Rogue Trader Collector’s Edition Is Fancy!

Ooooh! Fancy fancy!

Fantasy Flight have opened pre-orders for the very limited collector’s edition of the new RPG core rulebook, Rogue Trader. It’s an RPG set in the Warhammer 40k Universe, and hopes are very high for it.

The Collector’s Edition, if you get in early enough, is fancy fancy in this manner:

This stunning, limited edition set comes enclosed in a velvet-lined protective collector’s case adorned with a beautifully rendered star map. It includes a special leather-bound, individually numbered copy of the Rogue Trader core rulebook, with silver-gilded edges and an attached ribbon bookmark.

Additionally, the set contains a highly detailed Warrant of Trade, which, when you pre-order directly from the FFG webstore, will be hand personalized with a name of choosing by a master calligrapher!

Head over to the Fantasy Flight site if you’re interested.

And if you want to know IF you’re interested, why not download a free introductory adventure, run through it with some friends, and then tell me all about it.

Fancy fancy!

Sumeria Computer Game Testers Wanted

Jackson Pope, the man behind Reiver Games, one of the UK’s best indie boardgame publishers, is working on a computer game adaptation of the recent Reiver Games release Sumeria.

He’s looking for testers to assist with the process.

You can head along to boardgamegeek here and register your interest.

If you’re curious about Sumeria, hang in a little longer – there’ll be a review on the site this very week.

Zaa Ooo Zaa!

Tannhauser Review

Forget the Gate for a moment.

Tannhauser was a poet. The Tannhauser of legend knelt at the feet of Venus and adored her. He became remorseful, begged for forgiveness from a Pope, was denied, and returned to his adoration of his goddess. He is there, we imagine, even now. Rapture of the flesh.

Tannhauser is poetry, eroticism, torture, guilt and love.

Fantasy Flight’s Tannhauser is set in 1949, a year which sees the First World War rumbling on. But after 35 years of conflict, things are about to change. The Reich has found some occult artifacts, as they often do in works of fiction. Now things are about to get very gothic, very steampunky, very shooty and very roll-a-lot-of-dicey.

In truth, Fantasy Flight themselves explain the game better than I can. Watch this video, and then read on to see my take on the gameplay.

The first thing to be said about the game is that it’s beautiful. When you lay the fella out, with its lovely double sided map board (a house and an underground cavern), and place all those pre-painted miniatures on there… You just have to step back, look at it and say “Man!”

INT. ROBERT’S HOUSE – NIGHT

ROBERT and KENNY are sitting at the table. Tannhauser is laid out upon it.
JOANNE enters.

JOANNE
Is this Tannhauser?

ROBERT
Aye.

JOANNE
Oof.

As a great man once said: “It’s an FPS.” Tannhauser is simply the board game equivalent of a PC or console first person shooter game. Ten characters, each with different abilities, each with multiple weaponry and equipment loadouts. 5 baddies, 5 goodies. Different modes of play – Story Mode, Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill…

“It’s an FPS.”

Tannhauser is an easy game to learn, and an easy game to play. You’ll be rolling a lot of dice. You roll for initiative, you roll to shoot, you roll to go hand-to-hand, you roll to duel. You do have a little bit of control over Lady Luck. Tinkering with your weapon loadouts can give you an advantage (some weapons will kill instantly on a natural 10, for example), and you can spend Victory Points to shift the goalposts. Victory Points can be found in crates, by the way.

In crates. “It’s an FPS.”

The standout feature of the game is the “Pathfinder System.” Each map is littered with coloured circles. If you’re on a red circle, you have line of sight to anyone else on a red circle. If you’re on a yellow and blue, you can see along the yellow and blue path. It’s a beautiful system, and it removes any abstraction from the game. Miniature skirmish games are often fraught with LOS debates and rules lawyering, so it’s nice to find a game that allows everything to just be and lets players get on with trying to kill each other. It also allows for moments of high drama, where characters can be RIGHT BESIDE EACH OTHER on adjacent circles, but neither having line of sight because of a half-closed door.

