For our halloween session of WAGS, I was able to choose the games. I felt it was a good opportunity to explore a serious phobia many of us have... the fear of being TRAPPED.
1) You are trapped in a strange place, and hideous monsters are trying to kill you. Mall of Horror.
2) You are trapped in a deadly factory, and surrounded by insane machinery and robots programmed by buffoons. RoboRally.
3) You are trapped in a life that is going from bad to worse, and that's on a good day. Funny Friends.
Okay, so the game choices were a bit tongue in cheek, but whatever.
Mall of Horror
Luch took control of the parking lot early on and held it with an iron grasp. He accumulated enough weaponry to take out all the zombies that came along. Meanwhile, the rest of us jockeyed for safe haven as the zombies accumulated ominously at the doors of the shops. Shemp, in a disastrous turn halfway through, lost all his characters and played the rest of the game as the designated zombie placer. When it was down to four survivors, Kozure and Luch tied because their hot chicks survived. Luch had, of course, more cards in hand and won on the tie-breaker.
Side note: Bharmer announced that he got married recently (and, apparently, very stealthily). Luch gave him an equipment card he drew from the parking lot as a wedding present. Just wanted to point out that that present came from ALL of us.
RoboRally
We played the scenario called "Ball Lightning". It's a relatively short 1 board/ 4 flag scenario but the trick is that all cards MUST be programmed within 30 seconds (one turn of the sand timer) or cards are programmed at random. That's a very short period of time to plan, and everyone's execution suffered for it. Of course, RoboRally is funniest when plans don't go as they should, so I enjoyed myself as usual. The only problem is that I had specifically chosen it because it was listed as "short" in the scenario book, but unfortunately it took 1.5 hours. Going where you needed to go with so little time to plan was quite difficult, never mind the inherent chaos created by having 5 robots on the same playing field.
I laboriously made it to the first flag and then barely made it to the second flag before 10pm hit (in the real world) and we decided to pack up so we could play our last game. By then, it was clear that Luch was going to win... he was two spaces away from his fourth and final flag. Shemp just barely made it to 1. It was chaotic, hellish and funny. Exactly as I had hoped.
Funny Friends
It's been a long time since we've played this at WAGS. JayWowzer joined us to make it a sixsome(?) and we set about leading really pathetic lives together. For those keeping score. Luch, Chris and I where men; Shemp, Bharmer and JayWowzer were women.
I started out finding the church and becoming sad nobody loved me. Then, I fell in love on a school trip and I promptly cheated on her. The poetry I started writing led me to become an Elvis impersonator. Some may argue that that was the high point of my miserable life, because the later part saw one of my condoms break leading me into fatherhood and a relationship with Shemp that I tried REPEATEDLY to get out of (I cheated through a one night stand with Bharmer, turned to drugs, consented when Bharmer wanted me once again and eventually turned to drugs because alcohol wasn't enough to dull the pain of being in a secure marriage with Shemp.
When Kozure ended the game, I had just started a cult.
Other lives lead:
Kozure was a drinker, an eater, a frequenter of roadhouses and a workaholic. All that changed when he had a vision of St. Mary, joined the loser club and became an alcoholic. Lucky for him, he caught a bridal bouquet, met "Kevin" at a drive-in movie and became happily married, and a freak. (Is it obvious he won the game?)
Bharmer was a freak in puberty and had no friends. He eventually discovered BSW (online gaming site), became so fat he resorted to liposuction and then became a game designer (obviously, that was when I swooned and consented to sleep with him).
JayWowzer was in an accident as a youth, and turned to drugs, drinking, religion and crash diets to deal with the pain. Despite becoming a certified addict, his parties and church meetings allowed him to establish the large circle of friends he always dreamed of.
Luch's life was rather incoherent. He dabbled in the black market, bullied and got a girl pregnant before selling his body to science, getting into fights and being a male sperm raider(!). All this allowed him to quit smoking, write his memoirs and become a millionaire.
Some may say that Shemp's life was defined by him (her) starting a commune and checking into a looney bin, but I would argue he (she) existed primarily to keep me married and use me for sex in order to first achieve the common goal of being a sex maniac.
