Tabletop Fun

[Nunavut Pants]

FINALLY got to another in-person game session! Had to cut it short, though, because SOMEONE made plans for us for an early dinner... Just because it's her birthday weekend, grumble grumble grumble...

We played Harmonies which I had never heard of before. One of the other players described it as "Like Cascadia, but fun!" (Apparently he doesn't enjoy Cascadia much; I liked it the one time I played it a while ago.)

In Cascadia, your turn consists of picking a set of three terrain chits (from six sets of three) and placing them on your board, plus optionally picking up an animal card from the five on the tableau. You can have up to four active animal cards at a time. Each one has from two to four (five?) cubes that start on it, and a depiction of a terrain arrangement needed to place one of the cubes on the board, removing it from the card. At the end of the game, you score points for the highest empty space on the card. If you manage to place all of the animals that start on the card, you turn that card over and free up one of your four active card spaces. At the end of your turn, the chits you took are replaced from a bag, and the card (if any) replaced from the deck. End-game points are also scored for various terrain arrangements as well.

We ran into a situation where none of the cards worked with what we already had on our boards, so they did not get picked, so they never got replaced... Something of a vicious cycle. I bet someone comes up with a house rule for that situation at some point, because I think that could be a common occurrence with this game.

I was able to fully clear three of my animal cards, and made decent inroads on the three I had left. It didn't feel like I got super lucky with terrain, but did a little bit with the animals early on. I never wound up building up my mountain terrain (you can stack up to three high) or building forests, which require wood and then greenery on top of them. I did build four houses (stone/wood/brick with a brick on top) and several separate meadows, which are the way to score them.

I won, 99 to 88 to 77 points.

Interesting game, would play again. Not sure I enjoy it more than Cascadia.

[Nunavut Pants]

Posted twice by mistake.

[Ceir]

Meta story time. There's a gent at my usual board game night, Brad. Dice hate Brad. Any game, any kind of dice, if it has rollable RNG, his luck is shyte. Case in point, we were playing a round of SJG's Frag last session; the d6-based analog FPS. The rest of us were having what seemed like average swings of luck. Brad? Couldn't roll above a 3 on 1d6. A 5 on 2d6. He might get a 9 on 3d6. 4d6 wasn't a safe bet, he never rolled above 10. And usually lower. The entire damn game. And we were all rolling the same tray of dice.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Meta story time. There's a gent at my usual board game night, Brad. Dice hate Brad.

Syed in my current Curse of Strahd game is like that. The dice gods do not like him. He has continuously rolled shit in every social interaction his character gets into.

Now, to Syed's credit, he takes it on the chin and commits to his character's ineptitude. Even when it would make sense for Oliver (his PC) to not do something, Syed will have him double-down on it.

Every now and then, he rolls crazy well, but by and large, so many bad rolls.

But the Wheaton Curse has struck many a person.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Curse of Strahd '26 (sorta)--

The discussions of our future Dragonlance pirate campaign continue. Everyone's excited to get into it, even if we're still in the midst of our Strahd campaign.

We've been discussing intended characters. I've got a character pretty well mapped out, Ciaran Seabairne, a sea elf Hollow Warden Ranger.

Mark, chaos gremlin that he is, is planning to play a kobold druid that likes to wildshape into dinosaurs.

And at the table this week, we joked about a Valley Girl Cleric. ("Ohmygods, let me cast Cure Wounds.") A cleric of "The Girls." (Though I later joked that clearly Valley Girl should be a cleric of a sun god, like, obvi.) Syed thought it was hilarious, and suggested he might do that as his character.

[Nunavut Pants]

Had three days of gaming fun last weekend! (Stretching the definition of "weekend", I know.)

Saturday, we had a game of Six Nimmt as a "player summoning" game. I did OK. Then I was talked into playing Terraforming Mars in person. With one of the people who is in the on-line TM group. (She's a total TM addict!) I managed to pull off the win, just barely. The third player, who looked like they were far behind, turned out to catch almost all the way up at the end of the game--but not enough to catch the other two. I think I won by one point!

