#I keep trying to play as other characters but I miss the ramp mechanics so much

[bigkickguy]

Olivia is my favorite so far!!

[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD commentaries: 5.15 - Power

5.15 Commentary with Adam Higgs and Speed Weed (writers for this episode and the next episode)

SW: By the time anyone’s listening to this, we’ll both be writing on different shows. But we can’t tell you which ones yet. Not the same show as each other sadly. AH: Yeah that was a shame. But we will one day in the future, I have a good feeling about that. However for Haven stuff, I think the thing here was, we were trying to reboot the show in a way. SW: That’s right. AH: 514 is the start of the season, or of season 5 part B, but these two episodes [515 and 516] really encompass the new world order. SE: That’s right, they define the world after the shroud is down. Did we call it the shroud in the show? AH: The shroud, yeah. That’s actually a good point because we spent a lot of time talking about what the shroud was going to be called. I can’t remember the other names we thought about, but we went back and forth for a long time. SW: And we talked about what we called it - because often there’s a handle that you use in the room for what you’re talking about, and then you have to remember, did you actually put the same term in an actor’s mouth so that the world inside the show knows what it’s called? AH: My favourite is when you don’t realise that. On another show I did that, it was in the edit that I was like; Oh have we ever mentioned that that’s what that’s called? And going through scripts we realised that no; no we did not - OK, let’s ADR some stuff in.

AH: So this was fun. We’re both fans of The Walking Dead, and we got to do a Haven kind of version of The Walking Dead, or of them just trying to survive. It’s not the Trouble of the Week things so much, it’s … SW: It’s Haven’s version of a post-apocalyptic world, it’s true. These episodes were directed by Rick Bota who also direct 9 and 10 that Adam and I also wrote, so it was good to work with him again.

[Dwight and Nathan talk outside the school] AH: So here we get to see that time has passed since we last saw everyone in 514 and we spent a lot of time making sure that everyone had their own intro so we could showcase how things have changed. And a lot of this episode is about putting strain on these episodes and just seeing how everyone reacts to this post-apocalyptic kind of situation they’re in

SW: There’s Tony, he becomes a bigger character in the next episode. AH: Yeah we spent a lot of time seeding a lot of things. And we shot these episodes in between our set move. So, for other other seasons we shot up until October, or earlier than that even? And everything was shot on our sound stages in Chester. And then this year, half way through the season everything got moved up to Halifax, because of hockey. SW: That’s right. We shot on a hockey rink in Chester. Really anything that has a lot of space and a tall ceiling can be a sound stage for a television show - if it’s quiet outside, if there’s no noise from the street coming in. *pause for the break*

[Duke driving to work in Halifax] AH: This is actually Halifax, this bridge here. SW: That’s right, and I think this is actually one of the first scenes we shot in Halifax. Oh no, we shot that later. AH: Yeah this was shot quite a bit after. And here we’ve got our wonderful mechanic here played by William MacDonald. I worked with William on an episode of Republic of Doyle, so I was happy when I saw him in the auditions for this, and he did a great job. He just has that look, that imposing feel.

SW: So anyway, the people in Chester wanted their hockey rink back, so when we got a 26 epsiode order (seasons 5A and 5B) we had to move sets at this point as we were shooting. And the reason these episodes take place almost entirely in the school (this storyline [Duke in Halifax] excepted) is because all of our standing sets were being taken down in one place and being put up in another. So you’ll see in later episodes those sets coming back AH: We slowly start to see the sets getting put back up. But these scenes with Duke in Halifax were shot after - well after - because we had to shoot everything in the school for this whole block.

[As Duke is leaving his voicemail to Monty talking about the kind of job he’s looking for] SW: What do you do when you’re responsible for having given Troubles to thousands of people? AH: Go to disneyland. But no, that is exactly what we were trying to figure out here - what happens to Duke? After the explosion how does everyone pick up the pieces and move on?

AH: And another goal for these episodes was trying to get the characters to an interesting place, or a place we can build off of. And the relationship between Audrey and Charlotte was an important one to build (over this and the next couple of episodes) to see if we could get them to a place where they can trust each other. Because it’s like Speed said, what do you do after you gave everyone Troubles? What do you do when you find out that this woman that you’ve been missing your whole life [your mother] has been an obstacle for you for the last couple episodes? How do you respond to that? And we do try really hard on this show to create some level of reality, maybe not in terms of the supernatural, but at least in the emotions characters have.

SW: The other thing that was a challeng early in the design of these episodes, and it was really cool talking through with Adam in the room, was how we got a super deadly - oh I should pause, people are psyched about this kiss [Nathan’s and Audrey’s ‘I like the view’ moment], enjoy the kiss. AH: This hasn’t aired yet, I just realised. And I’ve been waiting to see the Twitter response to these kisses, because we ramp up that lovefest, in these two episodses especially. And there’s some really powerful scenes in 516. SW: It’s true. Or I should say, I believe you. I’ve actually forgotten what happens in 516. You know we do have a portion of fans who are not on Team Naudrey. We have a portion of fans who are rapid Duke/Audrey lovers.

SW: So, we really worked hard to design a Trouble that was super-deadly, and really scary, and didn’t require any production budget. So we talked a long time about the darkness, like - when you were in the dark a monster would come and eat you, but then we thought you’d have to produce something for that. So it became just the darkness itself. AH: And we even talked later about whether there would be a sound cue or not a sound cue. SW: Sound is cheap. AH: Yes, but this was a good one. We went back and forth on what to make this look like. And you’ll see some of that production-friendly magic throughout these two episodes. But the darkness I think worked well in just keeping everyone scared. Because it’s kind of human nature to be afraid of the dark.

[Dwight giving his banishment speech to the assembled crowd in the school hall] AH: We got to give Adam Copeland some cool stuff to do, and just showing where Dwight would go if you pushed him to the edge. And I’ll admit, we went further with Dwight in the early drafts. Dwight was Ned Stark in the early drafts, and he was a little bit more complicit in some executions. But we looked at the character and had to pull back a bit on that, I was a little zealous there, I think it was good to pull back. SW: Well you had The Walking Dead in mind, you know. But the truth is ultimately, we’re not that show. We are more heartfelt and lighter, and we protect our characters.

[Nathan discussing his trip down Trouble Alley, and Audrey pointing out cell phones don’t work.] AH: Cell phones. SW: We talked a lot about cell phones. AH: We did, we talked about whether or not we wanted them to be able to use cell phones, or not to use cell phones, could cell phones work that way? SW: Could they get through the shroud? Well, we knew they couldn’t get through the shroud AH: How did the shroud work when it came to people outside? There were a lot of rules that we inside the room spent a lot of time discussing how things would work.

[As Nathan is telling Audrey who he’s taking with him to the power plant, and the camera cuts away to show those people, and Vince and Dave’s argument] AH: Speed, I have to give you big props for pushing with the intercut here, because it’s not something we usually do on this show. And you really encouraged me to push it further and I think it ended up working really well. SW: Well you did have the instincts to do that, and TV now can really jump all over the place and audiences follow it. Haven has typically followed a pretty standard way of story telling. But, for film students out there, this started (and we’re now back to) a conversation between Nathan and Audrey, that cuts forwards to a walking shot [of the group coming up to Trouble Alley], that cuts back to a flashback of Dave and Vince, and then comes back to the overarching narrative [Nathan and Audrey’s conversation]. You’re following that as you watch it, but it is - at least to the tastes of this show - a risky re-arrangement of time. AH: It looks good though. SW: And it’s very efficient story telling. You can get more story in in less time. AH: We did get very efficient on this show, I have to say.

[Vince and Dwight’s conversation in the office about the batteries] AH: This relationship was a lot of fun. And it was great to build it, and talking to Adam Copeland about it, he really thinks of the character, of Dwight, that Vince is his dad so to speak. When he’s thinking about how to play a scene really works in that kind of structure.

SW: To be clear, in case we got confusing before, Trouble Alley has no cell phones working. Cell phones work within the school, and around town inside the shroud, except for Trouble Alley where - did we explain it, I can’t remember, but there’s some kind of electromagnetic Trouble there. AH: Yeah and EMP kind of Trouble that’s knocking out a lot of the power.

AH: This episode moves a quite a clip. And again we’re back here in Halifax. SW: Actual Halifax. And here is Hailie. AH: Hailie, played by Tamara Duarte. SW: She just had a spot on audition. I think Shawn Pillar, our executive producer director, knew her, and she delivered a tape that was just perfect. We needed somebody who was broken and hard, and yet also vulnerable which is not easy to do. And she’s a young actress. AH: And she can sell stuff so well with expression, that’s one of the things she brought to this. And this character ends up growing. We originally only had her in these two episodes [515 and 516] but then she becomes integral to the story. And that was interesting because we hadn’t actually shot these scenes yet - as we were talking about earlier, the Duke scenes were shot much later than the rest of the episode - so we had to go back and change things a little bit to make sure it lined up with the mythology that we were putting in to the show to pay off in epsiodes like 21, 22, 23. It was interesting. SW: And we designed her Trouble before we thought how we were going to use her later (to phase through the shroud). But it was kind of cool, we essentially took a tool that we’d built off the shelf, instead of designing it specifically. SW: I love the story Matt McGuinness tells about when he was in Vegas with some of his friends from Franklin & Bash on a retreat there. And they were getting into a hotel van to go down town for dinner or something like that. So they’re this goupr of 50 year old men, and in climbs a group of good looking 50 year old women who were there for some sort of party. And they get to talking and flirting. So it’s like; What do you do? Oh we write for TV, Franklin & Bash. And that drops like a lead balloon; nobody cares. So Matt says; Well actually I write for Haven - and they all light up. And one woman says to Matt; You know what I love about Haven - it’s so complicated, but I know that you guys have everything absolutely planned out right from the beginning, so even though it feels confusing at times, I feel safe in your hands. AH: *laughing* What did Matt say to that? SW: He nodded and said; You’re right. And then he came back and told us that story. And, it’s just not true folks, I’m sorry. We are scrambling at every moment to figure it out. I think we do. AH: I think we do. That’s the thing, we make it work. Unlike other shows (nothing against them) we do take pains to make sure that if we set it up, we fix it, we make sure it works. We sometimes spend long days on getting that stuff to work.

[As Nathan is about to take the group into Trouble Alley] AH: I do enjoy this bunch of ragtag misfits working together. SW: Notice, another invisible Trouble. That’s a crew member with a wire in their hand; that’s cheap. AH: But if you’re wondering what I think it looks like, I’ve always thought of it as like Godzilla, a smaller version of Godzilla. SW: Cool! AH: Just invisible.

[As Charlotte gets her foot caught] AH: Oh, and again, talking about The Walking Dead transitions, Nathan in the original draft was super dark here where instead of saving Charlotte, Nathan basically blackmails her freedom in exchange for information. SW: Right, it was jumping up a wall originally, and he was only going to pull her up if she gave up the information about the aether. Whereas here now she offers it because she’s in trouble. AH: So I think it was a good note to pull back on that, but again it was just getting into that head space of Game of Thrones, Walking Dead.

[Duke on the phone to the bank who refuse to recognise the existence of Haven.] AH: And again here we are putting in some rules of the shroud, how does it work with memory, what do people of think of Haven, that are outside of the shroud. SW: Yeah, important for the rest of the season. AH: And are these - yes they are, the first episodes to really start Duke on this journey of him walking the earth. SW: Oh yeah for sure. Last episode he was in Haven. AH: And that plays out for quite a while. SW: Yeah he’s out of town for a while.

[Nathan and the others arriving at the smashed up Herald] AH: This scene I felt was important, just to show how the world has changed so much for everyone. You know, no one is safe. And it’s not just Troubles, there’s looters and stuff where the Troubles have set off a fuse, but at the end of it is just crime and everything. SW: And very poignant that it’s Dave here in the Teagues home, because for most of the series they were the keeper of the secrets. If everyone else was confused, they knew what was going on. And then a little bit in season 4 it started getting out of their hands , and then certainly in season give they are way out of their depth. And this their vault of secrets has been affected.

[As Charlotte is telling Nathan that aether might help her solve the Troubles AH: Here we had to be very specific about this receipe for success and how it would work.

[Dwight to Audrey; It’s easy making choices from the side lines] AH: This is the ‘heavy is the head that wears the crown’ aspect

[As we see the power plant] AH: This was actually a power plant SW: Yeah it’s so cool. Very unusual looking place. AH: So that was neat that we were able to get an actual power plant with the turbines and everything. I will say for myself, that I am not mechanically inclined at all. So there was a lot of help from the room in figuring out how electricity works. And this is Kira Fletcher, this is our third Fletcher that we’ve used on this show.

AH: It was nice to get everybody in the dirty clothes and everything too. And they wore it all well.

[As Nathan takes the wires from Kira] AH: That’s the other thing, in these episodes I really wanted to make Nathan as active as possible. He’s trying his best to put this genie back in the bottle. And just every time he tries to do something good it seems to backfire. SW: Well, it’s sort of the theme of the show; No good deed goes unpunished. AH: And we’re going to see that with Duke right here.

[As Hailie is asking Duke about her mom’s ‘superpower’ AH: And again, a lot of this story we had put in here, and we didn’t have to alter it when we came up with the fix or the solution or the mythology for 21, 22, 23. SW: Well and episode 20 as well. AH: Yeah, her mom is seeded in right there. SW: If you haven’t seen it yet, epsiode 20, Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn wrote a retro Haven episode that features Hailie’s mom. AH: And I remember there was talk about using Tamara to play Hailie’s mom. But I don’t think we did that in the end.

[As Duke and Hailie finish their conversation outside the garage] AH: Oh, somebody listening in. SW: 26B, is that what Matt calls it? AH: Yeah, 26B SW: Matt’s code for someone overhearing.

AH: This was fun with Charlotte as a character where she comes from another world that’s much more advanced, so she’s not a mechanic, she’s not an engineer by trade, but our technology is so simple to her. SW: It’s like playing with a paperclip to her. There’s a word that we use all the time in the room that isn’t actually in the show; Arcadians. Just to ourselves, Charlotte and Mara and her father are Arcadians. And William.

[As Audrey finds Vince with Rolf’s body, the latest victim of the No Marks Killer] AH: And this was some heavy mythology to drop as well. There is a lot going on in this episode! SW: Yeah it’s really the season premiere AH: It was nice to bring the Teagues back into the main cast. They’ve been out on an island almost, having their own plot and learning a lot of stuff that was very important. But it was nice to bring them back so that they’re interacting again with Audrey and Nathan, and Dwight. SW: And they do well when they’re holding secrets. They’re built for that.

AH: Eric Cayla, our Director of Photography, did some great work with darkness and shadows in this episode. [Audrey; Did they force you to do this? Because I can get you out.] AH: And there’s that Audrey compassion that’s going to play a big role in 17 SW: We like to, on this show to set up things, especially as it’s become more serialised. And with that litle line there, Audrey just sealed her fate for episode 17, or the end of 16. AH: Yeah, that was another one, like we talked about with 9 and 10, where the ending moved back and forth.

[Dave to Charlotte; Is there anything I can do to help? Back rub? Water?] SW: *laughing: Oh Adam. You have a way of getting humour in. That’s just terrific AH: *also laughing* I remember there was some debate though about that ‘back rub’ if he was coming on to her. And I was just like: No, no - he’s just in an awkward situation and doesn’t know what to do. Being an awkward person myself, that’s coming from real experience.

AH: And this was great work by the art department on these power schematics. It really helped tell the story.