...
I'll be the first to admit that Funny Friends doesn't really work as well as it could mechanically, but it's not bad and we all laughed a lot while playing. Other groups I've played this with have loved it, so even though it's not full of strategery I still am happy to play it once in a while.
Showing posts with label Mall of Horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mall of Horror. Show all posts
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Be Very Afraid (Wheedle, LOTR: Sauron, Mall of Horror)
Few games strike fear in the hearts of Wagsters like LOTR w/ Sauron expansion.
Well, that may not be exactly true. In the case of Shemp, this game inspires hatred. Our first play was a pretty brutal experience, since we tried to play it with the "black tiles" mini-expansion... and it was way too hard. That was February 2005. I happen to really like it, and so I took the opportunity of Shemp's temporary absence to give it a second shot.
After a quick game of of Wheedle (which continues to be a fun game, BTW) I again took the role of Sauron.
Lord of the Rings w/ Sauron expansion
The 4 hobbits (Kozure, Bharmer, Ouch and JayWowzer) undertook the hopeless quest. Moria was quite difficult for them. As they clawed thier way through the mines, Frodo became seriously corrupted and the Nazgul had succeeded in finding him (although he didn't make it back in time to end the game). Luckily for the hobbits, Helm's Deep and Shelob's Lair proved much easier. Things were looking pretty good for the halflings: Merry, barely corrupted, held the ring. The Nazgul found them once more, but again did not make it back. The fellowship hadn't yet been forced to resort to calling Gandalf or using many of their powers.
Then, in Mordor, it all went to hell. A substantially corrupted Sam unwillingly inherented The Ring at the conclusion of Shelob's Lair. What's worse, Jaywowzer drew many "bad" tiles on his turn (he was only the second player to act on that board, and by the time he was done there were 5 bad tiles drawn). I had been saving up cards to hit them hard at the end, and the combination was overwhelming. They were crushed just a few steps into Mordor.
I'm really happy I was able to play this again. The Sauron character is lots of fun to play, but the experience is quite different than the other players simply because victory is virtually assured... it's more a question of "when". I was frankly quite surprised at how easily the group made it to Mordor. I was doing my best, but they seemed to easily absorb my attacks (well, not easily, but I didn't really feel like they were struggling THAT hard). It's a bit of a hollow victory that the game was essentially handed to me by several unfortunate draws by JayWowzer. Oh well, the fun is in the experience with this one.
I do wish there was a way to eliminate the possibility of a long line of bad draws, particularly at the beginning of a scenario.
Mall of horror
We finished up the evening with Mall of Horror. Luch locked up the Security Headquarters in the initial placement, and with virtually no zombies attacking he was able to stay there. This meant the Luch was the Security Officer for most of the game.
Hapless movie extras scurried from one location to the next, hot bimbos gathered at the "toy" shop, zombies arrived "en mass". JayWowser had a bad run and was nearly eliminated early on. Then Bharmer found himself with no survivors and gleefully placed zombies on the board until the game ended. As the survivors dwindled, the security Headquarters and the Parking Lot were the places to be. I had my bimbo left, and was holding 2 cards, so I won the tie-breaker against Kozure.
I was a little dissapointed at the lack of deal-making during this session. It seemed that the result of nearly every zombie meal was a foregone conclusion. Not sure why it happened this way, but the theory is that Luch's lock on security combined with the surpringly low volume of Zombies to that room should be blamed for "breaking the game" a little.
Well, that may not be exactly true. In the case of Shemp, this game inspires hatred. Our first play was a pretty brutal experience, since we tried to play it with the "black tiles" mini-expansion... and it was way too hard. That was February 2005. I happen to really like it, and so I took the opportunity of Shemp's temporary absence to give it a second shot.
After a quick game of of Wheedle (which continues to be a fun game, BTW) I again took the role of Sauron.
