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Jcadden76 (64 KP) rated Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) in Movies
Jun 18, 2018
Wizard Olympics... and some folks die.
In the continuing story of Harry Potter, we get to follow our gang of wizards through a few seldom seen events: The Qudditch World Cup and the Tri-Wizard Tournament. We meet a few new characters and we get to dig even deeper into the storyline that continues through the whole series. Besides getting deeper into EVERYTHING in the Potter-Verse, we also get our first visit from a full grown and resurrected He Who Cannot Be Named.
LucyB (47 KP) rated Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Books
Jul 23, 2017
Rowling does it best!
Ah... I do love the Harry Potter books! I read this one when I was a teen, then recently re-read it to my own children - and it was every bit as great to read it now (as a thirty-something year old adult) as it was originally. That in itself is testament to Rowling's ability to spin a compelling yarn, and her characterisation is wonderful. No wonder we all love it so much...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising in Tabletop Games
Dec 3, 2020
Have you read our review of Thanos Rising: Avengers Infinity War? If you have not, please do. I’ll wait. The reason I ask is because this Harry Potter version is a reimplementation of Thanos Rising with a few new twists. Great twists. In fact, I’ll spoil it for you and let you know that I now prefer the Harry Potter version even though I enjoy Marvel-related things in my life much more. But why is it good or better than its predecessor?
Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising is a game utilizing the Rising system of games (which also includes Batman, Star Wars, and SpongeBob Squarepants as of now) for two to four players. It is a cooperative game where players will take charge of one of the three factions: Dumbledore’s Army, Hogwarts, or Order of the Phoenix in order to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eater cronies. Though Voldemort will be menacing players throughout the game, the players will not be able to attack him directly until about half way through the game. Can you survive long enough to battle the big bad?
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, follow the instructions in the rulebook, but generally the central board will have the large painted Voldemort “mini(?)” and three areas that hold Place cards: Hogwarts, Ministry of Magic, and Diagon Alley. Players will be given one Leader card in their chosen faction (obviously Order of the Phoenix is best) to begin the game. Set aside the damage counters, corruption gem tokens, and Spell tokens in their own piles. Shuffle the main deck of character cards, reveal and place three per Place and then insert the Voldemort card somewhere near half-way into the shuffled deck. The game may now begin.
On a player’s turn they must complete the following steps: 1. Travel to a Location, 2. Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions, 3. Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice, and 4. End Turn. After taking these actions it will be the next player’s turn.
To Travel to a Location, the active player will place their faction-matching Mission token upon one of the Places on the board. This is the Place that the active player may now be able to recruit Wizards from and also attack enemies.
Once at a Location, the active player will Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions thenceforth. The game affords players a large green Voldemort Die to be rolled. Upon the faces are sides that instruct players to turn the Voldemort mini Left or Right one Place and attack all Wizards there (including all Wizards on a player’s team if Voldemort is now in their Location). Two faces will also show the Dark Mark. When this face is rolled Voldemort does not move, but will attack all Wizards at his current Place (by placing damage counters on the card) as well as activating ALL Death Eater Dark Mark abilities. Not all Death Eaters will have Dark Mark abilities, but when they activate, they can be deadly.
Now that Voldemort has had his fun, the active player will Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice. Players will have in front of them faction cards that indicate how many and of which color dice to be rolled on a turn. These dice may be added to or otherwise altered as a result of recruited Wizards’ special abilities as well. Once a player takes the appropriate dice to be rolled, they must roll them and begin assigning faces to Wizards for recruitment, Death Eaters for damage, or other abilities on team cards. Recruiting more Wizards to a player’s team or damaging Death Eaters is how the game progresses because each time a card is recruited or defeated it is removed from the main board and a new card replaces it. As long as at least one die is removed from the player’s pool each time the dice are rolled the player may continue rolling to match symbols needed.
To End Turn, the active player will add any recruited Wizards to their team, discard any defeated Death Eaters, Wizards, or Places, and retrieve their Mission token to be used on the next turn.
Play continues in this fashion of taking turns through the four steps until the Voldemort card is drawn. He then comes into play as an enemy that may be attacked like normal. Players win when they defeat enough Death Eaters and Voldemort, but can lose if the players allow a Place to be completely corrupted (usually by Death Eater card abilities), allowing four Places to be corrupted, if too many Wizards have been defeated per number of players, or any player has all their Wizards defeated from their team.