[people in the school fighting over a flashlight] AH: Chaos! And this is again that post-apocalyptic landscape [Dwight; Alright everyone take a deep breath SW: That’s what I say to my kids when they throw tantrums AH: But not the rest of the speech. And this just shows how Dwight has elevated in the eyes of the town.He really is the leader. So interesting where you started with this character and where he ends.

[As Nathan and Kira find the mine shaft where the aether seems to be] AH: So we were talking this through, if this is where William’s stash of aether is held, our idea behind it is that he stashed it in a natural cave or underground area, geological formation of some kind SW: Like 500 years ago AH: And then things were built over it. It’s not that William went there when that building was built and buried it there. SW: Right, just to line up with the backstory that William and Mara were trapsing round New Engliand in the 1500s.

[Mechanic on screen; I looked you up Hailie Colton] AH: Oh I remember we didn’t have a last name for her initially. We had to go back and add that in.

[Duke runs the mechanic over and drives through Hailie] AH: Yes, Duke knew that was going to happen. He was not trying to kill Hailie. And props to Shawn and Rick for blocking this, it was not the easiest scene to block - a lot of moving pieces.

[As Audrey is packing a bag to go look for Nathan] AH: And here we were trying to have a nice mother/daughter moment SW: Yeah you did a great job. The slow arc of getting them together. AH: I think that’s the other thing we tried to do with these episodes is re-establish that anything could happen. That this is a new world order, bad stuff, people are dying. And it could be one of our characters. SW: Yeah we talked about where to end this episode and start the next one [The implication being they considered ending the episode before Nathan gets back, and so with the suggestion that he is actually dead] AH: I think a lot of these background extras here [as Nathan arrives in the hall full of people] were comped in. SW: They had 300 extras on the day AH: Was it 300? Maybe they weren’t then, maybe it was all practical.

AH: Thank you for listening SW: We’ll see you on 16

[battlersexual]

Board Game Showcase #4: Root

Hey! It’s been a while since I did one of these: Six months, to be exact. In that time, I’ve been playing a lot of board games. The old college club moved online for the pandemic, so we’ve had plenty of opportunities. So, I have a new one for today. This is actually going to be a wargame, which means I have to talk a bit about wargame mechanics. I’ll do a more in-depth discussion of them at some point, but for now I’ll just leave space for a link here and mention the basics.

So, Root. This game came out of absolutely nowhere and won a bunch of awards back around 2017-18. It certainly flew under my radar at first - I was more interested in a different wargame, which I will be making a showcase of very soon - but the moment I started playing in earnest, I realized how brilliant it really was. So let me tell you why Root is so great.

Story:

Root’s story is typical of wargames - more about factions and empires than individuals. You and up to three other players - five in the expansion - play as different groups vying for control of a thriving forest. The forces of the Marquise de Cat, an imperialist hailing from tamer lands, have seized control of almost the entire forest and are gearing up to industrialize the place. The forest’s old masters, the proud Eyrie Dynasty and their squabbling bureaucracy, have united under a new leader and are gathering their forces for reconquista. The citizens of the forest, the mice, foxes, and rabbits of the underbrush, have decided to throw off the yoke of oppression and band together as the Woodland Alliance, engaging in sabotage and guerrilla warfare to take the forest for the people. And in the midst of it all is the Vagabond, a traveler seeking to find a place in this new status quo taking shape, with the potential to play kingmaker or even seize power for himself.

Also, they’re all cute animals.

Mechanics and more under the cut. 

Mechanics:

Oh boy, this is gonna be a big one. In fact, for the first time in Board Game Showcase history, I have to split up the mechanics section. See, Root is an asymmetrical game, much like Cosmic Encounter was, but unlike Cosmic, Root’s factions have differences that go far beyond a single ability. So instead, I’ll summarize the major mechanics here and go into detail on the factions in their own section.

Root is played on a board representing an autumn forest, with twelve “clearings” connected by paths and separated by thick forested areas.

Each clearing has a suit, represented by the color of the trees as well as a small symbol (you can see it on the prior image: this one is just the art) next to the clearing. The suits are Fox, Mouse, and Rabbit. Each clearing also has small white squares, which represent building slots: different clearings support different levels of infrastructure.

The denizens of the forest are represented by a 54-card deck with four suits: the aforementioned fox, mouse, and rabbit, as well as a bird suit that acts as a wild card for the board: any bird card can represent any clearing.

Cards are mainly used for their suit, but can also be crafted: if the cost on the bottom of the card is paid (using crafting pieces, which are different for each faction but all in some way represent infrastructure in clearings), you get the benefit. Sometimes this is an upgrade, sometimes it’s points and an item, but it;s usually worth considering, and some effects can make certain factions exceedingly powerful. There are also “ambush” cards, which are played from the hand directly in battle, and “dominance” cards, which unlock alternate victory conditions.

Most factions have three kinds of piece they can place on the board: Warriors, Buildings, and Tokens. Buildings are always square, and tokens are circular.

Moving warriors around is highly dependent on who rules each clearing, which is determined by how many pieces a faction has there. Ties default to nobody ruling the clearing.

Battle is simple: When a battle is initiated, the attacker rolls two dice numbered 0-3. Once rolled, the attacker takes the higher number and the defender takes the lower one. The number is dealt to the opposing side as hits, each of which removes a warrior. If there are no warriors left, buildings and tokens start being removed. You can only deal as many hits as you have warriors.

The goal of the game is to reach 30 victory points. You earn points by crafting item cards, destroying buildings and tokens, and completing your faction’s goals. Each turn consists of three phases: Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening.

And that’s the end of the basic rules. If it seems like there’s a lot missing, that’s because...

Factions:

Each of the four factions in Root has completely different rules for how they play. I’ll have to present each one individually. I’ll be leaving some things out: each faction has a LOT going on, and I’ll try to convey what they do at the core.

The Marquise de Cat starts out controlling almost the entire forest, and gets points from building sawmills, workshops, and recruiters. She plays the most like a traditional 4x game, taking territory, building, and using resources. Sawmills make wood, which make more buildings. Workshops are used as crafting pieces, and recruiters make more soldiers and let her draw more cards each turn. She takes three actions each daylight, plus more for each bird card she discards, and can both pump out troops quickly and move across the map at a good pace. She starts with a heavily defended keep, and can spend cards to either overwork her sawmills or save troops from death with field hospitals.

The Eyrie Dynasties start stuck in the opposite corner from the Marquise’s keep, but with a good army and a Roost, which acts as a combination crafting piece, recruitment area, and point generator. They have a choice of four different Leaders:

All of the leaders have different abilities and affect the Decree. The Decree is the Eyrie’s political system: It’s got four columns (Recruit, Move, Battle, and Build), and each turn, the Eyrie player adds a card to the decree, then resolves it from left to right. For each card, the player must perform the corresponding action in a clearing of the same suit. This means the number of actions the Eyrie can take ramps up each turn, but the catch is that if any action can’t be fulfilled, the government falls into turmoil, the leader is replaced with a new leader, the decree is reset, and the player loses points for every bird card in the decree.

The Woodland Alliance don’t start on the board at all, but rely on sympathy tokens and supporters. Supporters are cards in a special supporter zone that can be used to spread sympathy or revolt. Sympathy tokens represent popular support for the alliance: it’s used to craft, it scores them points, and if another faction takes aggressive actions in sympathetic clearings, they make even more supporters of the cause from the general outrage. With enough support, they can revolt, setting up a base on the map and gaining warriors and officers, which allow them to take military action at night. They have fewer troops, but are much stronger: their guerrilla warfare means they always take the higher number in all conflicts.

The Vagabond isn’t a faction, but an individual. While the rest of the players are busy warring, this guy is over here playing D&D, complete with character classes.

The Vagabond wanders around the map with his pawn (not a warrior), searching ruins for items, trading with the other factions, questing, and building up a relationship meter with the other players. He doesn’t take territory, and he can leave the clearings and hang out in the forests. His items determine his capabilities, and everything he does helps or hinders the other players, directly or indirectly. He can ally with a faction by giving them cards, which earns him points, or he can go hostile and earn a point for each warrior of another faction he kills.

The expansion introduces two more factions, but we’ll go over them in that section.

Flavor:

Amazing. The different playstyles really get to the heart of the political game here, where you often can’t easily predict what other players will do and how the forest will change in a single turn. The art on the cards and board is also gorgeous, and really brings this little forest to life.

Replayability:

It’s a wargame, there’s almost infinite replayability by definition, but Leder Games went above and beyond. On the back of the board is another board, this one depicting a winter forest.

The clearings on the winter board don’t have fixed suits: instead, you place suit markers in whatever configuration you like. This is admittedly more for advanced players, but it’s nice that it was included in the base game at all, and adds even more replayability out of the box.

Expansions:

There are several expansions coming out, but only two finalized for release: The Riverfolk expansion, and the Clockwork expansion.

Riverfolk adds several things, including a board and rules for a second Vagabond player, and two new factions: The Lizard Cult and the Riverfolk Company.

The Lizard Cult is a dragon-worshiping cult that cares about the outcasts of the forest, and by that I mean the discard pile. Each turn, the most common suit in the discards is marked as the “outcast”, and the lizards perform conspiracies in the clearings matching the outcast suit. They don’t discard cards themselves to use them, instead only revealing them from their hand each turn, but to compensate, they have to radicalize their followers into acolytes before actually performing their conspiracies.

The Riverfolk Company are riverfaring merchants and mercenaries. Their goal is to set up trading posts in the forest and make a tidy profit. They act as merchants in-game as well: everything is for sale. Their hand is always visible, and other players can buy cards from them. They can sell their warriors as mercenaries, and ferry other factions along the rivers connecting some clearings, and they set the prices of all their services turn-by-turn, so they can react to the market. In exchange, they get more things they can do on their turn the more people buy from them, and if the other players aren’t careful they can become a terrifying force.

The Clockwork Expansion is very different from Riverfolk. It doesn’t add any new factions: instead, it compensates for players not having a large enough gaming group by making automated versions of all the base game factions. I can’t give much more detail, as I don’t actually own this expansion at the moment, but I love the idea.

There are a lot more expansions in the works, including new boards, a new deck, new vagabonds, and a new riverfolk-style expansion featuring two new factions, the Corvid Conspiracy and the Underground Duchy, but those aren’t fully released yet.

Criticisms:

Root can be a difficult game to learn, since you have to keep track of everyone’s different playstyles and rules to really play well. It can also be a bit snowball-y, with the winner often being very obvious several turns in advance. In terms of actual defects, the Lizard Cult have a special rule that isn’t listed on their faction board and only exists in the rulebook, which is frustrating. It’s also not a great two-player game, only really shining with three or more players.

Availability: 

Root is pretty easily available, since it’s still in the process of release to this day. You shouldn’t have issues finding a copy. It’s also got some good mods on Tabletop Simulator.

Conclusion:

When I first played Root, it was two-player, and I got stomped. I thought that would be the end of it, and I decided I probably wouldn’t like the game. Then, a week passed, and I wasn’t able to stop thinking about it. I tried it again, and again. I played it against myself to refine my strategy. I bought my copy and taught it to people.

It’s been months since then, and Root has become one of my favorite games. So don’t be discouraged if it’s hard to get started with. Give it some time, and some thought, and you’ll see the appeal. There’s a lot of great design here, and I thoroughly recommend Root.

[gibberingcultist]

The Forgotten Age

We think we know the history of the Earth, but there are secrets that lie beyond our reckoning and truths that could undo our entire understanding of the universe. When renowned historian Alejandro Vela discovers one of these secrets, the ruins of an ancient and forgotten Aztec city, it sets into motion a plot that could unravel the very fabric of time.

Designers: Matthew Newman Artists: Andreas Adamek, Justin Adams, W. T. Arnold, Borja Pindado Arribas, Cristi Balanescu (cover), + 55 more! Players: 1-4 (best at 3 per BGG). But I would say Arkham Horror LCG is always best at 2 players. Playtime: 60-120 minutes per scenario. BGG Weight: 3.86 / 5 Mechanisms: Action Point Allowance System, Cooperative Play, Deck / Pool Building, Hand Management, Role Playing, Variable Player Powers

I am so far behind schedule on all these Arkham Horror LCG expansions and mythos pack reviews. The Dream-Eaters Cycle was recently released and already FFG has two more Arkham Horror LCG box expansions planned for the near future. The Innsmouth Conspiracy and potentially something called The War of the Outer Gods. We shall see if that second title is accurate or not in due time. Either way I can already see the money draining from my wallet like venom from a serpent’s fangs.

This will actually be my second time playing through The Forgotten Age expansion. The first time was with a party of three and we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I found my first overall experience with TFA to be a incredibly frustrating. It was a grueling, torturous journey through the Mexican rain forest. We picked all the wrong supplies for all the wrong characters it seemed.

So after it was all said and done, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t ever going to play this expansion again. But with recently finishing The Circle Undone and not having all the mythos packs for the Dream-Eaters Cycle in my possession, I caved and returned to base camp to go on the expedition all over again. This time with a better idea of what will be needed. Characters with very high agility and well…. blankets. Why didn’t my first expedition group take basic bedding with them?! I’m surprised we even had boots on our feet, we were so unprepared for survival in the outdoors. Hopefully the second time through will be a little smoother.

We think we know the history of the Earth, but there are secrets that lie beyond our reckoning and truths that could undo our entire understanding of the universe. When renowned historian Alejandro Vela discovers one of these secrets, the ruins of an ancient and forgotten Aztec city, it sets into motion a plot that could unravel the very fabric of time.

So as I already mentioned, knowing how important agility is for your investigators; my girlfriend and I selected the two investigators from the The Forgotten Age campaign with the highest agility (feetsies). These two also seemed to have the highest potential for the most bonus actions in a round, which is always a good thing to have in this god-forsaken game. We chose Ursula Downs and Finn Edwards. We can’t help but think that Finn is really just allowing himself to be employed by Ursula to get himself away from some sort of shady business dealings back home. Or to make a hefty profit selling all of our equipment and provisions. Because why else wouldn’t we have blankets?! I swear that stuff is getting stolen from under us.

“I have had it with these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking jungle!” The pit vipers aren’t too bad as long as you are as spry and nimble as Ursula and Finn. We were able to stay ahead of the sneks by constantly moving and clearing each location of clues as quickly as possible. The Boa was a bigger concern as he was hunting us through most the scenario. We don’t plan on killing anything with vengeance points. IF we can help it that is. Neither of us really had any weapons readied during this scenario anyway. Just the trench coat on our backs and the track shoes on our feet. We were bouncing all over the jungle like gummy bears hopped up on Ayahuasca juice (is that a thing?).

Once confronted by Ichtaca, Keeper of the Etzli, we really had no choice but to parlay with her. I’m not sure why Alejandro Vela is so opposed to working with the locals (at this point in the game). Sounds like he’s part of the White Savior Industrial Complex. We discovered the Etzli ruins, thanks to Ichtaca and left behind a wake of snakes (very much alive mind you) and watchful Guardians. Rushing exploration and clue gathering was the way to go for this scenario. Very thematic and fun.

In this first scenario, one gets introduced to the exploration deck. Where one could potentially lose his/her movement actions based on what cards are randomly drawn from a small shuffled deck. A deck consisting of a handful of treacheries mixed in with a variety of potentially discoverable locations. I guess I don’t mind the exploration deck mechanic. More times than not, we will unluckily draw all the treachery cards rather quickly. So we take the explore action early knowing full well that we are going to draw treachery cards. After all the treachery cards have been randomly drawn and discarded, THEN we can explore without fear or consequence. And that’s a great feeling.