Lord of the Rings w/ Sauron expansion
The 4 hobbits (Kozure, Bharmer, Ouch and JayWowzer) undertook the hopeless quest. Moria was quite difficult for them. As they clawed thier way through the mines, Frodo became seriously corrupted and the Nazgul had succeeded in finding him (although he didn't make it back in time to end the game). Luckily for the hobbits, Helm's Deep and Shelob's Lair proved much easier. Things were looking pretty good for the halflings: Merry, barely corrupted, held the ring. The Nazgul found them once more, but again did not make it back. The fellowship hadn't yet been forced to resort to calling Gandalf or using many of their powers.
Then, in Mordor, it all went to hell. A substantially corrupted Sam unwillingly inherented The Ring at the conclusion of Shelob's Lair. What's worse, Jaywowzer drew many "bad" tiles on his turn (he was only the second player to act on that board, and by the time he was done there were 5 bad tiles drawn). I had been saving up cards to hit them hard at the end, and the combination was overwhelming. They were crushed just a few steps into Mordor.
I'm really happy I was able to play this again. The Sauron character is lots of fun to play, but the experience is quite different than the other players simply because victory is virtually assured... it's more a question of "when". I was frankly quite surprised at how easily the group made it to Mordor. I was doing my best, but they seemed to easily absorb my attacks (well, not easily, but I didn't really feel like they were struggling THAT hard). It's a bit of a hollow victory that the game was essentially handed to me by several unfortunate draws by JayWowzer. Oh well, the fun is in the experience with this one.
I do wish there was a way to eliminate the possibility of a long line of bad draws, particularly at the beginning of a scenario.
Mall of horror
We finished up the evening with Mall of Horror. Luch locked up the Security Headquarters in the initial placement, and with virtually no zombies attacking he was able to stay there. This meant the Luch was the Security Officer for most of the game.
Hapless movie extras scurried from one location to the next, hot bimbos gathered at the "toy" shop, zombies arrived "en mass". JayWowser had a bad run and was nearly eliminated early on. Then Bharmer found himself with no survivors and gleefully placed zombies on the board until the game ended. As the survivors dwindled, the security Headquarters and the Parking Lot were the places to be. I had my bimbo left, and was holding 2 cards, so I won the tie-breaker against Kozure.
I was a little dissapointed at the lack of deal-making during this session. It seemed that the result of nearly every zombie meal was a foregone conclusion. Not sure why it happened this way, but the theory is that Luch's lock on security combined with the surpringly low volume of Zombies to that room should be blamed for "breaking the game" a little.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
You did your part, little 50 year old boy (Mall of Horror, Betrayal at House on the Hill)
Another Halloween has come and gone, and with it another session of horror themed games.
It's the first time in a month and a half for all five of us to be playing at the same time. The honour of the first game went to Mall of Horror, an impulse Hallowe'en buy on Kozure's part. I was excited to play it, because the concept is pretty interesting...
Mall of Horror
Mall of Horror is a rather innovative take on the zombie boardgame genre. Every player controls 3 characters who are trapped in a mall. There are five stores where the characters can barricade themselves, and a parking lot which is extremely dangerous but where valuable equipment can be found. Every round, zombies arrive and try to break into the stores. As long as the characters outnumber the zombies, they are safe... but the zombies keep coming and numerical superiority doesn't last forever. If characters find themselves outnumbered, somebody will die. This is where the true colours of the game reveal themselves... Rather than resort to combat, players must VOTE to pick the victim! Loser gets eaten (I'm guessing this is meant to simulate the characters pushing someone to the front). When the game ends, the winner is the player who has the most valuable characters left in the game.
So, basically, this is Survivor: Zombie edition. It's quite a fun game.
There are a number of additional details which enrich the gaming experience:
1) The three characters are not equal. There is a "hot babe" worth 7 points at the end of the game, a "tough guy" worth 5 and a "guy with a gun" worth 3. The girl has no special ability, other than being worth the most. The tough guy counts as two characters when determining if the zombies can break a barricade. The guy with the gun gets two votes when determining who gets sacked (because he's got a gun, which makes him convincing).
