Catching up

Things got really busy since August and I have had precious time to play games...

Quick updates
Heromages lasted till my big move in September. After that, I got very little gaming except on the Nintendo DS.

After getting back from my trip overseas and the holidays, I had a chance to start Dragon Age. I was able to get in a few long nights over the holidays. However, its been hard to get such a heavy game started with only 30 min free.

Dominion has taken over for board gaming with my friends. Its a quick fun game and scales from 2-6 people depending on the version you have.

I found rogues again online when I caught wind of the 2010 7DRL contest. I picked up Dungeon Crawl and liked the gameplay/speed. It reminds me of powder. I wish I could find a nice graphical version of ADOM but haven't had a chance to look.

Heromages: Betrayal Map

This is an interesting 4 player map. Each player has 1 guardian next to an opposing heromage. It was designed to mix up starting positions and cause chaos and bloodshed early.

It also has some LOS and corners to hide during the game

Summer update: Heromages

Been playing a bit of heromages ( www.heromages) the last two weeks.

Its a flash based game with a good amount of strategy and depth. My only concern is that the endgame can drag out between two players.

Other than that, summer gaming has been light. I got in three games of Heroscape for my birthday in June. It was fun..but the games aren't hitting the table anymore...

Chain Reaction 3: Swordfight is out

A new version of Chain Reaction is out with a fantasy skirmish out for free.

I glanced at the rules and it looks better organized than previous iteration. This is the free version, so it doesn't have as much detail as the other games in the series.

Starting setting up a follow up scenario to test the rules out.

Mechaton

Mechaton is a very pretty game of mecha combat using legos and d6. I loved the system and picked up the rules two years ago but never had the legos to assemble the cool looking mechs.

Looks like a new mechaton site came up: Mechatonic with some new design and campaign notes.

Light Posting

A Major Release for work, so I've working overtime. I probably won't touch any boardgames till late February.

I've played a few games of ADOM here and there. Needless to say, its a hard game.

The small cave is a death trap if you stay too long. I didn't find a key and got stuck, so I tried to take out the Brigand leader with my Dwarven fighter.

The half-orc bouncer took my head.

playing ADOM

I came across ADOM while doing research on computer games. Its an old ASCII based rogue. The user interface is very challenging to learn.

Melee Specials for SOBH

Some ideas for melee specials. Some of these are used in a Song of Dragon Noir.

Weapon Master
You may roll 2 dice for your combat roll. Choose one of the values as
your final combat roll.

This should effectively add a +1 to your die roll. However, you have the choice of choosing the final value. The reason for this is to give you the option to choose to knock down or force your opponent to recoil.

Mighty
When your Combat roll is a 5, you may change it to a 6.
This effectively bumps your combat odds of causing a knock down.

Hardy - this idea came from the Bren of SOBH forum.
When your Combat roll is a 1, you may change it to a 2.

This effectively reduces your odds of fallen or killed.

Song of Dragon Noir - Rule Costing

Here is a summary rule costing for the specials in Song of Dragon Noir.
These values probably need balancing.

Acrobat;3;
Armored;3;
Berserk;3;
Bodyguard;3;
Cleric;15;p;
Combat Master;10;p;
Coward;-2;
Epic Attack;5;p;
Evil;0;
Ghost Blade;2;
Good;0;
Group Fighter;3;p;
Hatred;3;
Magic Resistance;2;
Mighty;3;
Necromancer;15;p;
Opportunistic;4;
Paladin;2;
Quick Shot;7;
Running Blow;8;
Sharpshooter;3;
Shock;3;
Shoot or Move;-3;
Sniper;10;p;
Summoner;15;p;
Weapon Master;7;p;
vs dwarves;0;
vs elves;0;
vs evil;0;
vs good;0;
vs humans;0;
vs magic users;0;
vs mounted;0;
vs orcs;0;
vs trolls;0;

A Song of Dragon Noir

I finally wrapped up all my notes on my Dragon Noir/SOBH conversion and bundled into a few pdfs. The first draft can be found at the SOBH forum

A Song of Dragon Noir is a fan conversion of Dragon Noir to SOBH rules. It was a good mental exercise and got a few solo plays.

Each counter has a unique stat and fills a role on their side for a campaign game.

If I have time, I would like to update the stats for the individual characters differently using some new ideas I have.