Welp. So much for trying to maintain zero vengeance points. Yig’s fury went from 0 to 5 in just one scenario. We were rapidly overwhelmed with serpent humanoids and barely got out of the Etzli temple with the Relic of Ages in hand. It’s almost as if investigators were meant to die/lose this scenario. Ursula suffered a mental trauma after being hounded by Yig’s minions every step of the way. Her treachery card was what did her in though. She was unable to heed the Call of the Unknown after taking such a beating from the treachery filled exploration deck.

We both found this scenario too frustrating. The difficulty ramped up to 11 and we were still ill prepared for such things. None of our weapons were even drawn during this game, so once again we just had to keep moving. Trying our best to stay ahead of the wave of snake creatures. The only reason Finn was able to get out of the temple, after snagging the Relic of Ages, was because he was lucky enough to draw his I’m outta here! card right when he needed it most. There was no way he was going to make it past the 7 or 8 monsters in his linear path. This relic better be worth it.

….Aaand it’s gone. We lost the relic. Or Harlan did. Whoever the fuck he is. We chose to keep the relic safe by giving it to some rando in passing. Then we are shocked when the supposedly trusty vagabond up and leaves town. Great.

Threads of Fate was another rather frustrating scenario with a ungodly amount of enemies. The moment we were able to eliminate just one of the Haunting Nightgaunts terrorizing us, we would advance the agenda deck, reshuffle the discard pile, only to draw the very same Haunting Nightguant! GAH! These guys are tough as well, 4HP, running away from them is hard due to doubling the negative modifiers. Terrifying creatures.

It was neat that there were multiple Acts or multiple storylines (threads) to follow and investigate. We were only able to fully complete one of the three but at least the scenario still rewarded us for making an attempt at the others. In that you receive some bonus experience points for just getting past Act 1 of each deck. Alejandro Vela was rescued and now resides in one of our decks. I would have preferred to have the Relic but circumstances prevented us from making it so.

Wait, it was all a dream?! But I consumed actual gas in driving to this fever dream. I want my gas supply point back. The Boundary Beyond would be strike 3 for us. Another overly frustrating scenario with too many monsters and a damn near impossible end goal. We were suppose to lose weren’t we? Considering we only managed to get 3 out of the 6 locations explored correctly, and then wiped of clues before being overwhelmed by enemies. The added penalties for exploring was very rough and we felt it… hard. Like for instance, one location forced you to take a physical damage to take the explore action. Which inevitably resulted in drawing a treachery card, making the damage you received to draw the treachery even more painful. So consume another precious action, take another physical damage, and try your luck again!

The Harbinger of Valusia once again made his appearance known. A damn near impossible enemy to combat while also trying to achieve your necessary win condition. With Alert and Retaliate active even when exhausted, the Harbinger is going to just decimate anyone interested in doing any amount of damage to him. Especially book nerds like us. We were able to inflict 2 damage on him though before getting TKO’ed. 2 damage out of his 20hp! I feel like we should be further down on his health track. Ugh.

During set-up, players are instructed to set aside the Agenda 3 and Act 3 cards. I imagine this is to mislead the players about the intended length of the scenario? And well… it worked! During what we thought was our very last turn (before the agenda would advance), we both made some hail mary plays to try and acquire as many clues/locations as possible before ending the scenario. Only to find out, the scenario wasn’t over. By the time we realized we had more rounds at our disposal, we were either already eliminated or stuck in some impossible situation. I can see that designers are looking to subvert players expectations in whatever means possible, but this ended up just frustrating my girlfriend to the point that she considered quitting the campaign all together. She is calling AH-LCG an abusive relationship. Wondering why we keep going back to it.

The Story So Far

Wait. Why are we back in the jungle again?! Let’s recap. Going back a few scenarios, we uncovered information on a secret cabal, called the Brotherhood, who had interests in the Eztli relic (missing!). This Brotherhood also had a great deal of information on Alejandro’s previous expedition into the Mexican rain forest. According to Ichtaca, the Brotherhood is seeking a place called the Nexus of N’kai. OK fine. So without any other bit of information given by Ichtaca, we set off on another expedition back to the relic’s original location. For what I imagine is to seek out additional clues in regards to the power behind the relic.

During our road trip to Mexico City, Alejandro voices his opinion that the documented symbols adorning the relic is not of Mayan or Aztec heritage. Hmm…ok.

We putz around Mexico for a while, eating lots of fish tacos and drinking lots of margaritas (or so I imagine), but doing not much else. A week later, Ichtaca FINALLY decides it’s time perform some sort of cryptic incantation, alone in her room. An event that results in a dream like scenario which gives us some insight. Insight into (Tenochtitlan locations?) a cave that Ichtaca believes is the path that leads to the Nexus. She wants us to go with. Do we have time to grab some Pozole before we go? I think so.

Part 1

The first half of the Heart of the Elder’s mythos pack seems more of a catch-up scenario. Because we only received insight on 3 of the 6 paths/stone pillars outside the cave, we had to spend some days trying to decode the other 3. The stone pillars are essentially the lock tumblers allowing access to the cave maw.

I find it hard to believe Ichtaca had been running all over this jungle, secretly protecting the relic from outsiders, and never once discovered or learned about this cave. And if she did know of it, why did it take so long for her to explore it? And it she did explore it, why didn’t she know the 6 paths from the start?! Gah!

We did not like this part of the scenario. It felt like another throw away scenario that really wasn’t needed. It took two attempts at it to get the remaining 3 paths. Our first day/attempt resulted in no additional paths and Ursula ended up dying to the snake monsters. On the second day, a replay of the same scenario mind you, we had much better luck in not drawing snake monsters to hound us the entire time. So that helped us focus on clue gathering. The whole idea of playing the same scenario over and over again until you achieve some specific goal, rubs me the wrong way. Repetition in this regard is no fun. We also were annoyed that progressing the Act deck, which is normally a good thing to advance, significantly hampered our overall goal. So on the second day, knowing that it would be detriment to advance the Act deck, we advanced it only when we were ready to take on the additional headache.

Part II

After we gained access to the cave, we had a good spelunking time getting clues and discovering locations. It’s as if clue gathering is what we excel at. We lucked out on drawing a minimal amount of enemies during the mythos phase. Which helped us deal with everything else thrown at us. We felt like we had plenty of time to achieve the overall objective and we got a heck of a lot of XP from this scenario (both parts 1 and 2). Which makes the sting of part 1 a little less so. Part 2’s flavor text alludes to a Journey to the Center of the Earth type inner world, taking place below ours. Which is kind of neat.

The end of the scenario was a little confusing. Alejandro betrayed us?! He was working in unison or is commanding some sort of alien race to find and gain access to Yoth, cavern of the serpents? Why? I take it Alejandro is a member of the Brotherhood, which would explain why they had information on Alejandro’s expedition. It was information of the inside variety lols. My girlfriend thought the entire campaign was over after reading “It is your last human memory.” So we just died?! Not quite.

Alejandro was working with scientific, alien creatures? Hah! So we got mind-swapped with a couple Yithians and mentally transported to some unknown location beyond space and time that acts as a mass-information compiler. What are the aliens doing with our physical bodies right now? The other aliens didn’t seem to mind us wandering around their utopian society. That is until we fucked with their experiments. I suppose we would be the real aliens at this point. We had a lot of fun playing this scenario. This would be the first time, in publication order, that your investigator’s card gets swapped out for another scenario specific one. The next instance of this taking place during the prologue of The Circle Undone campaign. Both enjoyable experiences.

We slithered around, doing our best to hold on to our items with our noodly appendages. We did manage to perform all six of the necessary intellectual pursuits before mind-melding back into our original bodies. AKA we were a rightful pains in the ass. 9 xp from this scenario! So that’s very nice. This scenario required a lot of card-play. Mostly we used our cards just for the modifier icons to pass tests. As your Yithian character card allowed for the doubling of icons for one card per test. This coupled with our ever reducing max-hand size, made the end goal of holding 10 cards at once a rather tricky puzzle to figure out. We would not have achieved this goal had it not been for our new pen-pal, the Custodian, and the best room in the house, the Yithian Orrery.

What were we suppose to do with the Out of Body Experience treachery cards? I was never instructed in the setup but I feel like these should have been shuffled into our decks at some point. The backside of the Yithian investigator cards have Do you remember…? in the Deckbuilding Requirements section. So maybe it was a mistake in that these treachery cards should have been included in our decks to start. Not sure. We didn’t utilize them. This will probably be corrected in the Return to.

Now lets see what Alejandro and his alien buds were up to while we took a mental holiday.

I hear people play this scenario just to see how far down into the depths they can get before they are torn to shreds. We got to level 5 (the bare minimum) and immediately got the hell out of there! One could get a significant amount of XP on this scenario though. If everyone is well suited for fighting monsters and dealing with the ever growing pain that is the chaos bag. We on the other hand are NOT well suited for dealing with monsters. Besides running away from them. Finn Edwards recently purchased a Ornate Bow which has been pretty damn effective at eliminating a bunch of annoying or persistent enemies. Enemies with the Hunter trait mostly. Lets hope the next scenario is more about getting clues and not fighting a Boss of some kind.

The Depths of Yoth is an alright concept for a scenario but just like in a previous scenario (The Heart of the Elders Part 1) you essentially just play the same mini-game multiple times. At least with this scenario, with the reset between floors/levels, the locations are randomized. Your starting location and which locations are available will be slightly different between floors. We quickly learned which icon to look for in order to find the Steps of Yoth (how to progress). And I’m so confused on what’s going on in the over-arching story that we don’t even care anymore. Both Ichtaca and Alejandro have turned on us and want the Relic of Ages for different reasons. Ichtaca, I believe wants to awaken Yoth for some terrible reason. Hopefully it will all make more sense after the next scenario.

We finished! …thank God/Yig. We did get an above-average ending. Resolution 1 if that does anything for you. We lost the original Relic of Ages so we didn’t get the best ending but we refused the tempting offers from both Ichtaca and Alejandro Vela and went about mending the tear in the fabric of time…ourselves somehow. Luckily for us, The Relic of Ages was rediscovered in A Pocket of Time which I suppose makes sense that we traveled through time and found a earlier/later version of the one we lost. I’m always impressed with the final scenarios of each of the major campaigns. This one was no different. The story seemed to come together. Both Ichtaca (Yig worshiper) and Alejandro (Yithian in disguise) had ulterior motives which is understandable. I liked that we could have sided with either of them to change the world as we know it forever.

We didn’t kill a single enemy this scenario. Besides those EZ-PZ cultists. So we were once again dogged by a myriad of serpent & elite enemies. We were use to though after the sixth or seventh scenario where that happened this campaign. Finn Edwards handled running away from 5 different monster enemies himself, each round for two or three rounds. One free evade, three normal evade actions, and a Leo De Luca evade action. While Ursula Downs worked vigorously at exploring and clearing clues from as many shattered locations as possible. Taking damage and horror when necessary. It worked. I can’t wait to go back to playing some Guardian and Survivor class characters. Or really anyone with dynamite

We don’t officially get to play the bonus, secret mission because we lost the Relic of Ages from our timeline but we will play it anyway just to see what it’s like. Going on the assumption that we didn’t hand a complete stranger one of the most powerful objects in the known universe. So we will play that next and I will report on it here.

Man, fuck this game. We got devoured by Yig pretty quickly in our attempt to undo our past mistakes. Turn Back Time has a cool concept but this scenario is not designed with pacifists like us in mind. It’s tough! Arm yourself to the teeth before entering the Eztli Ruins again! We didn’t REALLY deserve to unlock this scenario and we are going to continue acting like this scenario never happened. Our own form of time travel.

Now that we are done with this campaign we will play a Return To… or start The Dream-Eaters cycle and hope that our last Mythos pack gets delivered very soon.

In Summary

Of all the Arkham Horror campaigns that I’ve played, The Forgotten Age is and will remain my least favorite. With that said I was impressed by how many of the scenarios ended up having a decently high personal rating. This tells me that the scenarios themselves aren’t bad but the over-arching story and mechanisms introduced are what leaves a foul malignancy festering in my mind when contemplating The Forgotten Age. Mainly due to the frustrations with the exploration deck, the supply point system (never having what you need), and having to suffer the ridiculous amount of serpent creatures all looking to settle their poisonous fangs into your meaty neck. The Harbinger of Valusia is still out there, slithering around the jungle with a whopping 18 HP! Good luck with that Mexico.

Final Score (Avg)

[intrepidguardian]

How Design Miscues are Failing Portrayals of Relationships in MTG

Discourse? Discourse. 

Love is a difficult topic to discuss because it can encompass so many things that aren’t “love” - you know what I mean, the kind of stuff that would get a fanfic tagged as “fluff.” My wife’s and my third anniversary is coming up, and more and more I find myself still learning about what love is. I love the study, but I know that I could fill hundreds of external hard drives with epitaphs and musings about every interaction my wife and I have had, each exemplifying a different aspect of our love and still not get the point across of just how much I love her.

(Btw I love you Ash and thank you for helping me edit this)

So how could you get an idea as complex as love across in the 25 words you’re allowed on your average Magic card? More to the point, why bother portraying love in Magic: The Gathering?

"Players won’t care until they are cards.” - Matt Cavotta, Senior Art Director for Wizards of the Coast, discussing the motivation for implementing Planeswalkers as a card type. 

A few years back, and I’m sorry that I can’t find the actual post, someone asked Mark Rosewater something to the effect of “Red is supposed to be the ‘emotional color,’ yet the only emotion we tend to see out of Red is anger. WTF?”

Mark responded that R&D was working towards showing different aspects of the emotional spectrum in Red, but was hampered by the fact that Magic: The Gathering is a game about fighting and it was difficult to portray anything other than MAD RED in a game about fighting.

“No, my battlefield only has room for more Goblin Chainwhirlers.” - Solid Snake, probably. 

A little while later, they apparently cracked the love code and printed Cathartic Reunion in Kaladesh, which was meant to portray Chandra finally reuniting with her mother Pia Nalaar, when both thought that the other had died years ago. 

Shoutout to all my Dredge opponents that keep beating me with four-card hands thanks to this card.

Like yeah, it’s a nice moment and a nice piece of art. It’s not romantic love, but it’s familial love. You can see the love between Chandra and Pia in their embrace, and I think this might be one of the first portrayals of a hug in Magic: The Gathering [someone prove me wrong]. When you only have 25 words to explain love, the art and flavor text can pick up the slack. But mechanically, what is this saying about maternal love, or love in general? Is love just more inherent deck consistency? Is drawing cards the greatest display of love in Magic: The Gathering? Artistically and flavorfully, this card is trying to say a lot. Mechanically, this card could have easily been called “Super Rummage” or “Elicit the Dredge” and no one would be able to tell the difference. This card is trying to show what love is, but without any sort of mechanical tie-in, Cathartic Reunion just tells you what love is. 

Wow, my opponent loves me A WHOLE LOT!

I would say that the best way to explain love is to show love. And I think the best way to show love is to show people who love each other interact positively with one another. Like, love is hard to explain but is easy to see. When you see two people who love each other interact, you can just tell. Maybe it’s small physical gestures or communication purely through facial expressions, but when love is there, it’s obvious. Yes, the art of Cathartic Reunion clearly shows a tender love between Chandra and Pia, but both Chandra and Pia Nalaar were given cards in Kaladesh! Show us how they interact where we are most likely to see both of them: on the battlefield!