2) Every round, each player must secretely choose a destination for one of their characters. Staying in place is NOT an option. This creates very interesting dynamics because a location which was safe last round (because the characters outnumbered the zombies) can suddenly become deadly if a few characters leave. Also, there is a maximum number of characters in each location, which causes a lot of tension as areas become overriden with Zombies and the remaining available spaces in other stores are full. If a player chooses a destination which ultimately cannot accomodate a character, it winds up in the parking lot. Ouch.
3) One player is voted "Head of Security" each round. Normally, players don't know where the zombies will arrive every round. A newly elected head of security has a big advantage because he/she gets to see, through his short-circuit cameras, where the zombies will be going and he/she can act accordingly.
4) The parking lot is very dangerous because every single zombie in the area eats a victim (i.e. they don't need to outnumber the victims). The reason characters would go there is that the parking lot is home to life-saving equipment, such as guns and barricading materials. In game terms, any survivors vote one player to draw 3 cards. That player chooses one, then MUST give a second card to another player and then discard the third. Ass-kissing typically ensues.
The game manages to create a very interesting atmosphere of tension and desperation as the zombies start piling on the board and the player's characters start dwindling. Negotiating skills are put to the test. Promises for future consideration and "watching each other's backs" can mean the difference between making it to the end and... not. If I were to fault the game it would be that in the absence of any real currency, the creativity of negotiations is somewhat limited. Also, player elimination could easily force a player to watch from the sidelines early on... a potential problem in a game of this length (1-1.5 hours). This is easily the best zombie game I've played, and the game mechanics capture the theme very well. Despite this, the game is more in the "Intrigue" and "Quo Vadis?" camp of cut-throat negotation games. Less nasty than Intrigue, but still nasty.
Shemp ran away with the game, teaming up with Kozure early on and generally out-maneuvering and out-negotiating the rest of us throughout the game. He backstabbed Kozure at just the right time, knocking him out of contention for the lead. Bharmer was nearly eliminated early on. Luch and I did our best, but we couldn't change the pecking order. Interestingly, on the last round it became clear how fragile any lead in the game can be... Shemp found himself with his two remaining characters in the parking lot on the last round. There were two zombies there. He had a "hide" card which allowed one of his characters to survive, but if he hadn't he would have been wiped off the board and out of contention. Fortunatly for him, he had prepared for such an event and was holding onto that card for quite some time. Kozure did finish second, and the rest of us lost all our characters.
We finished off the evening with our yearly game of Betrayal at House on the Hill. The scenario which came up saw me, as a little girl, be the traitor. The story goes that the house is alive and likes to feed on humans. In return for eternal youth, I led the other players here as a sacrifice. Every round, the other player's character could potentially age dramatically. I simply needed to wait and let them die fo old age, or get directly involved and "help move things along". Meanwhile, the other players were running around and trying to cast spells in various rooms of the house in order to remove the enchantment and save themselves. Predictably, the old priest died quickly. The dynamite I lobbed at the little boy helped me eliminate him (though he had aged to his 50s by then, and had successfully cast 1 or 2 spells... leading to the blog entry's title). Shortly thereafter, the woman also succumbed to old age. Only the jock remained, and he had hardly aged at all due to exceptional rolling on Shemp's part. Just as I thought to myself that things were looking good for me, the dumb thug stumbled across the last room they needed to find and succesfully cast the final spell. I lost.
It's a stupid game, but I enjoy it. The variety of the scenarios continues to impress.
It's the first time in a month and a half for all five of us to be playing at the same time. The honour of the first game went to Mall of Horror, an impulse Hallowe'en buy on Kozure's part. I was excited to play it, because the concept is pretty interesting...
Mall of Horror
Mall of Horror is a rather innovative take on the zombie boardgame genre. Every player controls 3 characters who are trapped in a mall. There are five stores where the characters can barricade themselves, and a parking lot which is extremely dangerous but where valuable equipment can be found. Every round, zombies arrive and try to break into the stores. As long as the characters outnumber the zombies, they are safe... but the zombies keep coming and numerical superiority doesn't last forever. If characters find themselves outnumbered, somebody will die. This is where the true colours of the game reveal themselves... Rather than resort to combat, players must VOTE to pick the victim! Loser gets eaten (I'm guessing this is meant to simulate the characters pushing someone to the front). When the game ends, the winner is the player who has the most valuable characters left in the game.
