being.

When you encounter a monster you roll 3d6 against a chart which will define the creature's species and its strength. Creature types are things like "Avian" and "Reptilian" so you can imagine fighting a dinosaur, a giant eagle or whatever fantastic creature you desire.

This makes the game a great framework to roleplay in. You are never stuck encountering the same things again and again. On the minus side, if you don't have a good imagination, it boils down to just rolling dice and beating target numbers. If you want a game to give you a story to follow, SoM is not that game.

The rules are good, if a little heavy but after a game or two it should soon click and it's mostly straight forward. The designer has recently just uploaded a revised rulebook to BGG which streamlines a number of things.

SoM comes with 4 large landscape hex tiles plus a shadow realm tile and you can choose any number of tiles to arrange in any position around the shadow realm tile. Each tile is divided into a number of smaller hexes with varying terrain and locations printed on them. This is the world you will be exploring and, despite being tiny compared to other game boards, each tile adds about an hour to the play time.

Gameplay involves exploring the land fighting creatures, gaining loot, visiting cities to trade goods or mystic seers to buy potions while searching for the special light wells that you must take control of.

In between player turns, the shadows act. They begin confined to the shadow realm but as the rounds progress, barriers fall and the shadows are more likely to find a way out to manifest in the land. Once there they start searching for the light wells and it's game over if they get to them first .

This makes for a tense cat and mouse with your heroes racing to either get to a well or intercept the demons on route.
  
    Cleverbot

    Cleverbot

    Entertainment and Social Networking

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