#either that or they drop the card preview on friday only to say the update is coming out on saturday or something

[riddlerosehearts]

the twst fandom every single day for the last several weeks: there's a story update coming out this month, can we please have a preview of trey's new card which will be released with this month's update?

twst:

[yoshi4sushi]

(purupurupuru) (purupurupuru) (gocha!) (coo!) (coo!)

 Hiya! Hiya! Happy Monday, minn-san! I hope everyone had a good weekend. The weather is getting chillier so keep yourself bundle up and warm so you don’t catch the influenza. 2018 is approaching very soon so I hope everyone has oodles of fun plans to spend the holiday with friends and family. Not to mention, shopping to get done. Don’t get hurt on Black Friday. Well, enough said, we also have some oodles of fun events and merch to share w/ you so you know the drill. Before we begin, let’s have a moment of silence first. Last week, Hiromi Tsuru, voice of Bulma and Shakky, regretfully passed away. It was informed that she was found in her vehicle unresponsive. Investigation of her death will be informed later. So sad that another great seiyuu passed on. We will surely miss her. We must go on. She surely wouldn’t want us to be sad forever. Let’s begin. First off, the chapter resumes this week so let’s see how Luffy will outrun Big Mom this week. Next this past weekend’s episode, Brook finally gave them baddies the hard rock attack. OH YEA! Meanwhile, Chopper and Carrot finally made their move to outwit Brulee and her goonies while Luffy and Nami get a visit from Pudding. Next time, she shares a secret that will shock the two. What could it be? Tune in this week to find out. Now on with the goods! First, let’s give a b-day to the loveable bear mink of all, Bepo! Today is his birthday so if you like to purchase his b-day button or enjoy his delish beverage, head on to the tower. Now that we brought up the topic, look who came to visit us. Yup, the one and only cool den den mushi tower mascot, Tongari-san. Thanks for dropping by, my friend. Even in this chilly weather. Please enjoy your hot cocoa. So, what news do you bring? Tongari-san says that winter event is gonna get stylish and magical. This week, the OP winter event will start on Thursday. They’ll have some new goods such as these colorful winter buttons of all the gang. More goods will be announced this week. The buttons and other goods will be in stock so if you’re looking for neat Christmas presents, be sure to drop by. Next, The Mugiwara Café will be having a campaign event by giving out free OP magnet clips if you dine. They will have 20 kinds of clips. Next, Sanji’s Oresame Restaurant will be giving out new character coaster where you order from the a la carte menu, and you’ll be given one free. This time, they’ll have Franky, Nami, Sanji, Vivi, and Sabo. Also, the restaurant will be taking reservation for those who like to have Sanji’s Christmas dinner. It will come with an appetizer, main course, dessert, and beverage. If you make a reservation, you’ll be given a free bromide card of Sanji and Zoro. Reservations will begin Dec.4th. There’s more. The tower will decorate the place with Whole Cake Island attractions including the Germa 66 similar to the one at Odaiba. That’s not all! The mini games have new prizes. Cost to play is 500 yen. New prizes will be PVC straps of the gang, jolly rogers, mini plastic balloon straps, adorable snowmen straps and bottle openers, and much more. GUA! Such wonderful prizes! Next, FIGURINES! Major! Major new ones! First, this awesome King of Artist 20th anniversary figurine of Luffy in his red suit from the Jump Cover. He will be released on Dec.26th. Next, this Thursday, they will released these new WCF Run Run figurines of East Blue such as Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Shanks, Buggy, and Mihawk. Moving on, this new SCulture figurine of Ace will be released on Dec.12th. They’ll have color and clay versions of him. Lastly, SII and Flag Diamond Ship of Robin and Nami will be released on Dec.7th. All figurine will be stocked at arcades so if you have luck on your side, get your coins ready and beat that crane! Next, guess who’s birthday is approaching next month? I’ll give you a hint. He has a blue nose and loves cotton candy. Yup! You nailed it! It’s none other than the adorable shy doctor, Chopper! His birthday is on Christmas Eve. To celebrate his birthday, the Mugiwara Stores will be having a campaign for those who purchase more than 1000 yen worth of merch, you’ll get a free bromide card of him from one of the chapter covers. The store will be selling this cute bromide picture and birthday button of him. More new goods of him will be released later. The tower will release news of upcoming goods and event of Chopper later as well. Next, Broccoli will be selling these new adorable big sizes chick plushies of Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Ace, Sabo, and Law at Jump Festa. They’ll accept pre-orders for now I think, but it’s possible they’ll have them for sale. The original release date of these plushies will be in March of next year. Next, German toy co. Steiff will be selling this pricey yet adorable teddy bear wearing Chopper’s hat and shorts. Only 1500 of these bears will be made as the price for this bear is around 420.00 bucks because of the brand name. If you are into collectible European goods, we’ll leave a link. It will be released in February. Next, Premico will be selling this new black leather wallet of Ace decorated with flames including his hat skull insignia. They will accept pre-orders now. Mugiwara Stores will also have them available as well. Ask the cashiers to update when they’ll have it. Premico does not accept oversea orders. Unless you have a friend or relative that lives w/in the country, you purchase it and have them sent to their home and they can mail it to your native country. Next, DMMVR Theater has updated a preview of attractions. The event will also be handing out meat lamps to enjoy the show. Goods and food will be updated later on. However, if you purchase an early ticket, you either have the choice to purchase one where you’ll get a free t-shirt or a long towel. Follow their Twitter page. The event will take place in Yokohama. Next, new goods will be released from December to March such as stationary like these mechanical pencils, cleaning cloth, folder, coin purses, new straps and keychains of Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, and Ace (note: the keychains will also be available for sale at Jump Fest. Original release date of these straps will be in April.), t-shirts of Mihawk, Luffy, Zoro, Chopper, and this new one of the Kozuki clan insignia, and tote bags. PHEW! I think we covered everything. Well, that’s all for now. Tune in next week for more updates on merch and events. Special thanks to Tongari-san for dropping by. Also, me and the boys will be having our Christmas party at the tower in Sanji’s restaurant, and one of our close friends made a reservation order for an OP Christmas cake. We’ll take pics, and post them. The party will be on Dec.10th. We also will be taking trip to our home on Dec.22nd and will return on Jan.8th. We keep you informed while on our winter break. That’s all. Kikko! Momon! Let’s call it a night, boys.