The teams seem beautifully balanced. The Union (the good guys) have incredible weaponry, but aren’t very nippy on their feet. The Obskura Corps (the bad guys, MY GUYS) have some crazy mystical powers, but they need to duck in and out of the shadows – they’re not the most resilient bad guys in the world. Take this big prick, for example–

OZO - Can't get my head round him

–for some reason, I can’t keep this gentleman alive. Kenny killed him two games in a row just last night, without Ozo even firing off a single shot. I’m not blaming the game for this. I’m blaming me. Characters have their strengths and weaknesses.

Now, while I’m shit at ordering Ozo around the map, give me this bad boy and all bets are off–

Stosstruppen - A fucking BEAST

Now, the chap above is just one of the Obskura Corps’ troopers. But he’s a monster. He moves fast, and when he gets into close combat with someone, it’s a case of STAB, SLASH, HELP!, TOO LATE, YOU’RE MINE, OH MY GOD HELP OH GOD, TOO LATE TOO LATE SHHH SHHH SHHH DIE SLEEP SLEEP SHHH DIE FRIEND SHHHH MY BABY DIE SHHHH SHHHHHHHHHH SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH UGHHHHHHHHHHH! This is a game where you play your characters to their strengths.

The game isn’t without strategy, then, but the strategy is light. That’s fine. It is, after all, “an FPS.” I’ll give you a look at some of the strategic choices you might make during a play of Tannhauser.

EXAMPLE TANNHAUSER STRATEGIES

1. Stay away from that big fucker with that fucker of a gun.

2. Don’t stand in a cluster, you tits. She’s got dynamite!

3. Sneak up behind that wee wanker and slit his throat with your claw.

4. STAY AWAY FROM THAT BIG FUCKER WITH THAT FUCKER OF A GUN!!!

Tannhauser plays 2-10 players. I’ve only ever played it 2-player, so I can’t speak for these massive games. I imagine, though, that it might just work. The thing is, Tannhauser is a game that sees characters getting cut up and killed regularly and quickly. In a 10 player game, if you’re the first character to get popped, you might not fancy waiting around for a new game to start. But then again…

…here’s the thing. “Dicefests” are often met with disapproval in this age of Eurogame snootiness. But sometimes there’s no greater entertainment than a do or die face-to-face dice roll. Kenny and I had a stand-off last night. Two characters, going toe-to-toe. Both refusing to run away. Both rolling at each other for turn after turn. Both refusing to die. It was amazing. I imagine that, even if it had been a 10 player game and we were the last two left, people would have enjoyed watching the drama play out.

Tannhauser has a full expansion already, called Operation Novgorod, and it’s also a thing of beauty. It brings in a steampunk character set, and features a beautiful snowy outdoors map. The miniatures in Novgorod are particularly beautiful–

Wow. Right? Oof.

–further enhancing the I AM COLLECTING ACTION FIGURES HOORAY! element of the game. There are individual character packs available too, and you can swap these into the factions. In truth, there’s room on the table and in people’s wallets for more expansions than are currently available. GET A MOVE ON, FF.

If you like the theme and you like computer games, you’re probably going to be right at home with Tannhauser. There’s a lot of scope in the game for the kind of things videogamers enjoy – learning the pros and cons of your character, fucking about with the weapon loadouts, trashtalking.

Tannhauser is poetry, eroticism, torture, guilt and love. And dice, and dice, and guns, and bombs, and monsters, and leather, and whips.

And, last night, lots of Jack Daniels.

GamePride: A New Momentum in Gaming – Part 1

You don’t know this yet, but a lot of amazing people play games.

In my time, I’ve seen one prevalent attitude among gamers. We cower a little. We hide our incredible lights under the most baskety of bushels. We seek solace in shady corners of the internet, to discuss games with people like ourselves. We are insecure. We project our insecurities, expecting other people to think we are, at best, “eccentric.” At worst, “a sad sack.”

