Sunday 17 April 2016

Kick Starting

All about that Myth

So I've decided that once a week I'm going to trawl through kickstarter and put out a few (likely 4) mentions for projects that really excite me, even if financially I probably can't afford to do many (if any) of them.  Now, its important to note I'm not getting anything for doing this.  I mean this blog is pretty much not promoted in any way outside my own Twitter and Facebook (and the odd re-tweet here and there from The Battlehammer).  I've not played/playtested/been sent free demos of any of them.  Not that I would say no to any of that sort of thing.. just saying.

Either way, this weekend has been Salute and one of the first things I'm going to put the word out on (even if the audience is small) will definitely be something from there.  I just wish I could have gone and had a go.

Mythos - Paranoid Minatures

So the first thing I am going to highlight is Mythos, and I'm going to be honest here, I'm definitely going to be throwing money at this (even though I should be saving right now).  There are plenty of reasons, so lets break them down.

1 - Its a Cthulhu war game.  So, its not going to contain the actual monsters from the Lovecraft universe, or at least it doesn't now, and I would assume that is down to IP reasons, but there is going to be a lot of Cthulhu reference and certainly a flavour with some of the mechanics in the game (such as Sanity).  Now I've read more or less the vast majority of H.P. Lovecraft's mythos books.  They are dark, sinister books, which while very weighty to read, are some of the best out of this world horror books that were ever written.  I hate reading, and I genuinely despise horror, so the fact that I have gone through these books probably says something.  I've run Cthulhu adventures at Student National Roleplay competitions, I love the board games I've had a chance to play, I've even painted up some of the models for someone else, but the idea of a war game that is trying to capture some of that intrigues me.

2 - The combat sounds... interesting.  Now I say that having absolutely no experience of it, but they have tried, in essence, to stop combat being a gaurenteed you hit me I hit you system.  In any combat action both players roll, based on either an offensive or defensive stat, and then the winner deals damage.  So a good defence and you actually get to put in some pay back.  Its an interesting idea, I've really got no idea if it works, but I would love to see it come through.  I've always disliked the fact that the only way to make a character good in combat has been to tank them up, lots of armour, lots of health and it always feels like they then just sit there like a wall and get ground down.  I can see this system allowing for models that go bounding into combat and then defend by actually being good at hitting back before they get hurt, however if they miss that defensive hit they are fragile and fall over.  Could be fun.

3 - They are combining a role-play system into the game.  Its about time someone tried this.  I mean come on, we are moving individual characters around a table, wouldn't it be cool if we could do a battle and then the following night the guy is running around with a bunch of other characters trying to solve the next mystery and opening things up for the next epic fight.  Yes, I can see problems with it.  I mean, for a start a role play group of say 6 characters, either thats 6 guys running in one battle, with they GM doing a full army on the other.. or its 6 full battles between sessions for the GM.  Eeep.  Also people will say that a lot of RPGs now have Miniature aspects, but its not quite the same as a well rounded war game.  I just hope it doesn't feel overloaded or tacked on to the side.  Its going to be an difficult balancing act.

Ok so super excited about this, I will be getting a box set (I may well go for the bugs).  The models look pretty good from the render and I really hope they turn out well and the rules are good.  Go check it out.

Instant Aliens - R. Pelius Cook

I have to admit this one is here for the simple fact that it sounds really odd, and yet I can kind of see where the creator is coming from.  I'm pretty certain I wouldn't get any use of out it, but some people will.

Instant Aliens is basically a recipe book for creating Alien life in your Sci-Fi RPG games.  Now for the most part this is not going to be something you would use if you play those games in pre-generated, self contained universes (such as Star Wars).  However, if you are one of those people who homebrews their Sci-Fi games then this might well be of use.

You see when most people make a new alien race for their games, I would imagine most people come up with the fairly standard humanoid shapes.  This PDF is going to help you diversify your alien life forms.  Its a mix and match set of descriptors to allow you to come up with much more range and scope for what your xenos are like and what they can do.  With enough backing they are also going to release a book to build the actual galaxy itself in the same mix and match way.

As I said, not something I would go for, but it did jump out at me.  Have a look here.

Skuttle! - Blue Beard Entertainment

Well, the first thing I will say about this is the guy that has made it has Blue hair and a Blue Beard.  Go watch the video and come back here later.

Done.. ok

So what jumped out at me here was the art work.  I quite like it.  The game is designed to be played with kids and when you are going to do a game about Pirates this is kid friendly then I think they pretty much hit the design work on the head here.

Game play also sounds really simple.  Its a race to 21 (it basically uses a standard deck of cards, so for the most part cards are worth what you'd expect in terms of points), but the cards can also be used to hamper your opponents (2-3 players).  In addition high cards don't score points but instead have long term effects, and finally you can either play or draw each turn so there isn't going to be some sort of long chain of card use and no body gets to do anything about it.

Looks good if you need to find a simple, quick game that is going to be friendly to more or less every age range.

Great Scott! - Sinister Fish Games

I'm a big fan of card games.  I also like games which make you have to think of silly things.  Great Scott looks like an amazing game, and if it wasn't ending before my next pay day (and Mythos wasn't competing with it) this would get my money in a heartbeat.

Its also made by folk in Lincoln, which is basically just down the road from me and I where I go to work (not for these guys, but still).

It only has 17 days left on its kick starter and it really isn't far off being funded, so please go fund it if you have the spare £16.

So the actual game.  Well you basically draft cards, each one a component of your new amazing invention, and once the drafting is done you do what you can to combine the components into your device.  You then have to explain what the device is, scoring points for combining cards, colour of card, and even the alliteration of the full name.  The thing is, the components aren't quite what you would expect.  Perhaps you were slightly foolish to build that Immense Crocodile Powered Dynamic Dispenser, but now you have to explain to everyone how it works.  Good luck.

Honestly I am torn on this, I quite like the sound of it, but... I really shouldn't put money on more than one thing each month.  Anyway, that's number 4, so go have a look.


Again, I hope you like the idea.  I'll try and throw these out every week if enough things catch my eye.  I would imagine it will appear on Saturdays so long as I'm not doing anything else.  Plus if anyone would like me to review these games, or models... well you know, I'm quite happy to have a look in advance.. well it was worth a try.

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