 Wallet: https://iei.jp/50363301401/?utm_source=one-piece.com&utm_medium=official-link&utm_campaign=20171120

Big chick plushies:  http://www.broccoli.co.jp/event_sp/jumpfesta/goods.php?t=onepiece

[flowing-paint]

Myth - part 2

This the second and last part of my Myth board game review. As promised last week I will give you more information regarding the game that may or may not help you decide if this game is right for you. Let’s go!

Modules

I briefly reported something about modules in the previous part but, what are they? How do you get and play them? Well, modules are short thematic stories that unravel according to a pre arranged sets of scenarios that are designed either to teach game basics, help in character development or challenge the more skilled heroes.

They basically represent the board gaming soul of Myth and they were conceived due to the sheer amount of claims Megacon Games received after releasing the 1.0 game. Board gamers were not too happy about the sandbox nature of the game and they demanded for more structured rules to help smoothing the learning curve. The result of this bottom-up pressure were the modules. They are small books of roughly 20 pages where tile setup, pictures goals and roles are fixed and, most important, arranged to be easily understood. For what  I can see they usually consist of three acts where battles get harder and harder as the heroes slowly approach the big boss for the final showdown. Rules-wise a module behaves the same as the open end game with the sole exception of icons on the tiles being ignored. Bosses and minion races are pre-defined in the story so you are not allowed to mix things up but this helps anyway to build up more climax for the story you are into and it’s basically a good thing. To wrap up the concept about modules, just remember they are the tool that will bring you experience close to other similar board games like Descent so, before starting to despair due to lack of rules or whatever, just dive into the free modules available on the site and start loving the game; start playing from the Stone of Life introductory walkthrough and you will be hooked in a couple hours.

If you want to try them, I list here the download links for all the modules freely available that I know of:

Stone of Life - (a part of Q4 Patch. It contains a learn to play companion book)

Rise of the revenant

Fury of the fireborne - (This is still in 1.1 format but still)

Character growth

When you play quests, modules or just explore for fun, your hero will end up gaining more and more power, getting stronger. This is a well established RPG concept. It usually boils down to exp points that you get and your hero picking up some new skill or magic. Together with the physical growth of your hero you usually end up with a bunch of treasures/weapons that monsters dropped. You find something like this built in the system that Myth uses to make characters grow, albeit there is not much of that. At least, with the lack of “skills” and “exp points” it doesn’t feel super-RPG. Just RPG-ish. Let me show why.

Let’s say you are playing a quest: one of the prizes for your success may be the possibility of deck “manipulation” where you go searching in the advanced cards and you add a new one from them to your deck. While this may feel as a good thing, the result is barely noticeable: it’s 1 possibility on 25? 26? to get your new card so, if you are not a lucky gamer (I am definitely not) your new shiny ability will always be on the bottom of the deck. And it’s only one anyway...