Despite our hobbies being very social things, we equate our interests with an antisocial lifestyle. We make jokes about not “getting a girlfriend” despite most of us having one, and many of us being female or gay. Or both.

We perpetuate a stereotype. We do it. No-one else does. One glance at a google image search and I can find a photo of a gamer:

He loves Agricola, Dominion and plays Xbox 360

But this guy isn’t a gamer. I’ve just found someone who fits into our collective perverse idea of what a gamer looks like. This guy is an innocent pawn in our terrible game.

It ends now.

It is time for something that speaks to all gamers, be they board gamers, card gamers, pen and paper RPGamers or video gamers.

GamePride is here.

SO WHAT IS GAMEPRIDE?

Good question, although there’s no need to shout.

GamePride is a concept. It’s the idea that people who play games should be proud of their hobby orientation. It’s the notion that we should let nothing change our interests, and that we should no longer ghettoise ourselves in the pursuit of our pastime.

In practical terms, what does this mean?

It means that each of us commit to taking three vital steps:

1. We no longer self-deprecate as a defence mechanism.

2. We actively promote our interests with pride.

and vitally

3. If we aren’t out, we come out. And we out others.

Now, I understand that point three may cause some debate. Let’s imagine you are, for example, the recording artist Usher.

The recording artist and muscleman Usher

The common belief right now is that it would be bad business for Usher to come out and say that he is a gamer. We would imagine that Usher would not benefit greatly from stopping during one of his R&B ballads to tell the front row that the worker placement in Round 13 of Agricola is very stressful, or that the launch of Battlefield 1943 on Xbox Live Arcade was fraught with bugs and annoyances. But we are wrong. Usher’s audience would not care that he enjoys slipping collectable cards into protective sleeves. Indeed, Usher’s audience would likely want to assist with the sleeving, while undressed.

Becoming one with the new momentum, in our new reality Usher “comes out” as a gamer, and all is well.

Now, onto the outing of others. It is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the GamePride movement, but it is essential. Some people will have been brainwashed into thinking there is an element of embarassment in admitting what they are. Left to their own devices, these people will never come to the realisation that ourselves and Usher came to. These people will need a push. So, inform on anyone you know to be gamer, and all will be well.

The Role of Celebrity

As crass as it may seem, the realist accepts that celebrities can normalise activities simply by openly participating in them. The knowledge that a known or notable person participates in the same things you hold dear warms the heart. Let’s look at a few examples.

On the website BoardGameGeek, it is heartening to see Star Trek:TNG star Wil Wheaton exhibiting his GamePride by openly registering his interest in board games. We know from his profile that even this young man below–

Wesley Crusher - never the same since The Game

–has wanted to kick the shit out of his friends during a game of Junta.

Another example – the internet hurrah caused by the beautiful Mila Kunis’ bold exhibition of her GamePride during an interview with Jimmy Kimmel.

Now, we can pretend that celebrities have no bearing on our lives if we wish. But let’s be honest – celebrities have a huge part to play in any movement. They have a voice, and people want to listen. If you or I were to advise someone to try a game of Scotland Yard, we’d maybe have a struggle on our hands. If the lady below–

–suggested that someone sit down with her and take her on in a sealed booster draft game of Magic: The Gathering, she’d probably have no shortage of opponents.

One of our first goals, then, is to encourage gamers who are in positions of celebrity and influence to come out in support of GamePride. We will use all means at our disposal to do this. Ideally, these people will come here and profess their pride. In the comments section below. But any statement of GamePride will do. This will start the ball rolling in a big way.

And we need big balls right now.

It is time to make a stand for GamePride. There is a comments section below that will allow further discussion on the GamePride movement, and more articles will follow detailing further steps in this radical campaign.

If you’re reading this, you’re a gamer who has been fortunate enough to get in at the very start of something historic. You are a pioneer in the GamePride movement. A new momentum in gaming.

