Just over a year later and I have some more really cool stuff to add to this!
I’ve gotten to play a few new (to me, at least) games since the first post in this series. In no particular order:
- Star Trek Adventures
- Mothership
- The One Ring
- Blades in the Dark
- For the Queen
- HeroScape
- The Last Caravan (finally!)
Star Trek Adventures
I spun up a new table specifically to play this one as a “learn by playing” model. We’re doing some Lower Decks missions, so it’s silly and zany, with lots of call-backs to memorable episodes. It uses the Modiphius 2d20 game engine, which is really different from the D&D I normally play and now only uses d20s for the entire system.
I’m enjoying it, but I do have concerns about running out of published content. Fortunately, Modiphius has published some guidance on building your own modules, and that’s something I’ll have to look into more.
This may be more a title for Trek-heads and RP’ers. The mechanics work well broadly, but outcomes will lean toward players who regularly bring Big Ideas and creative solutions.
Mothership
This is a nifty survival horror title that feels a lot like it’s coming after Dread’s lunch by putting full-blown system of skills and aptitudes around each of the character archetypes. I didn’t get to dig in to character creation or progression, but the skills follow a branching decision tree that makes my Civilization-loving heart sing. H/T to @Arete for running this one for us!
The One Ring
This one may or may not require intense levels of lore, but it definitely benefits from it! We only had a short period of time for the session, so there was a lot of the nuance and texture that I could see in the construction but didn’t really get to play with. It seems to do a good job of incorporating an “alignment” aspect into its engine, and it sure does make you pay for throwing gloves and knuckling though situations. This is very much a “must play” title to hit on repeat. Much gratitude to @DarkplaneDM for bringing this one to life.
Blades in the Dark
“Eldritch steampunk noire” isn’t just search terms now, baby! @Arete took us on a heist that may have gotten a little carried away with double-crosses (I think we made it up to a quintuple-cross). The pre-generated characters were a godsend, because there is a lot of flexibility and adaptability to this one. The capacity for interpretation in the abilities reminded me a bit of Vampire: The Masquerade, but with many quality-of-life improvements that keep play moving while still affording RP opportunities.
I don’t know that I’d put this one in my repertoire to GM, but I had a lot of fun and look forward to playing it again.
For the Queen
I already wrote about this one over here. It’s a really fun little card game that can serve as an ice-breaker, a downtime activity, or something to do between sessions.
HeroScape
I never got into the miniatures wargaming because, frankly, I’d simply never heard of it. By the time I did, I was a broke twenty-something and (thankfully) couldn’t afford to get into it. I remember this game on the shelves at the Toys R Us I worked at though, and lamented that it wasn’t ever included in our employee discount.
This one is like the gateway drug for 40k, providing pre-painted minis and some learn-fast rules to get players set up and battling. The snap-together terrain hexes are mostly quality and seem to have held up well over time.
The game has been discontinued, though, so it’s sort of just for collectors and folks who managed to get into it while it was around.
The Last Caravan
I got to play this one with some absolutely wonderful people, and Carson is an incredible GM. I was an early backer of the Kickstarter that brought this game into final, published form and I am grateful to everyone who put all the love and attention into making this game as delightful as it is.
Despite being early to back it, I hadn’t actually gotten to play it yet. The character archetypes leave a lot of room for personal storytelling, and the mid-session backstory prompts could have been intimidating to newer players and folks more accustomed to hashing those details out in a session zero. This was con-style play, though, so we rolled with it.
The premise (spoiler free) is that the Earth waged a brief and devastating war against extraterrestrials, leaving the US an ash-laden wasteland peopled mostly by folks just trying to scrape by. Tonally, it describes itself as “The Last of Us meets Little Miss Sunshine” because the core conceipt is that you are one of a party of survivors making your way across the US to try to make a better life on the opposite coast. There are large, powerful factions at play all around you, other survivors trying to make their way home, and (of course) aliens! Ted Bushman just nailed it in every way with this game and I hope it doesn’t seem ungrateful, but I can’t wait to see what he does next.
This is one that I can easily see myself picking up to GM, and I’m working to get a group together for a friend to GM for us.