Another way to advance is earning titles by slaying a boss: these titles give you cool buffs that can really help in your quests but they come with a big downside: you can only equip one at a time! Per story! I don’t really get any plausible reason not to let you choose more of them. I mean, if killing a monster granted you enough wisdom or bravery or whatever, why isn’t that permanent? I don’t get it. And for what I have seen this far by playing the game, growth is probably the only aspect of Myth that I don’t completely like and would probably benefit of some more love from the creators. Progression indeed feels a little bit slow but I guess that’s done to stimulate you playing more open end stories that you create. Maybe. I don’t know.

Objects and treasures are however a totally different story. You get items when collecting treasure from killed monsters (3 deaths with a single attack equals one treasure) in the form of an item token you get to draw from a satchel. It may be either white, green or blue as the treasures get more rare and powerful. You start with a lot of white tokens (potions or gold) and few green items so the very first games should be used to harvest as many items as possible before moving to more challenging quests. The nice thing in this mechanism is that you get to modify your satchel as long as you keep completing quests or finishing modules meaning that you get to draw from a pool of progressively less white and more blue/green. This feels really good because you get to actually use some nice gear that adds buffs a new abilities to your attacks. I love how this mechanic affects the play even though I always end up sticking to my beloved stuff and sell all the rest for gold!

Myth journeyman

Just a couple of lines to describe the two expansions to Myth that are (somewhat) available to buy. I bought them but they are still not showing up in the mail thanks to eBay’s super-slow/super-expensive international shipping program… I thought I may put some pictures here but I guess it’s going to be matter for a future update post.

According to the information I was able to gather prior to buying, both expansion contain new mechanics like getting lost or getting on a boat to sail but most important, the ability to evolve your character. With the new expansions the Myth basic hero classes can choose between two paths, the light and the dark path each granting some special new ability and a bunch of new cards for the deck. Two expansions for two paths so… I guess if you want both possibilities you need to buy both (I did). Together with these new mechanics you also get new enemies, tiles etc. so they look nice value even if someone might think they’re slightly overpriced…

A look at the miniatures

The last aspect of the game I want to cover are the miniatures used in Myth. I can tell you that when I think to buy new stuff (either board games or wargames) 80% of the weight is put on how the miniatures look. Rule sets may not stand the test of time but good looking miniatures? They surely will and you can still use them with some of the free rules sets I already discussed about. Myth definitely has some cool miniatures up to a point that pulling the trigger was really easy.

They are not however what you expect as your standard fantasy miniatures. In fact, as you probably noticed, the artwork in the game is slightly off from what you usually see in fantasy: yes, the "factions" may be familiar with different names (grubbers are goblins, shamblers are undead, etc) but the look of the minis is totally original and totally awesome. They have that cartoonish look that I totally love. I mean, take a look the Shamblers I painted in a previous tutorial (here). Here is a crop of the last photo:

I happen to also have painted some of the insect critters (the Crawlers) that I was planning to use as another tutorial. Meanwhile, just have a sneak preview of a finished ranged Crawler.

They look so awesome and yet really easy to paint even for beginners. Surely, they may not be super detailed but they are dynamic sculpts with a cute fantasy look, what else do you want?

I am sorry I don’t have more painted ones to show but you can find plenty of examples if you do a Google images search so just go check them out.

Final thoughts

So, if you read past the whole review this is probably what you were waiting for. My wrap-up with some final thoughts. Myth 

Myth seems to be a highly polarizing game: a huge successful Kickstarter and a company that screws everything with a bad rules set all obviously followed by flame wars between haters and fanboys. Years have passed and Myth 2.0 new rule book was released together with two new expansions and still it seems hard to find an unbiased review of the game. This is why I tried to give you an objective description of what goes on in this game. It is definitely not a game for the casual gamer and don’t bring it to your friend’s house for the usual board game night (unless your friend is into this kind of games). The target is a more hard-core gamer as you have RPG elements, board game elements together mixed up with a strong tabletop wargaming flavor and this is clearly not going to work for everybody. But Myth is still a pretty fun game if you know how to enjoy it. Remember that it’s a sandbox style of game so you can just do whatever you want with it as long as the rules are respected. Fore example, take a bunch of grubbers and a bunch of Crawlers and unleash them against each other: there you have a small skirmish tabletop wargame. Add some terrain and you can have some pretty solid fun. Or you could just write a custom campaign and create your own monsters.... like you do in RPGs? I have a dungeon master book that would fit perfectly the atmosphere and I’m planning to couple to this game. You know... some day... So, randomize things, add your own stuff and fluff, put your brain at work and unleash your fantasy. Have fun! This is what games should be about and Myth can surely give you lots of fun. With tons of cool minis!

We are done with this but stay tuned or the tutorial that is about to come next Friday!

...game on!