What are these cards doing for one another when both are on the battlefield? Not a lot. Chandra’s second +1 makes enough mana to use Pia’s first activated ability one additional time. 

That’s cool, I guess.

Pia has a tag-along flying creature that can block for Chandra once, so Pia is essentially two blockers for a planeswalkers.

Yeah, but Whirler Rogue can make a bunch of Thopters to block for Chandra, so what does that mean? There’s no love between Chandra and some random Vedalken just because the three-drop blocks real good. 

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There isn’t any mechanical unity here. Chandra doesn’t care about artifacts, and Pia doesn’t care about card advantage or incidental damage. They can do some things for each other, yes, but there isn’t anything for a deck builder to go “Hmm, how can I maximize this?” It’s the mechanical equivalent of Pia and Chandra getting Amazon gift cards for each other for their birthday - a display of love, but not a particularly meaningful one. 

Well, here you go. -Chandra

But maybe this isn’t fair. Pia Nalaar’s card maybe wasn’t supposed to work well with Chandra, it was supposed to convey a sense of emptiness from missing Kiran, her husband who had actually been killed. They had been shown on their own card in Magic Origins, which is powerful enough that it hovers around Modern whenever Jund or Grixis are good. Pia’s card is cheaper, but comparatively weaker, and even when you look at the art, Pia Nalaar is significantly dimmer and emptier than the card Pia and Kiran Nalaar.

“What does Kiran bring to this relationship? DO THE MATH!” -My Grandmother-in-Law, maybe

Maybe before we can show a good example of familial love in card mechanics, we need to show people in love working together on the battlefield! 

So let’s grab some examples. Three couples right now in Magic that people are really talking about are Jace x Vraska, Tomik x Ral Zarek, and Chandra x Nissa. If you wanted to show some cozy couples, what’s cozier than being in a deckbox with your significant other?

Jace x Vraska

Well, these cards could maybe work together? Not a lot of decks can make two blue mana on turn three and then turn around and make black and green mana on turn six.  

Mana problems aside, they kind of work well together. Jace is looking for creatures to get through combat damage and Vraska makes difficult to block creature tokens thanks to Menace. However, there’s also a cost problem here, which is that Jace wants to come down turn three and Vraska, the muscle of this relationship with all the free blockers, doesn’t come down for another three turns, so Jace has to try and hide behind a Bird that goes away if you look at it too long while Vraska’s trying to get mana together. If you can find a way to get both on the battlefield in the same deck, maybe it works, but it’s a lot of work without a lot of payoff.

Okay, what about a more recent example? Chandra and Nissa both got new cards in War of the Spark and they’re supposed to be canon, so they probably have something going on between their two cards. 

Chandra x Nissa 

This is a pretty symbiotic relationship - Chandra finds extra cards to cast, and Nissa makes a lot of mana to cast those extra cards and creates blockers so the player has time to do so. It’s the RG formula we see in a lot of ramp decks in this color combination - Green makes the mana, red makes the otherwise-unwieldy payoffs. But much like Chandra’s mechanical relationship with Pia, this doesn’t feel special or unique. Yeah, Chandra finds extra cards, but she also comes into play before Nissa, so there’s a turn of vulnerability where Nissa might arrive too late to actually help Chandra. And anyone could  do that “find extra cards” job. See, look:

It’s like the dating game, but for really, really sad people

They all can do the same “get extra cards” thing for the player the way Chandra can, and all benefit from the blockers and extra mana that Nissa produces.. Mechanically, there is some synergy between Chandra and Nissa, but there’s nothing that speaks to the relationship between the two characters - it feels more like a convenient coincidence that these two cards work together rather than two people who finally came together when it mattered most. 

Maybe what we need is a mix-up - people represented on different card types could have more design space for synergistic effects. 

Tomik x Ral

So the last pairing is Tomik x Ral. I don’t know if any of you have bought a “Planeswalker Deck,” but a big selling point to those cards for beginners is that there is usually a creature in the deck that benefits from having that deck’s planeswalker in play. They’re flavorful and fun to get out ahead when when you find your planeswalker, but they’ve never been really viable for tournament play. A planeswalker like Ral being in a relationship with a non-planeswalker seems like the perfect fit for creating a competitive-level combination of creature and planeswalker and could really highlight the relationship between Tomik and Ral. 

Yeah, they didn’t even try with this one. Double white on turn 2 into Red and Blue on turn 4 is already a tall order, but these two cards have entirely separate goals. Tomik, a card designed for Legacy, really wants to hate on his opponents trying to manipulate their lands. 

Ral doesn’t have the word “land” on his card, and is a card designed with card advantage and maybe some combos in mind. 

They’re two totally different cards designed for two totally different decks. I get that. My point is that they shouldn’t be. Wizards clearly knows how to design “planeswalkers matter” creatures, had an opportunity to do so, and instead opted to design a Legacy card to hate out cards that don’t exist in Legacy anymore. 

You barely even deserve this, WotC.

That last bit was a little dense. I get it, it’s hard to read without caring a lot about flavorful mechanics, but I am trying to get my point across that Wizards had so many opportunities to make cards that could work together and mechanically create a sense of a relationship between characters and repeatedly chose not to, instead prioritizing other design goals. If I’m coming on a little strongly, it is because I know Wizards knows how to do this. In fact, Wizards had the opposite problem to the Chandra x Nissa issue, waaaay back in Battle for Zendikar. 

“...and the Lord of the Multiverse said to Gideon, “It is not good for a planeswalker to be alone,” and so the Lord created Nissa and brought her to Gideon who jubilantly exclaimed: ‘Voice of my voice! Planeswalker of my heart! I shall call you Nissa, Voice of Zendikar! Together we shall grow plants and make Ally offspring and they shall have dominion over the entire plane of Zendikar!’ And the Lord of the Multiverse saw that it was very good...” -A very tongue-in-cheek quote by Craig Wescoe discussing Nissa, Voice of Zendikar in the upcoming Oath of the Gatewatch set. 

Do you see this? Do you get it? 

These two cards were made for each other. 

There are a lot of similarities between these cards, and because they’re similar, they work well together in a lot of ways, all of which scream “PLAY US IN THE SAME DECK.”

1. Both Planeswalkers make tokens without losing loyalty. 2. Both Planeswalkers have an ability that gets better with more tokens, and can boost each other’s tokens.  3. Nissa curves into Gideon and can help make a safe battlefield for him. 4. Nissa coming down late is still good for Gideon, and she can even boost him with a +1/+1 counter when he’s a creature.  5. Both Planeswalkers have the same naming convention: Planeswalker, Whatever of Zendikar. We’re battling for Zendikar, of course I want Zendikar’s Ally and Zendikar’s Voice!

“But wait!” somebody wanting to say something said. “Two green mana on Turn 3 could be tough, and needing two white mana on turn 4 is even tougher!”

Well, hold on there buckaroo, because have I got the love note in a Magic card for you:

We didn’t see it, but Gideon planeswalked to a high school on Theros and had a popular girl fold this card up into a little triangle before giving it to Nissa.

This card is the perfect mechanical tie-in for a Nissa x Gideon deck. Card selection has rarely ever been afforded to white decks, and GW token decks have often struggled with getting their mana right to cast their white payoff cards without making room for superfluous mana decks, and even then that might not fix it (just ask Richard Bland about his GW Tokens deck in the Worlds 2011 finals). And as a little bonus, this card can get either Nissa or Gideon or, you know, whatever creatures you wanted, and what color combination was going to have more efficient creatures AND planeswalkers than Green and White Mechanically, these cards work so well together and they look like they’re supposed to work together. 

In fact, this was the core of an incredibly powerful GW Tokens deck that won Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad in the hands of Steve Rubin. 

And when I was younger and looking at this deck for the first time, I thought Wizards would leap at the opportunity to pair these two up. Two reasonably popular planeswalkers paired up together to save a plane and worked really well together when I sleeved them up together? For a time, I was locked in - I thought Nissa x Gideon was going to be canon, and the lead-up to Kaladesh was where we’d see a little fluff between the two, or at the very least some genuine bonding between the flagship planeswalkers of the two colors most-interested in community. Instead, we got this:

Nissa: You’re being a little extra for me.

Gideon: My bad lol. 

I was a little salty about that interaction (mostly because it felt like every color combination in the Gatewatch has had a good or at least interesting interaction, except green and white), but I was down with Nissa x Chandra. It seemed like they had some chemistry in the story, and I was excited to see that chemistry reflected in the cards. Instead, we got a whole lot of nothing, which is infuriating because Wizards knows how to mechanically tie-in planeswalkers. 

Okay Wizards, here’s your second fifth chance...

So why is all this important? Why go into this deep dive about card mechanics trying to convey something that is decidedly not a mechanic in Magic: the Gathering? 

It’s because love can be expressed in this game’s mechanics, which is really hard in a game about fighting, but also a very unique opportunity. A card can care about what another card is doing, can subtly emulate what another card is doing or how it is presenting, and other cards can tie the two together. That kind of mechanical interlinking has a real-world analogue: a genuine, deep love for another person. Wizards has clearly struggled with the problem of portraying relationships in a way that its multiple player bases will care about and want to play with. The solution to that problem is creating powerful cards that mechanically care about one other and attributing those cards and mechanics to characters that emotionally care about each other in its stories.

Wizards, you clearly know how to do that, so...

[doktorpeace]

Top 5 Games Of The Year Runner Up And Honorable Mentions

Runner Up: Doki Doki Literature Club (THIS SECTION CONTAINS BIG SPOILERS, IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED DDLC AND ARE INTERESTED IN MAYBE TRYING IT HERE’S THE TL;DR It’s good, it plays with your expectations in a very good way and in a multitude of ways, it’s a great little piece of media that brings to life an extremely good character. Also it’s free, go download it on steam.)

Look, maybe it’s because I don’t consume a lot of horror media but this game really stood out to me. Not only for it’s genre though, also for the high quality of its writing and with how great the game is at accomplishing the one and only thing it truly sets out to do: Convey Monika as a character. The horror elements themselves can be a bit hit and miss and some of them are quite predictable, but I feel the game is excellent at building a continuous sense of dread as the player continues through it. It rapidly ratchets up the intensity of its content after taking just enough time for the player to settle in and get comfortable and mixes in JUST A COUPLE of jumpscares (which honestly it probably shouldn’t) in order to keep the player unsteady enough in terms of expectations to keep that dread building. Regardless, throughout the game Doki Doki Literature Club does a great job taking advantage of player expectations both of dating sim visual novels AND of horror writing to ultimately become something just a little bit more. It becomes an excellent character exercise and exploration. Thanks to some smart programming in service of the game’s ultimate intent, to make Monika into a ‘real’ character actually ended up giving me one of the deepest scares any piece of media, video game or otherwise, has ever given me. And it did it without any secondary stimuli like sound or a jumpscare or horrifying visuals. No, in a completely calm moment all that was said was this:

And I REELED back in my chair because the suspense and the dread the game had been building all impacted me at once. You can’t deliver that kind of scare in someone without some smart writing backed up by some VERY smart programming and understanding of player expectations. Honestly Monika is such an excellent and fully realized character despite the game being so short it’s astounding. By taking care to give her a lot of special conditional dialogue, pages upon PAGES of missable content, and even meta-content such as her having unique dialogue that only appears while looking through the game’s files it really just all coalesces into making Monika feel almost real, real enough to give me the willies and to feel a bit sad for her by the end. DDLC is a divisive game and I understand if the game’s handling of certain themes or content doesn’t sit well with other people but for me, and I say this as someone who is no stranger to suicide attempts, the game never went to far. For me it all worked in service of the game’s narrative and Monika’s character growth. Honestly even just little details like how the piano in the soundtrack only starts playing for the first time once Monika is introduced and only ever stops when she’s not watching you or how there’s a lot of different horror elements that only occur randomly so not everyone has the same experience or how some can only happen in fullscreen or in windowed mode, it’s really amazing attention to detail and consideration of her character while also making the game more unique as a product. DDLC was really good. It gave me some good scares but it also gave me a good story and a GREAT character to appreciate. Even if, like me, you’re a bit of a weenie when it comes to horror content I’d wholeheartedly recommend DDLC as a read, assuming you both can handle a jumpscare or two and can handle game content that involves suicide and self harm. I know I didn’t get too in depth here but I wanted to avoid spoiling TOO much and honestly I already said too much as is! Please excuse me! Honorable Mention #1: Yo! Noid 2 - Enter the Void

It’s not often you get a game that’s developed explicitly as a joke that’s so good. Yo Noid 2 is a solid, fun, and funny platformer. It’s all pretty clearly built just to tell one joke right at the very end but the ends ABSOLUTELY justify the means. I can’t talk too in detail about this game without ruining why it’s special, but Yo Noid 2 is a legitimately fun 3D platformer, with good level design, a relatively expressive moveset, a very special Special Action Button, and honestly a great soundtrack to boot! Its difficulty ramps up in a good way across its very short 90-150 minute length culminating in a very fun final boss fight. PLEASE go download Yo Noid 2, if you like 3D platformers and want to have a good laugh it’s 300% worth your time. It’s even free, you have no excuses!!

Honorable Mention #2: Mega Man 11 Mega Man is back, again, and they really did a good job expanding the franchise. While I still like entries such as 9, 10, and 4 better personally there’s no denying MM11 expands the franchise in a positive way more than any other before it. MM11 takes the time tested side scrolling design of the classic Mega Man series and adds just enough of a new wrinkle with the Double Gear system to really expand the player’s horizons and to push their level design concepts. While Double Gear and in fact all of the secondary weapons are entirely unnecessary as is tradition for Mega Man games MM11 does a great job incentives smart use of these mechanics, keeping them balanced with a shared cooldown system between both gears (power and speed) and making every single one of the Robot Master powers actually useful! Also all of the robot master designs are really charming this time, I was initially worried about the addition of voice acting but the voice cast does a great job! The level design is also a treat, while the length of the levels varies DRASTICALLY and Wily Castle 1 is dramatically longer and harder than another other stage in the game overall it’s very easy to just jump into any level and challenge yourself. There is no obvious first boss, they’re all pretty tough, and I started with Acid Man myself. The only thing about MM11 that let me down was the soundtrack; it wasn’t bad it just wasn’t bombastic either, merely present during play but not sticking in my memory at all. MM11 is a great entry in the series and I hope it signals a true return of one of my childhood favorites with more games to come soon.  Honorable Mention #3: Fire Emblem - Mystery of the Emblem (FE12) Taking the great concept of remaking FE’s earliest titles that Shadow Dragon started and actually putting in the elbow grease to make the game really good, FE12 is a stand out entry in the Fire Emblem franchise. While some aspects of its map design are somewhat held back by the original iteration, FE3′s age, the developers at IntSys really did a great job modernizing Archanea and paying good tribute to the characters and story that made this game an absolutely beloved classic in the first place. With overall good map design, modernized mechanics, the best use of an Avatar Character in the franchise, and massively improved unit, class, and weapon balance over the original FE12 polishes its source material to a razor shine. Top it all off with a decent story and great new content that adds a bunch of new dialogue to the characters and this is the definitive way to experience Archenea and its inhabitants. Except for Marth, he was better in Shadow Dragon. Besides Marth’s characterization taking a step back and the gaiden content being rather slapdash and forgettable, this game is everything a remastering should be; Taking what worked and polishing it, improving what didn’t, and adding all new content that fits in with the original game in a productive and fun way for fans. The addition of a wide variety of gameplay difficulties and including the until this game INCREDIBLY rare BS: Fire Emblem expansion chapters previously exclusive to the Super Famicom Satellaview this game cartridge is bursting with good content. It’s a fun, fun game with a lot to offer and great replayability thanks to its BULGING roster of characters and deeply customizable avatar character. If you like Fire Emblem as a franchise I’d heavily recommending finding a patched FE12 rom out there, harder though it is to do now. You owe it to yourself to experience this game. Oh, just play with the battle animations off, they’re REALLY ugly. Still, this game puts Shadow Dragon’s lazy near-direct port of an NES game to DS to shame. Honorable Mention #4: A Hat in Time - Seal the Deal This DLC has been getting some backlash and frankly I don’t get why. While I was a bit disappointed the new chapter was shorter than the base game ones the Death Wish side of things offered a TON of great new content and new ways to experience past challenges. For its modest price point this DLC really does everything I could possibly hope for out of a 3D Platformer expansion. New, tougher challenges to really push my skills, fun new content that fits right in with the base game in terms of quality and polish, and in A Hat in Time’s case GREAT new boss fight experiences. Taking every existing boss and turning them into a downright Superboss level difficulty fight, remixing all of their attacks, speed, patterns, and adding all new stuff to them is such a great idea and I really loved it. Seal the Deal is a ton of fun as long as you aren’t averse to an easy base game getting a VERY challenging DLC expansion. I can understand why the difficulty whiplash might turn some people off but for me it was just right and really hit the spot. A Hat in Time is just so good, I love it.