Components. This game includes a lot of components of varying style and materials. The cards are all very glossy (meh) and feature headshots of the characters mostly. The board is three pieces fit together like a pizza and is great. The damage counters are little translucent red cubes, and the corruption gem tokens are also translucent gems but gray in color. The best components in the game are by far the Voldemort, well, statue and all the dice. The Voldemort piece is incredible, and pre-painted. The stance he is taking is formidable and somewhat intimidating when he’s pointing his wand right at you. The dice have been upgraded to a matte finish (as opposed to yucky polished finish) and feature some great inking. The one negative I have to say is also about the dice: I believe that the faces sometimes can be confusing because the icons are more detailed than is necessary. While some would argue that detailed dice are better than merely serviceable dice, I would much rather see a sword on a face and know it’s a sword than to look at a die face and wonder what I am looking at exactly. In any case, that’s my opinion and yours may be different. Let’s still be friends.
So overall this is a big upgrade over the Thanos version of a Rising game for several key reasons. In Thanos I always felt like every turn could lose the game for us, and Thanos seemed to gain the Infinity Stones too quickly for my taste. In this version, you know you have half a deck before you are able to even fight Voldemort, so being able to tackle his minions until then seems more surmountable. The dice have been upgraded, and the Voldemort die is wonderful and easy to read. That was an issue I had with Thanos: his die was hard to read and the colors were not distinct enough. Not a factor in this version at all. I also feel that this version has much more faction-dependency and interplay. What I mean is that an Order of the Phoenix card may require a player to also have a Dumbledore’s Army card on the team in order to unlock access to their special ability. I like that. I like a well-balanced team, though my first game saw me recruit eight Order of the Phoenix cards and one Dumbledore’s Army card. We won, but I felt bad.
So it’s no surprise that I love this game. I find it better and easier to learn/play than the Thanos version. I like the components a whole lot more. I like the interplay between the factions more. I am sad that I prefer Marvel to Harry Potter, but I do not dislike Harry Potter, let it be known. And I do enjoy this version much more. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a triumphant 10 / 12. My wife and I truly love it and can’t wait to play it again very soon. If you are looking for a good Rising game, I certainly recommend you look at Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising. It’s a guaranteed hit if you or a loved one is a Harry Potter fan. For sure. It’s brilliant.
Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising is a game utilizing the Rising system of games (which also includes Batman, Star Wars, and SpongeBob Squarepants as of now) for two to four players. It is a cooperative game where players will take charge of one of the three factions: Dumbledore’s Army, Hogwarts, or Order of the Phoenix in order to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eater cronies. Though Voldemort will be menacing players throughout the game, the players will not be able to attack him directly until about half way through the game. Can you survive long enough to battle the big bad?
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, follow the instructions in the rulebook, but generally the central board will have the large painted Voldemort “mini(?)” and three areas that hold Place cards: Hogwarts, Ministry of Magic, and Diagon Alley. Players will be given one Leader card in their chosen faction (obviously Order of the Phoenix is best) to begin the game. Set aside the damage counters, corruption gem tokens, and Spell tokens in their own piles. Shuffle the main deck of character cards, reveal and place three per Place and then insert the Voldemort card somewhere near half-way into the shuffled deck. The game may now begin.
On a player’s turn they must complete the following steps: 1. Travel to a Location, 2. Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions, 3. Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice, and 4. End Turn. After taking these actions it will be the next player’s turn.
To Travel to a Location, the active player will place their faction-matching Mission token upon one of the Places on the board. This is the Place that the active player may now be able to recruit Wizards from and also attack enemies.
Once at a Location, the active player will Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions thenceforth. The game affords players a large green Voldemort Die to be rolled. Upon the faces are sides that instruct players to turn the Voldemort mini Left or Right one Place and attack all Wizards there (including all Wizards on a player’s team if Voldemort is now in their Location). Two faces will also show the Dark Mark. When this face is rolled Voldemort does not move, but will attack all Wizards at his current Place (by placing damage counters on the card) as well as activating ALL Death Eater Dark Mark abilities. Not all Death Eaters will have Dark Mark abilities, but when they activate, they can be deadly.