So, basically, this is Survivor: Zombie edition. It's quite a fun game.
There are a number of additional details which enrich the gaming experience:
1) The three characters are not equal. There is a "hot babe" worth 7 points at the end of the game, a "tough guy" worth 5 and a "guy with a gun" worth 3. The girl has no special ability, other than being worth the most. The tough guy counts as two characters when determining if the zombies can break a barricade. The guy with the gun gets two votes when determining who gets sacked (because he's got a gun, which makes him convincing).
2) Every round, each player must secretely choose a destination for one of their characters. Staying in place is NOT an option. This creates very interesting dynamics because a location which was safe last round (because the characters outnumbered the zombies) can suddenly become deadly if a few characters leave. Also, there is a maximum number of characters in each location, which causes a lot of tension as areas become overriden with Zombies and the remaining available spaces in other stores are full. If a player chooses a destination which ultimately cannot accomodate a character, it winds up in the parking lot. Ouch.
3) One player is voted "Head of Security" each round. Normally, players don't know where the zombies will arrive every round. A newly elected head of security has a big advantage because he/she gets to see, through his short-circuit cameras, where the zombies will be going and he/she can act accordingly.
4) The parking lot is very dangerous because every single zombie in the area eats a victim (i.e. they don't need to outnumber the victims). The reason characters would go there is that the parking lot is home to life-saving equipment, such as guns and barricading materials. In game terms, any survivors vote one player to draw 3 cards. That player chooses one, then MUST give a second card to another player and then discard the third. Ass-kissing typically ensues.
The game manages to create a very interesting atmosphere of tension and desperation as the zombies start piling on the board and the player's characters start dwindling. Negotiating skills are put to the test. Promises for future consideration and "watching each other's backs" can mean the difference between making it to the end and... not. If I were to fault the game it would be that in the absence of any real currency, the creativity of negotiations is somewhat limited. Also, player elimination could easily force a player to watch from the sidelines early on... a potential problem in a game of this length (1-1.5 hours). This is easily the best zombie game I've played, and the game mechanics capture the theme very well. Despite this, the game is more in the "Intrigue" and "Quo Vadis?" camp of cut-throat negotation games. Less nasty than Intrigue, but still nasty.
Shemp ran away with the game, teaming up with Kozure early on and generally out-maneuvering and out-negotiating the rest of us throughout the game. He backstabbed Kozure at just the right time, knocking him out of contention for the lead. Bharmer was nearly eliminated early on. Luch and I did our best, but we couldn't change the pecking order. Interestingly, on the last round it became clear how fragile any lead in the game can be... Shemp found himself with his two remaining characters in the parking lot on the last round. There were two zombies there. He had a "hide" card which allowed one of his characters to survive, but if he hadn't he would have been wiped off the board and out of contention. Fortunatly for him, he had prepared for such an event and was holding onto that card for quite some time. Kozure did finish second, and the rest of us lost all our characters.
We finished off the evening with our yearly game of Betrayal at House on the Hill. The scenario which came up saw me, as a little girl, be the traitor. The story goes that the house is alive and likes to feed on humans. In return for eternal youth, I led the other players here as a sacrifice. Every round, the other player's character could potentially age dramatically. I simply needed to wait and let them die fo old age, or get directly involved and "help move things along". Meanwhile, the other players were running around and trying to cast spells in various rooms of the house in order to remove the enchantment and save themselves. Predictably, the old priest died quickly. The dynamite I lobbed at the little boy helped me eliminate him (though he had aged to his 50s by then, and had successfully cast 1 or 2 spells... leading to the blog entry's title). Shortly thereafter, the woman also succumbed to old age. Only the jock remained, and he had hardly aged at all due to exceptional rolling on Shemp's part. Just as I thought to myself that things were looking good for me, the dumb thug stumbled across the last room they needed to find and succesfully cast the final spell. I lost.
It's a stupid game, but I enjoy it. The variety of the scenarios continues to impress.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