[breegullbeakreviews]

Summary: With the host of the masked ball missing, the staff have plotted to kill everyone at the party. The exception is you, Lafcadio Boone, who has been granted protection by a mysterious woman along with the ability to repeat the horrific final 12 hours of the party in hopes of saving everyone and uncovering the secrets of The Sexy Brutale.

Overall: The Sexy Brutale as of right now is a strong contender for my the best game I finally got around to this year, and last year would have given a Hat in Time a run for its money. For $20 it’s around 6 hours of quality entertainment that is absolutely worth playing.

There will be spoilers after the break, but there will be a warning prior to going into them

Gameplay: The Sexy Brutale is called a puzzle and adventure game, but I think stealth fits in there as well. The difference is that you can’t actually be caught. When the game begins not only are you granted the ability to repeat the day, but also prevented from sharing the room with anyone wearing a mask, unless you’re hiding in a cupboard. You can stumble into a room with someone else in it or they into the room you are in, but you are given time to leave before their mask tries to kill you. You can use this to quickly cross a room where you wanted to be on the other side as long as you aren’t chaining together too many occupied rooms, but considering I never “died” in this way it’s not a problem. This also doesn’t break anyone’s routine so you can’t cheat in this way.

The game starts with a simple tutorial giving you 5 in game hours which are maybe a minute each to prevent one of the deaths in a small area of the mansion. I won’t spoil the solution but the game teaches you how you spy one characters to learn how they spend their time in the mansion. Spotting the right character at the right time might grant you helpful information in regards to how to stop the murders. Since you can’t share the room with people you’ll need to peek through doors and hide in cupboards. While the former gives you a limited view of who and what is in the room, the latter gives a full view of the room. While items are reset after each day, any information you learn about the environment like passwords and secret passages you’ll retain.

Each person you prevent the death of will go back to dying in the same way the next day, but you will unlock their masks power. These will grant you various abilities that open up new paths through the mansion as well as ways to gain information. The one you get for clearing the tutorial allows you to set a new location to start each day at, limited to the mansions clocks, and fast forward to 4PM and 8PM at any clock. The second allows you to hear any whispers.

From here each ability allows you to explore a little more of the mansion a way to reach another targeted guest or a pair. In fact most of the guest’s fates are tied to another’s. In fact after the tutorial the first rescue is a couple. The game progresses at a steady and fun pace as you deal with all of the murders, then things take a turn as the narrative takes over. The next several tasks aren’t murders you must stop, but story sensitive information you need to uncover which leads to a lot less playing with routines and a lot more exploration which is kind of boring in the gameplay department. The game does end with one final murder prevention, but it’s extremely easy considering how much experience you have at this point.

I have one complaint with the story, but honestly it was more an expectation that wasn’t met. Once you had saved everyone once I had expected that you would need to play through a day saving everyone in a single day. That never happens. I’m not sure if even wise it’s possible but with the amount of shortcuts around the house I know you could save more than one set of guests easily. This would have required a much more thorough design of when and how each murder and other event occurs, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Collectibles: The Sexy Brutale has two types of collectibles, playing cards and invitations. Like any basic deck there are 52 cards and you can find them lying on the floor and by interacting with objects in the environment. Some are time sensitive which means you need to explore pretty thoroughly to find them all which allows you to unlock an alternate and overall less satisfying ending, though it doesn’t remove the original so you’re fine to hunt them all down before completing the game. The invitations are 9 in total and there is one for each guest. While most you can pick off the remains of the guests after you’ve failed them, a select few will require some more exploration of your mask abilities to obtain. While not tied to a trophy you can also unlock an info dump on every character and room in the manor. A lot of these are tied to cards, invitations, and story progression, but a few others are tied to one of the last powers you unlock.

Music: I usually don’t talk music so this game had to do something else to warrant discussing it. The Sexy Brutale has a different audio track for every area of the mansion. So the Casino has a track shared with all of its rooms and the bar has its own theme shared with its rooms and so on. What makes it special is that all of these tracks are synced to the in game clock and therefore the events that occur each day. As a gun goes off the music plays it up. In fact you can hear some of the deaths and other events from other parts of the mansion and characters will comment on them. One of the deaths in particular plays the music up big time and it’s beautiful as it tells you for an extended period of time that you have failed.

Story(Now Spoilers): No seriously the story of this game is worth experiencing for yourself.

  Did you go and play it yet?

 Okay let’s get into it. The Sexy Brutale plays its Groundhog Day mechanics up as entirely supernatural, and from first glance that makes complete sense. Even as the game ramps up the fantastical elements as you make your way into the staff quarters it seems like it’s simply a cult like the game’s marketing would like you to believe. The truth is what punched me in the gut.

The Bloody woman is clearly someone of importance and it was pretty obvious she was this red headed woman in the house to me before the reveal. Turns out that Eleanor is the missing host Lucas’s wife, but he isn’t missing. He’s you. The party as you see it isn’t actually how that night went down. As part of an insurance scam Lucas planned to use timed explosives to burn the manor to the ground and start a smaller and quainter life with Eleanor. Unfortunately the bombs went off early and killed everyone in the mansion. Except for Lucas who fell from the tower and lived with the guilt his entire life. This game is that guilt. The player character is an old Lucas. The antagonist in the gold mask is Lucas. The man in the tank is Lucas. All the members of the staff are Lucas. The repetition of each day is Lucas reliving the guilt every day of his life. How the Bloody woman weaves her way into this string of guilt is a mystery. The game culminates with the choice to either restart the day again while continuing to live with the guilt, or end the cycle and try and move on with your life.

We all regret something in our lives. Some things are more extreme than others. While most people haven’t accidently killed all of their close friends, we all have made mistakes. I’ve seen stories try and tackle the idea of getting over guilt with forgiveness and they all seem to miss the mark pretty hard. They always soft ball the issue. Some things are so bad that even if those wronged forgive you for them, you still can’t forgive yourself. Sometimes it is about forgiving yourself and that can be really hard to do. It can make you feel like you never deserve to be happy again and as is shown here it can ruin the rest of your life, deserved or not. I can’t say that Lucas should be forgiven for what he did, but that’s the point. It’s up to you to move on and it’s something I’ve never seen discussed this honestly.

The game has an alternate ending. Using a key you can find over by the guest rooms you can open a door near the casino to find a demon who requests a full deck of cards. This is to reflect Lucas’s gambling problem. Upon handing the demon the cards you get sent to the ballroom where everyone is happy and partying and it keeps going until you break the glass in the rear of the room. Everyone stares at you and the credits roll. I like that this ending is here, but it’s certainly not as good as the main ending. 

[kingaid1-blog]

Gameplay Prototyping - Tuesday 05/02/19 & 12/02/19

This week my aim was to sort out my moving platforms, while I also had to start fleshing out ideas on paper for my coursework. Currently, when the player lands on a moving platform they do not share its movement. By this I mean the player stays at the same position in the game world and falls as the platform moves away underfoot.

After some looking into it, I found that the method used to sort this out is to have the player character parented with the platform on collision. After having a look at some tutorials during the day on Tuesday, I went into the labs and got right to it.

After some tinkering about with the rigid-bodies and the box collisions, I finally managed to get the thing working. After an hour of messing about with tick boxes and values, the guy eventually stayed put.

My next move as I said was to start thinking of a plot, or when considering the MDA framework thinking of mechanics to build this story around. I’ve said before I was wanting a vertical platformer and I had done some research. During the week I kept thinking about my PS1 days and the game ‘Heart of Darkness;’. It was an old yet very addictive platformer and its use of cinematics to portray the story was great at the time, the same reason probably Final Fantasy VII and IX are my favourite games. The different obstacles the boy Andy endures to save his dog from the darkness was fascinating. At the same time, all my games from back then have a sentimental feel about them and I tend to relive these memories with the odd playthrough.

I did exactly that with Heart of Darkness, fighting shadow demons and progressing through the dark levels. I always remembered it being great graphics, as I did for Medievil, Duke Nukem games etc when replaying them. Still it was good looking at it from a game designers perspective and breaking it down, as one tends to do in these roles.

I had some visions of what my game could look like, imagining myself traversing up these vertical levels. I was asking myself, where am I heading. With the help of some recent news stories and events, I think in my mind I was trying to make a mix of some of this within my imaginary prototype. Recently on January 29th, Donald Trump posted on Twitter one of his classic non-presidential-like comments on a serious situation.

Whether he fully understands that global ‘warming’ does not specifically mean everywhere gets warmer or not, the tweet amazed me and was a small topic of conversation last weekend at dinner with my family. I thought, how about if my guy is going up there to stop global warming. After this, some strange plot ideas started forming and I wrote some more stuff down.

 So I the main plot that I started to think about was that the player is travelling upward in order to destroy some machine which was actually the cause of global warming, a machine that slowly deteriorates the Earth’s o-zone layer. The antagonist is unknown to the player and to myself at the moment, but my first thought was some other lifeform, aliens possible? Then again, it could be a nice story for a conspiracy. Was Trump playing dumb and was behind global this whole time? After some play-throughs and other research, I began to write/sketch away.. Most is probably unreadable as I am still recovering from a broken hand, making using pencil and pen a rather more tiresome after a while, but here it is anyway.

This first sketch is a bit of a mixture of sorts, but mostly of the page refers to this module, Gameplay Prototyping. Initial thoughts here were mostly on mechanics and plot, some ideas of what sort of protagonist would be most fitting seemed to be some sort of scientist, or other who has an interest along the lines of this global environmental well-being. Thinking along the lines of science, it would also be quite fitting to possibly think up cool gadgets to help the player through levels.

On the mechanics side of things, I had already imagined my first ideas in previous weeks about the player avoiding rain. Some of the diagrams you might make out on the sketches on the previous page show an idea or two to continuously utilize this hostile water to create a less monotonous “obstacle – move – obstacle – move” game-play. using the shape of different platforms I thought about creating a timer on certain ‘Raindrops’ falling, with ones that don’t hit the player being gathered in a bucket on a platform below. The idea is the bucket will fill after three (TBD after testing) raindrops gather, after which the bucket will release a flow of water hitting (in this case) the sloped ramp below. This flow of water will then run down and knock the player back to whichever point below they may land.

This creates the obstacle at a lower point, forcing the player to take a note of the timing, and allowing them to access the next area just below the platform with the bucket if they time their jumps correctly.

Looking at sketch number two, I thought about how to mess around with my jump mechanic and possibly make my infinite jump a little less infinite. I thought about a pong-type movement interaction, where whatever angle the player hits the ball off their platform the will mirror that angle – as long as the jump button is pressed again in good timing.

So in the past two or three weeks I feel I have made good progress in terms of thinking of the coursework. I’m happy with what i’ve got so far and i’ll be keeping an open mind for any new ideas, such as any more tweets on current world issues.

I think I have merged weeks in and missed a weekly blog post after some confusion with the dates, I have edited the title to account for this. I think the size of this post will keep any readers busy enough and I’m sure there will be more news to come soon.

[lotrewrite]

Here’s what I noticed on my first read through.  Can’t wait to see what you guys do with it :D

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: Since this is pretty long and includes a number of factual questions that I can answer based on the outlines we created, I decided to answer some of the questions as we go :D  still plenty of interesting food for thought here for the writers!

Looks like quite a bit of dialogue will be copied in a couple episodes (specifically 1, Revolution and Invasion), we really don’t want to rehash things, if things are the same as before or minimal changes maybe focus more on another character reacting to what others are saying than what they are saying.  Or change it up more.  If Len is strong enough at those points he could be used as a different way to view events that changed very little

In the same vein, I realize we’re rewriting but I’m not sure things that work well in the visual format would work well in writing.  Such as the intros.

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: Since this is being written as a total rewrite of season two, not a fix-it fanfic that only fills in gaps and assumes knowledge of what came before, we wanted to keep some of the stuff we liked! :) People writing episodes where we use a lot of the previous material should feel free to copy as much or as little of their original episodes as they like – there’s a reason we kept them. They can take a different approach to the same episode events if they want, but they don’t need to; the goal isn’t to rewrite everything, it’s to make the season we all would have liked more. My hope is that someone who didn’t watch season 2 of LOT at all would be able to read our season and feel as satisfied as if they’d seen a full season. (My DREAM is that people start using our season as background for fanfic/fanart, but hey, you’ve got to have ambitions!)

A lot of these are more posed as questions further on, since it seems more like questions for writers to work out.

Episode 1

Are wooden pencils really still popular?  I was under the impression mechanical pencils were more common, at least outside of specialized situations.  Or even how is it he still has a pencil his Grandfather gave him presumably when he was a child.  If that’s the case shouldn’t someone at least mentally note on the unusualness of it?  I like the idea but I think the odd circumstances should be noted.

I see where the characterization of Rip is going, but I don’t think he’d be so blunt maybe more like “sufficient knowledge”, it has the same spirit but less direct than “experienced leadership”.

Suggestion: If the characterization is a Jewish Len, then maybe having him playing with Len’s ring while Stein is mentioning his parents escaping Nazi Germany.  Also maybe something a bit less general than “Not speaking German.”  Just hits a bit like all Germans are Nazis, at least for me, and I don’t necessarily even Mick would go that generalized.

Why is Thawne telling Dahrk his plan already?  He’s secretive and doesn’t have any reason to trust him.

Any potential trauma Ray had doesn’t seem to come up again?

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: I don’t know about you, but I see a lot of wooden pencils everywhere. It’s a bit unusual that Nate didn’t notice that his lucky pencil remains intact after so long, but then again, it’s his lucky pencil that he got from his grandfather – he probably uses it only for things like his thesis or tests. I don’t want to highlight the weirdness of it here, where the pencil should be mentioned but fly under the radar, but it can be mentioned later when the Legends actually figure out that it’s something weird if the writer of that episode wants to.