And here is our mark. Our flag. Wear it well.

The Red and Green OXO of GamePride

Citadels Review

Citadels. Ahhhh, Citadels.

It’s a card game. It’s a city-building game. It’s a role-playing game. No. It’s a role choosing game.

In Citadels, each player is dealt a hand of cards representing areas of a city. The player has to pay to build these areas. Once eight areas are built by any one player, the game ends. The first player out gets a point bonus and then the cities are scored. Some city areas are worth more points. Some combinations of areas give further point bonuses. The player with the most points wins.

It’s remarkably simple. But it’s not a game about what you do. It’s a game about who you are. In each game turn, every player chooses a role from a hand of cards.

A royal pain in the arse.

WHO WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?

The Assassin: He can choose to murder any other character. He announces who he wants to kill and BAM! the player who chose that unfortunate character misses his turn. He’s a stone-cold bastard. But the assassin could choose the wrong character. He doesn’t know who’s who when he chooses his victim. He might not choose the character who is being played by the game leader. He might choose a character who isn’t being played at all. It’s a risky life, the life of an assassin, but murder is fun. The Assassin’s favourite TV show is The Apprentice.

The Thief: The Thief chooses a victim, and then when that character is revealed, he steals all that character’s gold. The Thief is a hated man. The Assassin and The Thief are in the same Five-a-Side team. A proper couple of buggers.

The Magician: He’s off his nut. He can fling away cards and magically draw new ones. He can point his finger at another player and steal their entire hand of cards. An unpredictable force, like diarrhea.

The King: He gets to announce all the other players, calling out their names like he’s the boss of them all. He behaves like a diva, giving it “all eyes on me” and is a total pain in the arse. The Assassin loves killing him. He receives one gold for each Gold coloured city area he has. Crucially, he’s first to choose who he wants to be in the next turn. Everyone detests him.

The Bishop: He’s a defensive character, so hardly anyone ever wants to be him. He gets money from religious districts, highlighting the exploitative nature of organised religion and encouraging debate and soul-searching at the game table. His areas can’t be destroyed by The Warlord, because they’re protected by God or are made of chocolate and thus are too tasty to destroy or something. I don’t know.

The Merchant: He receives gold for each trade district he controls. He also gets ANOTHER gold every time he takes an action. He always has The Thief making kissy-kissy goo-goo eyes at him. His favourite TV show is Knots Landing.

The Architect: He draws lots of cards and can buid loads of stuff. He’s a smartypants. He can accelerate the game towards a finish if he isn’t kept in check and told to sit down and behave. He has a nice beard. By which I mean, a fake wife.

The Warlord: He’s a cool dude. He skateboards. He receives gold for each military district he controls. He can also send out his army to destroy other players districts. Except for districts controlled by The Bishop, who made his city out of chocolate, rendering it too tasty to destroy. Confirmed.

I have never met a living soul who doesn’t like Citadels. Bruno Faidutti’s design shines from first to last, in a beautifully paced, constantly exciting game. It’s a game with a lot of legs, too. There’s no real optimal strategy, because you need to keep reacting to the choices of the other players. If someone is hogging The King, kill him. If someone is building up lots of cash, steal it. If you’re the one making all the money, should you choose The Thief in order to protect yourself from attacks? Or would Assassin be a better choice, in order to off The Thief?

In our group, the roles take on a life of their own. The King is pompous and annoying. The Assassin is quiet, cool, evil. The Magician is a dirty psychopath.

It could have been a simple race game, with everyone paying to play cards and be first off the table. But the characters bring the cities to life. When you look down at the table and see the cities taking shape, and look across the table and see Kings and Merchants squabbling with each other, you know something special is happening.

And then there’s the look of the game. Let’s just be straight about one thing here –

Citadels is beautiful. Citadels is alive.

Here is the Manor. If you build this district, make sure to mind it. Mind your Manors. Jesus. Sorry.