Now that Voldemort has had his fun, the active player will Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice. Players will have in front of them faction cards that indicate how many and of which color dice to be rolled on a turn. These dice may be added to or otherwise altered as a result of recruited Wizards’ special abilities as well. Once a player takes the appropriate dice to be rolled, they must roll them and begin assigning faces to Wizards for recruitment, Death Eaters for damage, or other abilities on team cards. Recruiting more Wizards to a player’s team or damaging Death Eaters is how the game progresses because each time a card is recruited or defeated it is removed from the main board and a new card replaces it. As long as at least one die is removed from the player’s pool each time the dice are rolled the player may continue rolling to match symbols needed.
To End Turn, the active player will add any recruited Wizards to their team, discard any defeated Death Eaters, Wizards, or Places, and retrieve their Mission token to be used on the next turn.
Play continues in this fashion of taking turns through the four steps until the Voldemort card is drawn. He then comes into play as an enemy that may be attacked like normal. Players win when they defeat enough Death Eaters and Voldemort, but can lose if the players allow a Place to be completely corrupted (usually by Death Eater card abilities), allowing four Places to be corrupted, if too many Wizards have been defeated per number of players, or any player has all their Wizards defeated from their team.
Components. This game includes a lot of components of varying style and materials. The cards are all very glossy (meh) and feature headshots of the characters mostly. The board is three pieces fit together like a pizza and is great. The damage counters are little translucent red cubes, and the corruption gem tokens are also translucent gems but gray in color. The best components in the game are by far the Voldemort, well, statue and all the dice. The Voldemort piece is incredible, and pre-painted. The stance he is taking is formidable and somewhat intimidating when he’s pointing his wand right at you. The dice have been upgraded to a matte finish (as opposed to yucky polished finish) and feature some great inking. The one negative I have to say is also about the dice: I believe that the faces sometimes can be confusing because the icons are more detailed than is necessary. While some would argue that detailed dice are better than merely serviceable dice, I would much rather see a sword on a face and know it’s a sword than to look at a die face and wonder what I am looking at exactly. In any case, that’s my opinion and yours may be different. Let’s still be friends.
So overall this is a big upgrade over the Thanos version of a Rising game for several key reasons. In Thanos I always felt like every turn could lose the game for us, and Thanos seemed to gain the Infinity Stones too quickly for my taste. In this version, you know you have half a deck before you are able to even fight Voldemort, so being able to tackle his minions until then seems more surmountable. The dice have been upgraded, and the Voldemort die is wonderful and easy to read. That was an issue I had with Thanos: his die was hard to read and the colors were not distinct enough. Not a factor in this version at all. I also feel that this version has much more faction-dependency and interplay. What I mean is that an Order of the Phoenix card may require a player to also have a Dumbledore’s Army card on the team in order to unlock access to their special ability. I like that. I like a well-balanced team, though my first game saw me recruit eight Order of the Phoenix cards and one Dumbledore’s Army card. We won, but I felt bad.
So it’s no surprise that I love this game. I find it better and easier to learn/play than the Thanos version. I like the components a whole lot more. I like the interplay between the factions more. I am sad that I prefer Marvel to Harry Potter, but I do not dislike Harry Potter, let it be known. And I do enjoy this version much more. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a triumphant 10 / 12. My wife and I truly love it and can’t wait to play it again very soon. If you are looking for a good Rising game, I certainly recommend you look at Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising. It’s a guaranteed hit if you or a loved one is a Harry Potter fan. For sure. It’s brilliant.
David McK (3369 KP) rated Interesting Times (Discworld, #17; Rincewind #5) in Books
Nov 7, 2021
Last seen in (I believe) <i><s>Mort</s>Eric</i>, Terry Pratchett returns to his original Discworld characters of Rincewind and TwoFlower (and Cohen the Barbarian). In this entry, Rincewind is 'rescued' by the Wizards of Unseen University - a University that has changed since he was last there - from his desert island, only to be sent to the Counterweight Continent, where war is brewing ...
For some reason, this is not one of the Discworld books I would return to all that often (never found the Rincewind stories to be amongst the most enjoyable), but still has plenty of laugh out loud moments, alongside some other shrewd observations about life in general.