Rip has been dealing with the Legends not listening to him for a while, and this helps set up his arc by focusing on him thinking he’s better BECAUSE he’s a Time Master. I do like your suggestion of adding more Jewish Len stuff, though! (the “not speaking German” line is straight from the show)

And Thawne is expositioning this early for a number of reasons: 1, it makes more sense for why he’d be there; 2, he’s panicking and has no plan, and it sets him and Darhk on more even footing; 3, it sets up episode 4 better than just having the time wraiths appear as a threat. Happy to take suggestions. Though we should definitely have a few more time wraiths/Black Flash appearances later on, if one of our later writers wants to include that!

Not sure what Ray trauma you mean?

Episode 4

Ummm…I would think that Jax would actually side with Sara, he did warn his dad to try and save him in Season 1

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: There’s a pretty big difference between Jax’s (quite weak) warning and “Rip Hunter already told us that interfering in this event is a bad idea but now I’m in charge and that means I get to change history any way I like”, so I don’t think I agree :) besides, it’s relevant to Sara’s decision process that everyone seems lined up against her

Episode 7

Again lots of talk of things being the same, would be best to not just rewrite whole scenes with minor changes.   For example in the case of the proposing Barry giving himself up, could skip ahead of that to the pep talk/argument that it’s not a good idea and have include enough that a reader can know what happened if anything was different.

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: See above – totally OK to copy the scenes that are necessary. Narratively speaking, it might be a bit weird to skip Barry proposing he give himself up and go straight to people discussing why it would be a bad idea; that assumes the reader perfectly recalls the scene as it happened in the original (which I definitely don’t!)

Episode 12

Mick’s interactions with Len seem a lot more advanced from the last episode, maybe they should start earlier?  Or have more of a ramp up?

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: Good point - we should definitely have more ghost!Len interactions that emphasize his bitterness about the hero thing as we go along. This is true both before and after he "appears" in this episode.

Episode 14

Didn’t in the previous episode Rip hand over the captainship?   Should probably decide which place to have that happen.

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: I defer to the episode writers of 13/14, but I thought it worked quite well: at the end of 13, Rip rejects the team dynamic and says that Sara’s still the captain, while at the start of 14, we see that even if he has rejected the title of captain, he still thinks he ought to be listened to because he has the most Time Master experience, and that Sara’s still insecure about her position and is willing to listen to him, thereby spurring her episode arc of learning that she IS the most fit to lead the Legends as the team they currently are.

Episode  15

Are we going to see things about Lily earlier?  She hasn’t been in the outlines so far.

I don’t think the Legion has any pieces yet?  Admittedly my first read through for this isn’t as through as I’m trying to get through it all first then go back later with more notes.

Ok more of time loop issue, do we want to presume that these time traveling escapades have always happened?   Reason being the interactions with Carter in particular.  Seeing as he seems to remember all of his past lives he would have remembered the Legends in Season 1, probably had been found of Mick even based on the outline.  If that is the case we might want to come up with a reason he doesn’t.  If we assume this is a changed event, then this could have changed Carter in the modern time.  In that case it could be some to explore if this timeline is explored later.

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: The Invasion (episode 7) outline mentions that all the Stein-discovers-initially-rejects-and-then-accepts-Lily stuff happens the same as in canon, which sets up Lily's appearance here.

As to the pieces, evil!Rip steals two pieces for the Legion in the American Revolution episode, the Legion gets a piece in the Argentina episode, Legion!Len steals a piece in the Tudor episode. Basically, the Legends are better at getting the episodic spear pieces, but the Legion is pretty good at stealing their pieces.

As for the time loop issue, given the sporadic nature of Carter and Kendra’s memory retention, he may just not have remembered it – or, if he did, it didn’t have enough of an impact on the timeline to change anything. I don’t think there’s any reason to mention it, but I defer to the episode writer!

Episode 16

When did Lily get there?

Entire first bits with Lily when did they happen?

When did Oculus Len come back?

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: Lily first appears in episode 7. Oculus!Len has always been there, appearing first as hallucinations and then revealed in episode 12 to be a ghost.

Episode 18

So why can’t we just get the spear before it’s broken up if they’re already in the area?

I almost have to laugh that Oculus Len has left and come back twice now.  In rapid succession.  All are good points for it to happen, at the moment I lean towards this later one, if for no other reason I find his presence in these later bits really good.

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: I’m not sure what you mean – the only time Oculus!Len “leaves” is to go with the Legion at the end of 16 and he “returns” to Mick’s side in 18. When else does he “leave”? And the spear wouldn’t have been “formed” yet – too early in history. A change in Rome's policies re: Jerusalem and the Jews would have huge implications, which works with the Legion's real end goal which is a trap.

Episode 19

Didn’t they just say they had all the pieces?

Wouldn’t it be suspected end of Arthur’s reign?  Last I knew of while it’s fairly well accepted there was a historical Arthur, exactly who he was and when his reign was is unknown.

Episode 20

When did Meryln get there? (Personally I like having him there Meryln and Dahrk are very entertaining together IMO)

I admittedly miss that there is not more Pickpoket Len…but that’s a personal preference.

When they establish Rip didn’t really know much?

Ok I can bite that Green Lantern and Star Sapphire remember the original timeline because of being off planet, debatably in some bubble, but WHY DO THE BAT FAMILY?  Or at least seem to?  In this world why would heroes exist?   Don’t get me wrong I love the Bat Family but HOW?

LOTREWRITE RESPONSE: I’ve fixed the Merlyn references, since he’s been replaced by Queen B. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of that infighting between the two of them. Rip’s character arc took place over Tudor England and the Race Riots, as he realized he knew less about what he was doing than he thought he did. As for the Bat Family – I’ll defer to the episode writer, but I thought the implication was fairly clear that the Bat Family didn’t remember the original timeline, they were just protecting their city as always, and that they were more likely to be a fully formed group in a world where the evil villains had taken over than in the original timeline, where they had not yet fully formed.

End

I can’t really say why but O!Len’s speech outline kind of came off a bit awkward to me, like maybe that’s his sentiment but I’m not sure he’d use those words?

Closing Thoughts

Overall considering so many people are involved it’s doing pretty well.  I think one thing to remember is that one this is being done in a different medium like I mentioned before so somethings that work on TV won’t really work on this way.  Also to remember this is pretty much for fans, and we as fans know what happened, if things are pretty much the same it shouldn’t need to be rewritten scene for scene.

I never really saw where Stein had his development?  Also Sara’s arc seems a bit up and down as well?  Maybe checking in with each other what she’s doing?

I really hope to see some more small references for some personal stuff like Mick/Len, Sara sleeping her way through history, Amaya struggling with losing her lover, ect.  I realize they may be planned but just not in the outlines since they are mostly small details.

I hope no one is offended by these.

LOTREWRITE: Thanks for your comments!

[jacethebeltsculptor]

Deckbuilding Challenge- Tana and Tymna

 I’ve done a lot of deckbuilding challenges before, but I’ve never posted them online. This particular one is inspired by an ask to @bace-jeleren, which can be found here, and is dedicated to @quantum-jump! Now, on to the deck itself.  Let’s start conditions of the challenge- First, this is a theme deck. This is a deck meant to celebrate lesbians, and in a broader sense, women in Magic. As a result, I’m restricting myself to using only female-identified named characters (Legendary Creatures and Planesewalkers) for this. The next aspect of this challenge is that the deck should be of a “fair” power level- as a result, I’ll be avoiding two or three card combos and “win the game” clauses like Tooth and Nail---> Avenger of Zendikar/ Craterhoof Behemoth. The final criteria is that the deck be budget-ish, which I’ve chosen to interpret as any card, at the time of the writing of this article, will be 3$ or less, with some exceptions made.  Additionally, three specific characters were mentioned for the 99- Chandra, Nissa, and Oviya. Given the deck’s theme, I’m going to assume it’s because Chandra/Nissa is one of the cutest bloody pairings in this fandom. So, to keep this from killing your dash, the rest comes under a cut. Onward!

THE COMMANDERS Tana, the Bloodsower  -Tana wants her power pumped up to get more value off of her triggers.  -Tana wants global buffs so that her tokens benefit from her damage buff, too.  Tymna, the Weaver -Tymna wants us to go wide with tokens to get the most out of her trigger.  -She rewards us for attacking early, wide, and often by keeping our hand filled.  Between the two of them, it’s clear we want to be building a token aggro deck. These usually consist of two important parts- token generators and Anthem effects. Since we already have a token generator in the Command Zone, we can focus on the Anthems in the maindeck. I’ll be breaking down my card inclusions by group, but I won’t talk about most cards individually. If you have any questions about why I chose a certain card, don’t hesitate to ask.  THEME CARDS As it so happens, plenty of strong, powerful, interesting, and otherwise amazing women who work well with the tokens theme we have going here. Chandra, Flamecaller generates tokens to attack with, can help clear a board, and keeps your hand filled with relevant cards. Nissa, Voice of Zendikar generates tokens or pumps all of the ones we already have. Arlinn Kord, one of the few older women in the game, does it all- pumps the whole team, creates tokens, or pumps Tana for mad damage. Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, dearly departed, can create a whopping three tokens a turn, clear the board of big threats, and gets to her game-winning ultimate rather quickly.  Vraska, the Unseen can tick up undisturbed, blow up a problem permanent, and her ult is a fair, but difficult to achieve, “alternate win con”. Adrianna, Captain of the Guard is  both a woman who will fight tooth and nails for her ideals and a devastating anthem effect. Queen Marchesa is a ruthless, ambitious woman who will stop at nothing to get the throne. In a game, she’ll do one of two things for you- draw you cards via the Monarch mechanic or make you tokens to attack your opponents with. Often both. Captain Sisay can call to arms many of your best cards in this deck, and will easily be able to assemble a badass crew. Fumiko the Lowblood is a monster in combat, and can really help get the table brawling to bring a game to an end. Saska the Unyielding doubles your ability to punch the patriarchy in the face, all the while bringing a damn respectable body of her own to the table. I mean... come on, look at those arms. They’re amazing. Pia Nalaar is the mom of one of the badassiest characters in the game, and you can see where Chandra gets it. Bringing a token with her to attack with, and coming with some situational abilities to help keep the board clear, I think Pia deserves her spot.   Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni’s Ninjitsu ability is trivially easy to trigger when you’re going as wide as we are, and the creature kill is awesome. Kari Zev, Skyship Raider (a personal favourite from Kaladesh!) brings a token and great evasive creature abilities to the table, and scales incredibly well with anthem and pump abilities. Speaking of pump abilties, Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury provides a +1/+0 buff every time she attacks. Okay, fine, she’s cheating *a little bit* on flavour, but a lot of people just really wanna date Elesh Norn. Is Kolaghan such a stretch? Rakka Mar pumps out 3/1 Elementals for a frighteningly low cost, so she obviously makes the list. Oh, oh, crap, I nearly forgot Alesha! She’s got the stats and the keywords to charge into the red zone with style, and her attack trigger can bring back a ton of creatures that make tokens on ETB. Magic’s first transgender woman is here in force. Finally, Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter is a slam dunk- token generator, mana sink, and all-around lesbian powerhouse. Just through the theme cards alone, we’re at a whopping 17 cards- more than a quarter of the way through.  ANTHEMS These are the bread and butter of our deck, and the reason we choose to go wide. Examples include Thunderfoot Baloth, Dictate of Heliod, Beastmaster Ascension, Collective Blessing, Glory of Warfare, Pathbreaker Ibex, Crescendo of War, and Woodvine Elemental. Other cards in this category, which is meant to include cards that reward you for going wide, include Hellrider, Wild Beastmaster, Brutal Hordechief, Firemane Avengers, Frontline Medic, Shamanic Revelation and Collective Unconscious.  TOKEN PRODUCERS These token producers are hella important to our strategy. Now, there are tons and tons of token producers, so narrowing it down to the stuff that’s good, but not insane, is pretty hard. I’ll try to keep it to stuff that generates two or more creature tokens, but doesn’t make too many without some extra setup. Aura Mutation and Artifact Mutation both serve the vital role of removing problem permanents while also netting us a bunch of tokens- the bigger the target, the bigger the bonus. Lingering Souls, Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Mogg War Marshal, Hanweir Garrison, Ghirapur Gearcrafter, Nest Invader, Ponyback Brigade and Mardu Strike Leader all just create creature tokens for your early game at a pretty fair rate, and, bonus, Alesha can return most of them from the ‘yard.  Cultivator of Blades and  Angel of Invention both make a few tokens and bring some extra power and toughness to the table. Deploy to the Front, Ezuri’s Predation and Mycoloth  can all create ridiculous amounts of tokens with the right circumstances.  OTHER STUFF The rest of the deck is going to be the least interesting part. It’s the mana ramp and fixing that a four-colour deck needs in order to function smoothly, the removal for problem permanents, all the  bits and bobs we need to fill out our last 19 cards. This section I won’t go into detail on, as it’s by far the least interesting, so instead, here’s the full decklist.  PLAYING THE DECK There’s only one interaction I feel is worth mentioning, and it’s that Breath of Fury and Hanweir Garrison, together, can cause you to take infinite combat steps. Well, kind of. Basically, as long as you can keep hitting someone with a token, you can repeat your attack steps as many times as you can get damage in. It’s far from infinite, and the plethora of ways to interact with it should keep it pretty fair. Other than that, make tokens, pump them, beat face. This is the kind of beautiful simplicity you get when you cut the basic Islands.  Other than that, if you have Saskia and Alesha on the battlefield at the same time, they *must* be placed side-by-side. Whether they’re calling to each other or getting each other’s backs, the warrior queens *must* be together.  Adrianna and Marchesa must be kept as far apart on the battlefield as humanly possible. Adrianna doesn’t even want to be in the same room as her. The same *deck*. There is some tension between them.  Chandra and Nissa must also be placed together on the battlefield, and if you also control Oviya, you must assume that she set up their date. Because she did. (Oviya ships it and so do I damnit) SO YEAH So, that’s a challenge down! Please feel free to leave me your thoughts and comments. Am I on-theme enough? Did I miss any obvious card choices? Does seeing more of these interest you? I’d love to hear all of your feedback. Until next time, everybody! 

[budgetgamingna]

10 Budget Games on Sale Nintendo eShop 4.5.2020

By David Perez

 Cosmonauta – QUByte Interactive

New low 91% off

$0.99 down to $0.09

Sale ends 4/6

Cosmonauta is a fun platformer with some really challenging moments throughout its 64 levels. I have not completed this title yet but am really enjoying my time with it. Nothing new or revolutionary here to the platforming genre, but the controls and level design are solid. At 9 cents it is pretty much a no-brainer to jump on this sale before it ends tomorrow. Based off my experience so far though, even if you miss the sale Cosmonauta is worth the full price.

 Drawful 2 – Jackbox Games

New low 99% off

$9.99 down to $0.09

Sale ends 4/9

Drawful 2 is another great addition to your eBoardgame collection to play with the family while practicing social distancing. This title is a standalone by Jackbox games where players attempt to guess what a funny thing is from drawings done by phone or tablet. In short, this is a better version of Pictionary that allows user generated inputs for even more hilarious moments. Again, at only 9 cents with infinite replayability, Drawful 2 is a steal right now.

 Conduct Together – Northplay

New low 100% off

$19.99 down to $0.01

Sale ends 4/10

One more party game to add to the list! Conduct Together is, for all intents and purposes, currently free. By purchasing this game at 1 cent you get 1 gold coin back which is also valued at 1 cent. Hence the 100% off sale. In Conduct Together you conduct trains delivering passengers along railways while switching tracks, braking, and slowing down time to avoid collisions alone, or with up to 3 friends locally. There are multiple challenges and puzzles to overcome with the difficulty ramping up quickly. I have gotten some enjoyment from this title already alone, but I think it will be much more fun with a group of people. This sale will be long over by then, but I plan on spending more time with Conduct Together once I can have friends over again for some laughs alongside Drawful 2.