Sunday we played a few rounds of Just One, which was fun as always. I then wound up in a Power Grid game, against a couple of people who play it A WHOLE LOT, and a couple of people who don't. We played the Scandinavia and the Baltics map. I came in second. If I had not made a big move in the penultimate round, I might (maybe!!) have been able to tie for first (don't know if I would have won or lost on tiebreakers) but second place is as good as I've ever gotten in PG.

Monday's after-dinner game was Gravwell, which is a race game where the cards you play will move you toward or away from the closest object (other player or one of two "debris" markers) or sometimes move other players toward or away from you. The cards have element names on them (mostly real, a couple of fictional ones) and are resolved in alphabetical order. This results in some chaos in a similar way to the play in Six Nimmt, which also has everyone chose and simultaneously show cards, and they resolve in numeric order. Anyway, I managed second place in this one as well. Most of us had never seen the game before, so that wasn't bad.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Dragonlance--

Well, tonight was the finale of our campaign. After 58 sessions over nearly two years, the loss of two players (Jesse and Camilla both dropped out around the same time-- he because he was just not vibing with the campaign anymore, and Camilla because of medical reasons), three PC deaths, our ragtag band of Misfits have prevailed.

In the last three sessions, we took down the Knights of the Tears-- four archmages that served the evil Emperor Ariakas-- and then had to devise a way to fulfill our bargain with Zeboim while also still defeating the bad guys-- and also work out what to do about Takhisis, since if we killed her, it would destabilize reality unless someone was ready to step in and replace her, or unless Paladine (her opposite number in the Good Pantheon) stepped down as a divinity. We ended up making a deal with Raistlin Majere, whose ambitions were indeed to become a god, and he provided us with the knowledge to craft an artifact to contain Ariakan (the son of the Emperor and sea goddess Zeboim).

And then tonight was the finale. Evoruin gave the equivalent of the St Crispian's Day speech from Shakespeare's Henry V, and we went to fight Ember-- the Great Red Wyrm and the one responsible for killing her mother and most of her tribe-- and Ariakan. The early parts of the fight were built around getting Runa to throw the artifact to remove Ariakan from the fight (we literally described it like a Pokeball), and then enduring Ember's attacks until Runa could land that decapitating critical hit.

We had to take a quick short rest before effectively teleporting into Neraka at the Foundation Stone (during which Zeboim showed up to claim the pokeball with her son, and then dragged him off to her plane), but Ariakas was waiting for us. He-- like Ariakan-- was exceptionally dangerous (Bob the DM described them both as roughly being Level 60 characters-- since they were both demigods, with all sorts of buffs and nasty tricks) and he managed to kill Evrouin, because his sword was also vorpal and could decapitate off a critical hit. But that just allowed Runa to get the vorpal crit back on him.

While Gavin got to work resurrecting Evro, Berem the Everman-- an unfortunate mortal cursed with immortality-- went to the Foundation Stone of Neraka. Some 350 years earlier, he'd been driven by greed to try to pry gemstones out of the Stone, been rebuked by his sister, and he'd shoved her back, causing her to smash her head on the stone and die. He'd been horrified by this, gotten cursed for it, and had spent the last 350 years just running away, unable to die, endlessly pursued by the forces of evil, since he had the gemstone he'd tried to steal embedded in his chest, and they needed it to free Takhisis from the Abyss. We got to see him and his sister's spirit reunite, as she forgave him, and they went together into the hereafter-- causing the Foundation Stone to crumble to pieces, and for the entirely of Neraka to start rumbling.

As that happened, we got briefly transported to another plane, where the entire pantheon (including the evil gods not named Takhisis) waited for us. We confirmed our course of action, and the gods responded by giving us our final level up to Level 20, the benefit of a Long Rest, as well as a divine boon that gave us an additional +1 to our Proficiency Bonuses, elevating everyone above the standard +6 cap to +7 (apart from Gavin, whose signature item already gave him a +1, putting him at +8 with this boon), and then transported us back to finish our quest.

