Horror!

What better place to play an intense and scary board game then miles away from civilization?  I helped my good friend KJ close up camp.  Once the work was done and we were full from Maltese burgers on the BBQ we hunkered down for an epic game of ELDRITCH HORRORS!  MUHAAAHAAHAAA!

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When I say Epic - I mean EPIC.  Setup for this beast is a 7/10 on the difficulty scale - at least for me.  Not for the faint of heart and if you're trying to jam this game into a specific time schedule.  You need to set aside an evening for this whopper.  But it is absolutely worth the wait.

HP Lovecraft inspired, Eldritch Horrors is similar to Elder Signs - however this takes place on a global scale. The actual board game is stunning and puts you into an Indiana Jones sort of feel with the time period it represents and the look of the map itself.

There's a lot going on and it took me a few turns to get into the flow of it.  This is a team game. You and your mates versus the horrors unleashed.  Glowing Turtle does an excellent walk through of this intricate game.

The objective is clear - defeat King Boss before to many portals open up and unleash unspeakable monsters and the DOOM CLOCK runs out.

The time flies playing this game - so be sure to block a good chunk of it.  Our adventure lasted over 2 hours.

Dragonwood

I found the BEST board game for children!  I happen to be passing through a quaint little tourist town on the north shore of Lake Superior - Grand Marais.  There's a great outdoors/hiking/camping store there called the Trading Post which stocks all manner of cottage clothing, fishing, hunting, books, maps and games!

I asked the owner about this game "Dragonwood" that I spotted in the games section.  He had heard some pretty amazing reviews from his customers who had purchased it.  Taking him at his word I purchased it for my kids.

We were on a camping trip weeks later and broke out the game (still in the shrink wrap).  My kids along with some of their cousins took to it like moths to a flame.  It was the best $20.00 I spent towards children's entertainment and the kids as well as myself spent hours playing this gem of a game.

Simply put - it's a form of UNO (finding cards of the same colour or a run of numbers or three of kind) and using that determine how many dice you roll to try and capture a creature from "Dragonwood".   Each card captured has an assigned point(s) to it.  The smaller point cards are easier to capture like the 'fire ants' or 'giggling goblins'.  The more difficult cards like the 'pack of wolves' or 'angry bear' require a more die to conquer. 

The two ultimate beasts - the Dragons - are the most difficult to capture.  Once the two dragons are caught the game is over and players then count their points (based on the creatures captured).

Hours and hours of fun were had with this game.  It is great if you aspire to have your kids get into more difficult games as it provides the foundation of dice mechanics.  10 out 10!

Trying a Different Flavor of RPG

What does one do to combat the winter blues?  Embrace it of course!  What better way than to hunker down at a freind's camp, stoke the flames in the fireplace and burn through hours of adventure in the blink of an eye around a table playing DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS!

Days previous I got to build out a character and have it prepared for the adventure.  I went with a Half-Elf Druid and leveled up on medicinal forest skills.  My colleague went with a Ranger class Human and also leveled up in nature based skills. Lucky for us our quest took us on a wooded terrain path into the mountains.  Our insight was favorable indeed!

This was our GM's first crack at being a GM.  I wouldn't have guessed it was his first attempt. For this round he used his newly aquired D&D 5th Edition.  Adapting to this version based on my previous EotE adventures was almost seemless.  Apparently the new 5th edition is less on dice-math and lends itself more to the game play. 

He guided our characters SavaVor and Warmspring to a haunted canyon by way of a quirky village.  We heard some tales of orcs and treasure from the locals before heading on our way.

Our original journey was to take us to the lands far beyond for some contract work with some Dwarves.  However that would have to wait as we were diverted by strange and unusual forces to visit the canyon on the outskirts of the town.

A thick fog hid the bottom of the crevase.  The only sign of activty was a rope tied off to a post that ran down the rock wall into the abyss.   Being experienced woodsmen, we tied off secondary  climbing gear for safety and scaled down the escarment which ended at the top of a platform.  Stairs carved into the rocks led further down still.

Warmsrping and I discover the top of an ancient castle sticking out of the canyon floor.  It appears to have been burried then swallowed up by the earth.  There's activty a foot as latterns are lit and a path in out of the top of the building has been worn.  Could this be where the treasures are coming from?

To be continued...