 Flipping Death – Zoink Games

Matches previous low 75% off

$19.99 down to $4.99

Sale ends 4/11

Flipping Death mixes elements of point-and-click adventures with puzzle platforming. I got this title from prior recommendations on other channels as an introduction into point-and-click games as I have never been able to enjoy them. So far, the visual style is great, audio is good, and I am enjoying the humorous moments flipping between the worlds of the living and the dead. In Flipping Death, Penny dies suddenly and mysteriously leading her to meet Death himself. She gets stuck with his job while he goes off to vacation and her adventure commences to solve the mystery of her death while helping those not able to just rest in peace. I have seen Flipping Death on sale for this price multiple times already, so if this doesn’t look like a must have now go ahead and wait for the next time it’s on sale.

 Trine: Ultimate Collection – Modus Games

New low 60% off

$49.99 down to $19.99

Sale ends 4/14

Trine: Ultimate Collection is the only title I have not bought on this list. At its new lowest price, the collection has huge value for the price with all 4 Trine titles included. Trine 4 is currently on sale for $15, so this collection is like getting Trine 1-3 for only $5. I didn’t get this one because I already have Trine 1-3 on Steam and I will just wait a bit longer for Trine 4 to drop. Trine is a really fun 2.5D puzzle-platformer where you switch between a warrior, mage, and thief to get across multiple challenges. These games are great played alone, but are even more fun in co-op. If none of the other choices on this list interest you, go ahead and get this collection that will keep you occupied with great games for quite some time.

 Mechstermination Force – Hörberg Productions

New low 50% off

$11.99 down to $5.99

Sale ends 4/16

I haven’t had a chance to try Mechstermination Force yet, but I am most excited about playing this one soon. Hörberg Productions created the excellent Gunman Clive Collection, so I have high expectations for this title. This title rarely goes on sale and with the recent limited physical release already having sold it, this will be the best time to get it. Mechstermination Force is described as an action-packed platforming boss rush. If these battles are anything like the final boss of Gunman Clive 2, I am all in.

 Bastion – Supergiant Games

Matches previous low 80% off

$14.99 down to $2.99

Sale ends 4/19

Bastion is the title that is going to be on everyone’s lists for this eShop sale. There isn’t much more to say about this amazing game that hasn’t been said. Great combat with a ton of replay value, fantastic audio (seriously look up the soundtrack, and possibly the best narration in any game. Bastion is the title that got me interested in Indie games and I am sure it will be the same for you.

 Bury Me, My Love – Pixel Hunt

Matches previous low 80% off

$4.99 down to $0.99

Sale ends 4/19

Bury Me, My Love is a decision text-based game where your choices lead to a multitude of endings. This is a story about the dangers refugees face escaping from war-torn countries and has some really heavy and emotional moments. In my review, I gave Bury Me, My love a 65/100 because choices overall are quite limited, and Switch does not seem to be the best option to play this title on. Lately I have been thinking about this game. A LOT. Because of the Coronavirus pandemic my family had to scramble and find a way to get my sister back stateside from Colombia earlier than her intended travel plans. Multiple flights got canceled as countries began to close their borders and there was a real risk of her being stuck abroad as many others have. Our scenario wasn’t necessarily life or death as presented for Nour in Bury Me, My Love, but like I said this event just made this game that much more relatable to me.

 Lydia – Platonic Partnership

New low 34% off

$4.00 down to $2.66

Sale ends 4/20

Lydia is the second game I reviewed, and I scored it with an 80/100. This is one of those walking-simulators that has a great story and is just a treat to experience although being short. With the current pandemic we are living through there have been multiple reports of domestic abuses cases rising. There is no better time to experience this story that is highly relevant now to the effects heavy trauma like alcoholism have on children. Jump on it while Lydia is at its lowest price ever.

 Invisigun Reloaded – Sombr Studio

New low 95% off

$19.99 down to $0.99

Sale ends 4/22

Invisigun is a stealth battler where everyone is invisible. Attacking and environmental cues are the only way to locate your own character but will also give your position away to opponents. I have not had a chance to get into online play against live opponents, but I am really enjoying the bit I have played in campaign. This seems to be a great game for those who like high skill-level caps as they master game mechanics.

 13 Games Total = $38.79

9 Games without Trine: Collection = $18.80

 Avoid

Agony – Madmind Studio

New low 90% off

$19.99 down to $1.99

Sale ends 4/9

I was really hyped for Agony back in 2018 when it was released on PS4 as I love horror games. Being a big fan of Dante’s Inferno (both the game and epic poem) further raised my excitement as the setting of these agonies would be in Hell also. Well we all know how the game released to little fanfare and average to mediocre reviews. Seeing Agony be on sale for just $2 dollars I thought to myself, “Can’t be that bad.” Well yes, it is that bad. Within 20 minutes I gave up on this game as I had to restart the app from a freeze, had multiple frame-rate drops, audio bugs, screen tearing, and horrible graphics. This one is just a technical mess that I can’t imagine anyone would want to push through.

[entergamingxp]

Stranger’s Wrath HD Review —

January 23, 2020 3:01 AM EST

More like Oddworld: Yeehaw’s Wrath.

“I need this…to survive.” These are the words that capture Stranger’s timidity that is masked by his menacing complexion and gruff sounding, exhausted voice. Words that show a sense of desperation hungering deep within the protagonist of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD. For me, I’ve been reunited with Stranger after nearly 15 years since it originally launched on the Xbox.

Seeing Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath released in 2020 after having owned the 2005 Xbox exclusive is a strange reality. Stranger as a character had left a memorable impression on me in my younger years as he has the makings of an antagonist. But he’s just struggling, trying to earn Moolah to pay for a mysterious operation. To do that, the bounty hunter does what he does best, hunting bounties.

The game takes you through three towns of an alien world set to the theme of a western. The towns are inhabited by turkey-chicken beings that you can slap about and steal their Moolah if you feel nasty. Outside of these towns are the outlaws that Stranger can capture, either dead or alive. Capturing them alive with your weird sucky device will grant you more Moolah than if you capture them dead. The art of capturing the outlaws is a simple button hold, but it does leave you open to attacks.

Enemies consist of numerous gangs around the world. Each gang has various types of henchmen that can either be left to decay or bagged up quickly for extra cash when the main bounty has been captured. The main bounties are bosses, of whom can also be captured dead or alive. Each one is unique with their own ways of being taken down, providing you have the right type of ammo and can knock their stamina down low enough.

This is why stealth in Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD is favored over action; it’s just a shame the stealth mechanics are incredibly problematic. The only stealth mechanic is the ability to hide within some tall grass, which can allow you to lure enemies with live ammo — which I’ll get into in a moment. But the act of being stealthy becomes a pointless exercise as the game progresses and the tall grass starts to become more sparse, and instead more puzzle-like elements become a stronger focus.

Stranger is capable of two melee attacks, a spinning attack and a headbutt attack. However, he also has the crossbow, the key and standout weapon throughout Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD. For the crossbow, Stranger can equip numerous “live ammunition” in the form of critters that can be either purchased from the general goods store or hunted around the world. Each critter serves different purposes: some distract enemies, some trap enemies, others explode, some provide electricity to overcome obstacles.

“Stealth in Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD is favored over action; it’s just a shame the stealth mechanics are incredibly problematic.”

The crossbow has two slots, allowing you to easily double up on critters, such as having a Zappfly to shock the enemy and then tie them up with a Bolamite. Time pauses when you’re flicking through your critters, which gives you the time to go through how many critters you have left, and how best to utilize them.

Equipping the crossbow does change the perspective, meaning you’ll be going from a third-person platformer to a first-person shooter at your command. I felt the feature worked wonderfully, but there’s still that irritation that you can’t have it set specifically for first-person or third-person, especially if you’re not a fan of a specific perspective. Additionally, trying to flick between third-person melee combat and ranged combat can be incredibly fiddly during intense combat.

There are also issues with the camera rotation and aiming options. Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD allows the player to use the right thumbstick or the gyroscope in the Joy-Con to aim or control the camera. Both of them are awful when in docked mode. The thumbstick aiming, no matter with what sensitivity, feels too sticky. As for gyroscope aiming, when docked, you can rotate the right Joy-Con to control the camera, but it becomes a shivering and sensitive mess, or low-sensitivity wrist-twisting pain. The only way the gyroscope aiming works is when in handheld mode. The aiming in this mode feels just right and makes for a better experience.

While the third-person platforming experience feels fluid with lots of grunting and jumping and locating moolah, there are some performance issues. Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD is slated to run at 60fps in 720p HD. However, when confined to smaller areas in the world, the game runs great. In the larger areas and outside of towns, the frame rate drops depending on your anti-aliasing setting.

With anti-aliasing turned off, the game runs smoothly. Switch it to MSAA and you start to see movement becoming jerky and wriggling with a noticeable drop in FPS. Ramp it up to FXAA and the FPS drops even more, with a more noticeable wobbly screen. On the plus side, the loading screens are almost non-existent and are incredibly fast, at least when respawning.

Dropped frames during travelling can be somewhat distracting, but the game runs well and doesn’t cause significant battery drain. I was able to play for about three hours and the battery went from 100% to 57% in that time. And while textures might look better than the 2005 version, when up close they can look rough, but at least the sky looks beautiful.

“The performances in Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD are all memorable with humorous quips that will stay with you.”

The entire game’s interface has been revamped since the 2010 HD remaster to suit the modern screen, so it does look a lot nicer. The problem is, navigating the new store layout is now complicated, and informative text feels far too small to read when in handheld mode. The minimap will only appear if enemies are nearby, and navigating the rest of the world is reliant on finding physical signs and speaking to the chicken people.

I felt there could have been more to indicate low-health situations. While you get directional indicators to show you where the damage is coming from in the world, there’s nothing to indicate if you’re low on health. Sure, you’ve got the health bar in the top right, but you’d be surprised at how often it gets overlooked. Having some animation on the bar to make it stand out, or even an onscreen effect such as a vignette would remind you to heal up.

By the way, healing up can be done by simply thumping your chest like a monkey, compensating stamina for health. You can purchase health and stamina consumables, but even on normal difficulty, I’ve made it through the game without using a single consumable.

The subtitle situation is a complicated matter in Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD. In 2005, the game had no subtitles whatsoever. In 2011, the PS3 version had subtitles present throughout the entire game, including in-game cutscenes, cinematics, and during gameplay. In the 2020 Nintendo Switch version, subtitles seem to be a mess.

Some subtitles seem to be missing as the game progresses and gameplay subtitles don’t seem to exist…except for one chicken guy. Just him; no one else in the entire game has gameplay subtitles. The issue here is that gameplay dialogue can be essential to learning of locations or intel. There’s even a button to make Stranger address the player personally about what the next objective is.

After speaking to a representative about these missing subtitles, it was confirmed that a free DLC is heading to the game shortly after launch. The DLC will introduce full subtitles for all forms of dialogue in numerous languages. It’s a shame that it’s not available at launch, but it’s still great to see numerous languages being supported in full.

“Despite being a game that’s now 15 years old, [Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD] has been adapted to the Switch fantastically.”

The performances in Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD are all memorable with humorous quips that will stay with you and comedic situations that keep the game entertaining throughout its dark story. While there’s not much to do outside of the linear progression and main story, the number of bounties available keep the game lengthy. The scale of the world is impressive as well, considering that the game comes in at roughly 962 MB.

Overall, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD feels incredibly enjoyable to play and despite being a game that’s now 15 years old, it has been adapted to the Switch fantastically. The port certainly keeps the magic of the classic alive with the overhauled interface and impressive loading times. It’s certainly an enjoyable single-player experience especially for fans of platforming adventures.

January 23, 2020 3:01 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/strangers-wrath-hd-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=strangers-wrath-hd-review

[terryblount]

Control Review

Remedy Games hasn’t made that many games in the past 20+ years the developer has been around, but each time that they do release one it’s been pretty special.  While this is the studio that brought you the original Max Payne games, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and now Control… each of these games has brought something new to the table.  Whether it was the new gameplay mechanics of bullet-time or Alan Wake’s flashlight, things have always been somewhat interesting when it comes to the gameplay mechanics of Remedy games.  Control is no different, it certainly stands out from other products that Remedy has released over the years, but also feels very familiar to their most recent offerings in Alan Wake and Quantum Break.

It’s the kind of weird that you’ve come to expect from the developer

Remedy has established themselves as the developers that make weird, stylish games.  This has done well with the last two aforementioned series’.  They jumped into the world of FMV in their games, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.  Control is definitely another one of these.  It’s a weird mess of a story that places you in the shoes of a young woman who finds herself in a place called the Oldest House, which happens to be a hidden building in the middle of New York City where a supernatural threat of the Hiss looms. You become the new Director of a group called the Federal Bureau of Control and can wield a supernatural firearm called the Service Weapon which is your main source of gameplay as it is a third person shooter.  The Hiss are everywhere in the Oldest House and they have the ability to take over and possess the other agents in the building.  The story winds and turns with a little bit more about who you are and why you are there, but it really stays fairly mysterious up until the credits roll.

Less Linear than you’ve seen from Remedy in the past

Control is a little bit less linear than other Remedy games.  There’s a massive, multi-level map to explore, with numerous NPC characters to meet, side quests to tackle, blocked passages, and loot to uncover.  There are some aspects of a Metroid-vania style game here, but they are light.  There are Security Doors which require key cards and some areas can’t be accessed without having specific powers, but it never feels not obvious what you need to do.  Most of the stuff that is locked behind abilities really does just add more color to the world.  While the key cards are usually story items that you’ll get in a fairly linear fashion.  The video gamey bits are what keep you pushing forward in Control, but it’s also an incredibly stylish game with a dark weirdness to it.  The imagery, sounds, and general presentation and mysterious story pull you in immediately as we found ourselves really wanting to learn about this world.  Unfortunately, everything does stay pretty vague in Control.  After watching the credits roll, I thought it was definitely worth the time spent, but I did feel a little unfulfilled in so much being left to collectible files that you can read or FMV videos that you can watch along your journey.

Shooting and abilities give the combat some variety

Control is a third person shooter, but it’s not just a shooter.  There are plenty of abilities to learn as the Director.  Your supernatural abilities allow you to stabilize objects of power which you can then draw abilities from.  You’ll learn things like double jumps, levitation, telekinesis, and others which allow you to fight different types of enemies or reach different areas of the map.  Control is far-less linear than Remedy’s previous games.  There is the main path of the story, which you can really barrel down if you want.  But, there’s also a good bit of side content in this game.  Some of the side content is actually much more interesting than the actual main path and you’ll really miss some cool stuff if you don’t explore this world.  For example, the Hiss are the major threat in the game.  But, there are also others which a scientist is researching in an area called the Pit.  You don’t need to visit the Pit to beat Control, but if you do you’ll get treated to a massive boss fight against a giant mold monster. It’s stuff like this that make Control tough to digest.  Some of this side content is definitely must see, but putting off of the main path does make it unlikely that many will encounter it.  The rewards, whether on the main path or when exploring is points and materials to upgrade your character and weapons.