That's when Raistlin helped teleport the party to the Abyss to fight Takhisis. We had a brief couple rounds of consternation that she was immune or resistant to everything we threw at her-- until we remembered that our weapons/items have the Dragonbane property, allowing their attacks to bypass that. Sylphara had been given a set of arrows that provided the offensive abilities of a Greater Dragonlance-- she dealt a flat damage amount equivalent to her max HP, and a flat 2500 damage with a crit. She was putting up big damage, but neither Runa nor Evro were being ineffective, especially as Runa's vorpal crits took off two of Takhisis's heads. Raistlin spent his turns working on burning down Takhisis's legendary resistances, until he was finally able to trap her in a Force Cage for us to dump damage in.

And finally he reduced her out of her draconic form into a humanoid shape-- this was after we'd well passed over 10,000 damage to her-- for Evrouin to land one final blow... and appropriately enough, it was off a Nat-20. Killing the evil dragon goddess, ascending Raistlin to divinity in the process.

He upheld his bargain to free Justinius's soul, allowing Runa to give him a final goodbye, after which he was swept off to the afterlife by Cog and Catt for more adventures.

In the immediate aftermath, Raistlin gave ownership/mastery over the Palanthas Tower of High Sorcery over to our wizard Thalenis, and after our victory, Evrouin was elected to become the head of one of the knightly orders.

Next week, we'll have our traditional post-campaign dinner where we'll discuss everything, and give a little "five years later" epilogue to the party...

And Eric's going to take over DM duties for our fourth campaign, which will be set in an AU of Critical Role's Exandria setting.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Curse of Strahd '26--

Our party reached the Amber Temple this session. This is a key location in the campaign for a variety of reasons, though its relevance largely depends on a variety of factors, dependent on how your DM is telling the story. Often times, one or more of the plot-relevant items/people may be found there. In our case, we need to get a shard of amber from the temple to trap either the "Dark One" that Strahd made his vampiric bargain with, or to trap Strahd himself. (Or, as we've reckoned, "both? both. both is good.")

The Amber Temple is also a very dangerous place. There are some dangerous enemies in it, and it's often a place where a TPK can happen, frequently shortly after entering the temple.

In our case, we didn't go too far into the temple after arriving, but took a short rest just inside, standing watch and everything. There was some RP that happened, and then as the short rest went off, Phil the DM handed everyone a folded piece of index card, asked us to read them to ourselves, and then hand them back. We were all suspicious, and then I read what was on my card--

"You are not a doppelganger."

I read it, then looked at Phil. "You son of a bitch."

This is not something common to Curse of Strahd, but it is a trick that DMs can pull in D&D adventures, to stir up some drama and suspicion at the table. To get players looking at one another warily and with distrust, by suggesting that one of the PCs has been replaced, waiting for the right moment to stab them in the back. Frequently, one (or more) of the players is given a card saying "You have been replaced by a doppelganger. Maintain your cover and play your character as normal." (Or something along those lines.) And then part of the adventure may come down to needing to find and rescue the PC that got swapped out.

It's also just as common for every player's card to tell them "You are not a doppelganger" but just stir up the suspicion.

I am not sure which angle Phil is going for, but ... (shakes fist)

[Jay 2K Winger]

Exandria Campaign Sorta Session Zero--

As has become custom for our group, we got together for dinner at a restaurant for our post-campaign wrap. Talked epilogues for our characters, thanked Bob for running the campaign, and inevitably, talk turned to our upcoming campaign.

As noted, Eric has taken over DM duty, and he's running a campaign set in Exandria, the world from Critical Role's first three campaigns, though ours will be set some 15 years before the Vox Machina campaign. We've already settled somewhat into what builds we're bringing, and talk went to figuring out party roles. How we all specifically met up and whatnot, we still need to hammer out, but we've already figured a lot out.

- I'm bringing Boar, a bugbear monk (drunken master), a wandering adventurer seeing the world, discriminated against in the Dwendalian Empire for being a bugbear. He's a frontline combatant.
- Mike will be bringing Zetico Urisicio Notte, a drow sorcerer/warlock (clockwork soul/hexblade), on the run from his crime syndicate in Tal'Dorei. He'll be a sort of DPS role.
- Chris is bringing Gnarz, a kobold sorcerer (draconic bloodline), not clear on what their backstory is, but likely in trouble with the law for being from Xhorhas. He's our "nuke" caster.
- Patrick is bringing Pip, a halfling fighter (battle master), recently departed from some criminal organization where he'd been the bookkeeper. He's another frontline combatant.
- Bob is bringing Harold Arthur Peter Charles Poole, a human bard (college of lore), a lawyer from a wealthy family who may or may not be a secret agent. He's our backline support caster.