For some reason, this is not one of the Discworld books I would return to all that often (never found the Rincewind stories to be amongst the most enjoyable), but still has plenty of laugh out loud moments, alongside some other shrewd observations about life in general.
Josie-Leigh Crampton (0 KP) rated Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Books
Nov 12, 2017
A whirlwind of mystery...
This book was one of my first ever books to join in my collection. An absolute delight to read and a fantastic fire starter to anyone who wishes to indulge in books more. J.K. Rowling makes sure to immerse you in a world which is parallel to our own and describes it so perfectly that it's been fuelling people's imaginations for years. A definite read for just about anyone, whether you're a bookworm or not you'll enjoy this!
David McK (3369 KP) rated Death Masks (The Dresden Files, #5) in Books
Jan 28, 2019
So far, all the Harry Dresden books have been very enjoyable, but this has to be one of the best.
Harry is hired by a representative of the Vatican to retrieve the stolen shroud of Turin, while he's also been challenged to a duel by a vampire ofthe Red Court: a duel, they say, that will end the war between the White Council of Wizards and the Vampire Red Court (a war precipitated in an earlier novel). This also sees the return of Michael Carpenter, as well as Harry's ex Susan Rodriguez (still struggling with her semi-vampiric state), and (due to the subject matter) also builds up more about The Knights of the Cross (first introduced, along with Michael, in Grave Peril).
Harry is hired by a representative of the Vatican to retrieve the stolen shroud of Turin, while he's also been challenged to a duel by a vampire ofthe Red Court: a duel, they say, that will end the war between the White Council of Wizards and the Vampire Red Court (a war precipitated in an earlier novel). This also sees the return of Michael Carpenter, as well as Harry's ex Susan Rodriguez (still struggling with her semi-vampiric state), and (due to the subject matter) also builds up more about The Knights of the Cross (first introduced, along with Michael, in Grave Peril).
Mo (66 KP) rated Harry Potter: Wizards Unite in Apps
Jun 21, 2019
Experience the magic world (2 more)
Lots of great references to the stories
Augmented reality
Poorly implemented (2 more)
low immersion for an AR game
Highly buggy app
I looked forward to it but it did not live up to my hopes
I loved the idea of Wizards unite, since I heard of it more than a year ago, unfortunately this does not live up to what it was suggested to be. The story is poorly constructed, the app constantly struggles with interactions. The items you encounter are negligible most of the time and not worth collecting.
Seeing ingress and pokemon go from Niantic I hope this would be at least a passable harry potter experience, unfortunately it has made me free less special than I did before I got it.
Seeing ingress and pokemon go from Niantic I hope this would be at least a passable harry potter experience, unfortunately it has made me free less special than I did before I got it.
Adam Silvera recommended Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Books (curated)
Aasiyah Sidat (34 KP) rated Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Books
Jul 5, 2018
4 Wizards, 1 Cup
Before we get into this review I just wanted to let you guys know that I know my posting has been all over the place at the moment, but bear with me, just trying to crack this final year stuff so I apologise in advance and until I finish uni there's going to be no sort of posting schedule so just bear with me and we'll get through this together!
Harry Potter.....the love of my life.
I have to say re-reading the series is bringing back all sorts of memories from when I first read it in secondary school, hiding behind library shelves and reading it every single moment I got.
Continue reading my review at: https://www.readsandrecipes.co.uk/2018/03/guess-whos-back.html
Harry Potter.....the love of my life.
I have to say re-reading the series is bringing back all sorts of memories from when I first read it in secondary school, hiding behind library shelves and reading it every single moment I got.
Continue reading my review at: https://www.readsandrecipes.co.uk/2018/03/guess-whos-back.html
Leah (: (569 KP) rated Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Books
Jul 8, 2018
Another great book in the series. As Harry, Ron and Hermione embark on their second year at Hogwarts there are more adventures to be had and mysteries to uncover. The character development continues, particularly for Ron who shows that he is definitely brave enough to be in Gryffindor by facing his biggest fear to help his friends. We are introduced to new characters, like Ginny the youngest Weasley, whilst still getting to know the other background characters who help make the story so special. JK Rowling artfully continues to tackle prejudice as witches and wizards with muggle parents are targeted by the mysterious Chamber of Secrets whilst also enduring name calling and bullying. Despite this the book is still lighthearted and utterly hilarious in places. 100% recommend it!!