These points will funnel into your different abilities, making the stronger across the course of the game.  As you spend your trait points you will unlock more mod slots for your weapons and personal buffs.  The combat in Control is a mix between third person shooter and an ability focused game.  You’ll definitely be shooting your fair share of enemies, but you can also upgrade your different abilities to use a telekinetic push melee or unlock the ability to pick up and hurl items with your mind.  You can summon items around you as a shield, or levitate over the battlefield while raining down abilities or bullets.  The combat is varied and putting all of the abilities together really make it stand out.  This really doesn’t start clicking until you’re pretty deep into Control though.  The early parts are certainly more bullet-based, while the latter stages are focused on your powerful abilities or juggling back and forth between the two.  As enemies get tougher you’ll manage your ammunition in Service Weapon and your energy to use abilities.  I found myself in familiar patterns again and again.  Since there is no reload and everything runs off of a charge in Control, it always basically felt like I was shooting until I need to recharge the weapon and then using my abilities until the energy ran out.  By the time that energy ran out I was swapping back to the service weapon to repeat the process.  That coupled with dodging and levitating mechanics gave the combat a nice rhythm.  Control on the Xbox One did feel kind of like a PC game that was ported to consoles.  The aiming and targeting felt a bit rigid and not quite as smooth as some other third person shooters or action games.  Control does feature some incredible destruction physics in combat and in exploration phases.  The destruction makes all of your powers and abilities feel real and have a lasting impact on the world around you.

Main path story missions, side content, challenges, and agency missions… there is no shortage of things to do

Control is kind of structured in a unique way for a single player experience.  There are your aforementioned story and side mission content, but there are random missions where you’re given objectives that must be completed in a certain amount of time. They feel almost like a “daily challenge” that you’ll find in a multiplayer game.  There are challenges that can be tackled for rewards as well.  Kill a certain number of enemies without dying in a certain part of the Oldest House, and you’ll reward you.  Control definitely takes some of the engaging content from multiplayer games in terms of challenges and introduces them in a way that makes sense for a single player game.  The rewards are upgrade points and materials that will allow you to craft personal mods, weapon mods, and different weapon forms for the Service Weapon.

The Service Weapon does start out as a pistol, but it can evolve into multiple things.  While the actual size and shape of it changes only slightly, the firing mechanics and bullets that come out of it differ drastically from a beam to a burst rifle, or shotgun.  So long as you’re spending points on upgrading the weapon you’ll have no shortage of ways to kill enemies.  You can equip two of the weapon forms at once, and then outfit the weapon with up to three different mods which give you various buffs that compliment your playstyle.  There’s no shortage of these progression and upgrade items Control.  In fact, there’s actually quite a lot of loot in the game if you’re looking for it. There is a nice ramp of progression in the game from start to finish where the abilities that you learn and weapons you are using definitely make you feel more powerful in the end game than you did when you were bumbling around the halls of the Oldest House trying to piece together why you are there in the first place.

We played it on the “world’s most powerful console” and it was kind of a mess

Control is definitely a stunner when it comes to visuals and presentation, but on a technical level on the Xbox One X the game really feels like its pushing the console to its limits.  Taking away from the fun at times were smaller things like the map not loading when trying to pull it up until waiting for 15-20 seconds.  This in itself makes navigating the world more of a chore than it has to be.  Then there’s fast travel and loading into a new control point.  These points are effectively the checkpoints in the game and when you reach one or rest at one you’ll respawn from there if you happen to die.  Each and every single time I loaded into a new control point there was significant frame rate drops and slow down that was visible on screen on the Xbox One X.  It’s became pretty disappointing as the game got harder because it was a stark contrast from the rest of the game.  That’s not to say that Control didn’t chug at other spots.  Put too many enemies on the screen and the Xbox One X just felt like it was overloaded with the enemy counts and the ongoing effects.  It didn’t take away from my experience too much, but it’s definitely noticeable in a game as stylish as Control.

Anyone that liked or loved the Quantum Break or Alan Wake games will most certainly enjoy Control.  Remedy has certainly embraced their artistic sides for this game, taking more risks with their story telling than their last couple of games and doubling down on their penchant for including live actors as a story telling device.  If you’re not quite sure what to expect, it’s a dark, twisted, weird world full of things that don’t make any sense.   At times this feels ok, and refreshing that you don’t quite know where it’s going to end up, but it can be a little disappointing.  One thing’s for sure, it’s definitely a hell of a ride from start to finish.

The Verdict

Control is definitely Remedy’s best game since Alan Wake.  The sheer variety in the gameplay and fantastic presentation go a long way in making this an enjoyable experience.  The weird story and setting does a great job of setting the hook at the onset, but the payoff was a little underwhelming.

Control Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[housebeleren]

Iconic Masters Missed Opportunities

Love me some Masters sets, but I can’t help but feel that Iconic Masters missed the mark in a couple of ways. And no, this isn’t going to be yet another rant about the product name. (Basically that Wizards meant “Iconic” as in the 5 “Iconic” creature types, but the player base interpreted it as iconic cards from MTG’s past, like Lightning Bolt.) As much meat as there is on that topic, and despite the fact that I think Wizards could have done both to some degree, it’s not what I’m going to talk about.

No, what I want to talk about are the missed opportunities, given what Wizards said the set was about. With a few small changes, they could have improved the value of the set and made it feel more flavorful. I want to start with this guy:

Why was there no Mythic Hydra in this set? Hydras are the green Iconic, and every other color got a Mythic Iconic, while Green got Primeval Titan and Channel. I get it, Primeval TItan is a powerful card. But it wasn’t desperately in need of a reprint, and was in no imminent danger of spiking in price or anything. And sure, Channel is a classic part of a classic combo, and they did do well putting a fair number of X spells in the set along with Rosheen Meanderer to take advantage of them. But still... I keep coming back to it: why was there no Mythic Hydra?

Of the Mythic Hydras, there are only 3 that are worth more than a few bucks: Khalni Hydra, Kalonian Hydra, and Primordial Hydra. Khalni Hydra is really tough to play in draft given its mana cost, and Kalonian Hydra was just reprinted in Commander 2016. So even though both are more well-known cards, I would have gone with Primordial Hydra. This guy also fits nicely into both the R/G Ramp/X and the G/W Counters archetypes. So my verdict is: 

Add: Primordial Hydra

Cut: Primeval Titan

Keep Channel for Channel+Fireball. But wait just a minute. Didn’t I say that one of the goals here is to improve the value of the set? Primordial Hydra, at around $8, is a cheaper card than Primeval TItan, what gives? I’m glad you asked, because that brings me to my next card:

Why are there no Planeswalkers in Iconic Masters? Seriously. Every Masters set to date has had Planeswalkers. They’re an iconic card type with iconic characters, and they are notoriously difficult to reprint, as new Standard sets only create new designs (even Core Sets have moved in this direction.)

Sorin is particularly hard to reprint, given that his triple-black casting cost makes him difficult to play in Limited. But in Iconic Masters, it’s clear they’re not shying away from ridiculous mana costs, with a whopping ten cards in the set featuring triple mana symbols. And it just so happens one of them is the card I would cut for Sorin. My verdict:

Add: Sorin Markov

Cut: Necropotence

Seriously. Necropotence, while great, has been reprinted so many times at this point it’s losing its luster. It’s pretty close to a “junk Mythic” at this point, as it doesn’t make up the cost of the pack. But Sorin does. Sorin is nearing $20 at this point, and with such low reprintability (yes that’s a word now), I don’t see him going down anytime soon. Would anyone really have been that pissed if we lost a few bucks of value in the Green Mythic only to gain a ton in the Black Mythic? I doubt it.

If you’re going to have one Planeswalker, you should probably have two. It would just feel weird to have only one. And there’s really only one other spot to put a Planeswalker in Iconic Masters, and that’s in mono-Red. All 15 Mythics are mono-color in this set, and the other colors nailed it, minus my thoughts above.

Koth, while not at his highest price point now, is basically the only Red Planeswalker that sees any play whatsoever outside of Standard, and it’s totally possible that Skred will become a powerhouse deck again and Koth will spike. My verdict:

Add: Koth of the Hammer

Cut: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Seriously. Kiki is another one that’s getting reprint fatigue, in my book. You can tell the fatigue is real given that the previous printings are around $8-$10 while the Iconic Masters printing is starting off around $5. It’s like they just don’t know what else to put in Red Mythics at this point. This would have been pretty much a value wash to swap in Koth, and would have made the set a lot more exciting.

I don’t think there’s any more iconic Hydra in Magic than this guy. Well, this guy and Progenitus, but 5c is not really aligned with the needs of this set. Given the price of Polukranos, they could have bumped him down to regular Rare and gotten rid of some other useless Rare in the set. He would have played wonderfully with the draft mechanics as well. My verdict:

Add: Polukranos, World Eater

Cut: Rampaging Baloths

I shit you not, the Baloths have been printed SO MANY DAMN TIMES. I’m over them. 

Iconic Masters value is... a little lacking, to say the least. So I started looking for cards that could replace some of the underwhelming cards in the set. Mesmeric Orb is a weirdo card, but actually would fit nicely in Iconic Masters because they are trying for some sort of mill subtheme in U/B. So my verdict:

Add: Mesmeric Orb

Cut: Serum Powder

Seriously... why reprint Serum Powder? What is the point?

It’s time. It’s time for Reanimate to be reprinted. Having a power Uncommon like this in the set would go a long way to alleviate the set’s value problems, and would help bring down the cost of an overpriced staple. Even at Uncommon, this would probably still be $5-$10, which would be a major boon for the set. My verdict:

Add: Reanimate

Cut: Haunting Hymn

Nobody wants to pay 6 mana to make someone discard either 2 or 4 cards. Not in Limited, not in Commander, not really anywhere. This set is full of high-CMC cards anyway, why include the most expensive discard ever as well? 

And now, my flavor picks:

Okay yes, this card has been reprinted a bajillion times, but it is the MOST iconic of the iconic Dragons. Imagine if they had printed a new exclusive art for this release! Foils of those would be snatched up left and right. My verdict:

Add: Shivan Dragon

Cut: Bogardan Hellkite

Nobody plays Bogardan Hellkite. Get over it.

So, this is more of a flavor thing than anything else, but I would have loved to see a reprint of this Tarkir spell. It’s solid removal, and perfectly on flavor. I would have really loved to see Roast, but the downside is that it doesn’t hit any of the iconic creature types except Hydras, so that would have been no good. My verdict:

Add: Bathe in Dragonfire

Cut: Heat Ray

Do we really need two X damage spells in the set? Especially since once can’t even hit players? Didn’t think so.

So... this is another one that’s totally just for flavor. And yes I know it’s a color pie break, but a Masters set is exactly the kind of place you can print these kinds of things. And this would be a flavor win SO HARD, being the color shifted version of Serra Angel.

Add: Serra Sphinx

Cut: Illusory Ambusher

I have nothing against Ambusher, really I don’t. I just don’t really think it’s a necessary inclusion. Neither is Serra Sphinx, to be sure. But it would have tickled me to see this card again.

So those are my thoughts. Yay!

[sleepinthemorning-blog1]

Mobile Game Annotated Bibliography

Game Title: Toca Band

Genre: Toy

Target Demographic: 4+

Monetization: Pay to play

This game aims to please the children, and I think it does a great job. Having characters to swap around and form a creative group. If you look at the game as a toy, this is a great way to have some fun and get a little creative, but if you are trying to get into a game with a challenge or some other competition, you are not in for a treat. Give this game to any child, and they can form a wonderful play experience from it, but a hardcore gamer would drop it instantly.

Game Title: Where’s my water

Genre: Puzzle

Target Demographic:

Monetization: Pay to play

This game has some nice simple puzzles with a few game modes. Having to dig a path to have water traverse and reach your avatar is the goal. Overall I enjoyed this one and I would recommend it to any casual player. Enough levels make it an experience one can enjoy and learn some basic fundamentals of most puzzles.

Game Title: Plants vs Zombies

Genre: Tower Defense

Target Demographic: 9+

Monetization: Pay to play

This game is a classic, players have to fight off incoming zombies with help from planting units for advantages. I enjoyed playing this game and only wished for multiplayer. This is a great casual game with enough challenge to keep you on your toes.

Game Title: Super Mega Worm

Genre: Action

Target Demographic: 4+

Monetization: Pay to play

This game was not that impressive to me, I did not understand the reason for being the worm. There were many abilities to combo off from and use stunts, it is very easy to jump into so that is a good thing. After some play, I decided to move along because I was not impressed because it was just a bunch of mayhem. If you are into that, this game is for you.

Game Title: Super Hexagon

Genre: Twitch

Target Demographic: 4+

Monetization: Pay to play

This game was hard to understand for me at first, but once I saw what I was doing wrong, I got really into it. The quick paced game play and temp of the game was hard to keep up with for me, but it was a creative flow I have not seen from many games. This fast paced game is ready for anyone who can grind a reactive flow. If you want to blink while playing, this game is not for you.

Game Title: Fruit Ninja

Genre: Arcade

Target Demographic: 4+

Monetization: Pay to play

For me, this game was one of the first to use the touch screen and swiping gesture. The player must swipe fruit and cut them for points, until you miss three or hit a bomb.I was immediately hooked and wanted to do more, but after a while, all you do is chop fruit. I have not thought that a game so simple can be so addictive, and I will put this as one of my favorites for mobile.

Game Title: Angry Birds

Genre: Puzzle

Target Demographic: 4+

Monetization: Free

This game is another classic, introducing players to physics based games much like worms did when it was made. Players must clear the level of pigs by launching birds at then with a sling shot. The aesthetics of this game make you feel for the characters as you launch them or destroy them when hit. I had a great time playing this game, and the physics interactions made it unique to get a different result every time.

Game Title: Jet Pack Joyride

Genre: Endless Runner

Target Demographic: 9+

Monetization: Free

this game is an endless runner with an intricate design. The player simply has to tap to get force into the jet pack, dodging obstacles to make it as far as possible. This was a great experience, but for me, the best part was the shop and unique effects to get players back into the game. Some rounds allowed a second pass or slot machine to recover a few extra points, and the shop had ways to get players back for more. Overall, this was a great learning experience for me to analyze this game.

Game Title: Magic 2014

Genre: Card

Target Demographic: 9+

Monetization: Free

This game is a classic card game that was remade for mobile devices. I already enjoy playing the game, so this was an easy play through for me. I am already familiar with the mechanics and archetypes for players, so I had a hard time with a limited set of cards. However, if I was a new player, this would still be a great game with enough mastery and challenge, and can guide you towards learning the rules in an easier way, as opposed to the grind in the card game.

Game Title: Run Too Run

Genre: Platformer

Target Demographic: 4+

Monetization: Pay to play

This game seems is a platform that teaches the player the mechanics quickly. The first few levels help you understand the timing and skills available. With lots of levels to complete, this game can keep you playing for a long time. If you like platforms, this one is a great experience that is a great treat to play, with content released throughout the month, every month.

Game Title: Canabalt

Genre: Endless Runner

Target Demographic: 4+

Monetization: Free

This game was not enough for me to play, with any play session lasting not even thirty seconds. The screen space was off for me, and I think they could have made it better to see the player or what is around them better. I quickly put this game down, but if you like a challenging game that is faster paced, this one is for you.

Game Title: Tiny Wings

Genre: Arcade

Target Demographic: 4+

Monetization: Pay to play

This game is a minimalistic game that controls a bird across wavy hills to traverse through. Each hill provides a ramp to help launch with more momentum to make the bird fly. The aesthetics are great, as they change throughout the level, and the controls are easy to keep players coming back. Overall I think this game was laid back and easy to grasp, with a rhythm builder to keep you flying at great speeds. A few different game modes also enable other challenges to unlock more levels and avatar perks.