We've all basically agreed that our party is "four criminals and their lawyer," with heavy "Better Call Saul" vibes. I've suggested we dub our party The Accused until and unless we come up with something better.

[Nunavut Pants]

So, two Terraforming Mars games in this report! They took place in quick succession, with only one game in between them.

In the first game, my Corp had two powers: It allowed me to draw two extra Prelude cards and play one of them, and I paid two less for any cards with a Science tag on them. My three Preludes (two regular plus one bonus) were: Increase income in steel and titanium and money; get some free money plus draw seven cards and keep two of them; increase plant production and play a card while ignoring board conditions needed to play it (e.g., there must be at least 5% oxygen). I used that last to play Algae, which gave me two more plant production and normally would need five oceans on the board. I also had a couple of attack cards which were cheap to play, so I used one on each of my opponents.

I had complained in the chat about how awful my initial cards were. I still didn't see how I was going to make progress with them, but it was still early on.

In the second generation, I played another plant-production card, which gave me enough plant/animal/microbe tags to claim the Ecologist milestone, so I did. (An opponent had already claimed the Plutocrat one, which was gotten by having lots of money.) In the third gen, my main action was to play an Ice Asteroid card that let me place a couple of oceans, and due to an earlier card gave me some plant resources. In the fourth gen, I played Giant Ice Asteroid, which not only let me place two more ocean tiles, but also raised the temperature scale two steps and let me take plant resources away from one opponent. It was an Event card, as was the previous Asteroid, and the two attack cards from earlier, and one I didn't mention, so that let me claim the Legend milestone for playing five Event cards.

That was ten points for Milestones, which is pretty strong for this game!

In the next gen, I placed a City tile. This is an expensive action, but it gives you bonus points for every Forest tile adjacent to it, so it can be very worthwhile! I placed it next to some of the Forests I had played earlier, and I played another one next to it to finish up my actions in this generation. In the next gen, I played Natural Preserve and Mining Area, which
were good for a victory point and a monetary income, and for a titanium production, respectively. The seventh gen I mostly spent planting forests, but I also played Interplanetary Trade which boosted my monetary income significantly.

In the eighth gen, I placed another City tile, another Forest tile, and increased my titanium income and my monetary income with other cards.

The ninth generation was the last, and as is so often the case it was the busiest one. I placed a couple more Forest tiles and we collectively raised the O2 and Temperature to the "end the game" value, leaving us only two Ocean tiles short of finishing. I used the somewhat-expensive "place an Ocean" action twice to make sure the game ended there. I placed another Forest, then I was done. My two opponents did more to finish out their turns, and then we placed some final greenery at the very end.

The final score was 74 to 70 to 64. I joked in chat that I should complain about my cards more often...


Two games later, I had another good run!

This one was longer--it took 11 generations instead of 9! The scores were higher as well. I was able to grab one Milestone and couldn't quite get the final card played to get a second one; one opponent took the other two and so blocked me out of claiming a second one for myself. I concentrated on monetary production, and got good cards for it. I finded the Banker award (points for having the most money left over at the end of the game) and one opponent funded Zoologist (most plant and microbe resources). I noticed that I wound up with a lot of steel resources that I wasn't able to make much use of, and funded the Industrialist award (most steel plus energy at the end).

The one opponent who had gotten the second Milestone before I could wound up increasing his energy production a couple of times right at the end of the game to pull ahead of me in that. I could have placed my final greenery to get me two more steel but for some reason I was thinking the award only counted production so I didn't bother. If I had played there, I would have taken first place in the Industrialist award back.

Which would have won it for me. As it was, my opponent pipped me 91 to 90 with the third trailing at 79. Once we realized I could have actually retaken Industrialist, I was awarded a "moral victory". Which I'll take, dammit!!