The artwork is staggering. There is never a play that goes by without someone commenting on how beautiful a card is, and picking it up for a closer look. Anyone who argues that the art design of a game isn’t important needs to experience Citadels and see how beautiful artwork can elevate a wonderful game design into something magical.

The Harbor. Don't Harbor any grudges against the person who builds this. Get it? Jesus. Sorry.

Citadels is an essential game for any collection. It plays quickly, so can slot in before or after a longer game (I refuse to call Citadels a “filler game.” It’s too good for that.), and will quickly become one of the most requested games you have. Guaranteed.

More reasons to buy it? Sure.

It all fits in a small box that can be taken anywhere. It’s inexpensive (under 20 quid for the base game with the expansion included).

It’s a work of games design brilliance, no doubt. It’s also a work of art.

There’s literally no good reason not to buy it.

Tales Are Ready To Be Told

Speaking of Choose Your Own Adventure style things, as we are, it’s worth noting that Z-Man Games’ Tales of the Arabian Nights is expected to land in the UK next month.

It’s an update of the classic West End Games “storytelling board game”, which sees players charting their own independent adventures through a land of genies, magic carpets, and the like. It’s like a big multiplayer Choose Your Own Adventure game, and I haven’t ever played it, so you’ll forgive me for getting a bit excited.

I’ll be sure to give you all a shout when the game finally lands, and fully intend to give it a once-over and hopefully speak of its glory on this very site. If it successfully nails the Choose Your Own Adventure thing while being a great group game, I’ll be blowing trumpets from rooftops.

In the meantime, take a look at a MAN MADE OF FIRE.

Zaa Ooo Zaa!

Magic 2010 – This Week

As Michael Jackson said: “This is it.”

This week sees the release of Magic 2010, the new core set for Magic: The Gathering. It’s the eleventh core set altogether, and the first since the start of it all to feature new cards.

This week’s big launch is being staged as a jumping on point for new Magic players, so why not do as I did and try the game out? You might be surprised.

The game lands (Basic Lands, most likely) on the 17th, so that’s THIS FRIDAY. Hopefully I can get my hands on the new set – if I do, I’ll knock up a review from the perspective of a new player, and then we can get chatting with some veterans in the comments section.

“This is it.”

Fighting Fantasy – My Monolith

Where did it all begin for me? This DowntimeTown thing – where did it all actually start? I’ve been asking myself this question for a while, now. Something must have kicked off my interest in gaming, in all its forms. Why am I not one of those guys who smirk and say “Pff! Games? Yeah, right!”

What made me what I am?

Just like in 2001, there was a monolith. And I touched it.

It wasn’t 2001. It was 1983. I was six years old. I was in a shop called John Menzies, in Glasgow city centre, with my ma. It was a Saturday. There was a robotics dancer in a white boiler suit and white mask dancing outside. There was music and laughter. And inside the shop, there was the bold Zanbar Bone, staring back at me. I can remember exactly how I felt looking at him. Nervous. Maybe even a bit scared. I didn’t know his name at that moment. But I knew I would hate him and fear him (and love him) forever. Since that day, whenever I picture the ultimate bad guy, I see Iain McCaig’s Zanbar Bone. I had a dream with him in it only a month ago. He was at a window, with his scythe, looking in at me. I’m almost 32.

The text above him read “A Thrilling Fantasy Adventure In Which YOU Are The Hero!”

Me – The Hero. How could I be a hero? I was a schoolboy. Terrified of my teachers. Anxious.

It was summer, and I played City of Thieves in my back garden for weeks, rolling dice and filling in my adventure sheet. My head was filled with names – Zanbar Bone, Nicodemus, Jimmy Quicktint. I was lost in the winding, labyrinthian streets of Port Blacksand, searching (usually in vain) for the things I’d need to lay Zanbar Bone to rest.

For those who don’t know – Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were Choose Your Own Adventure stories with a combat and inventory system bolted on. The book was split into paragraphs, often 400 or more, and you would navigate between them, making choices and trying desperately to stay alive.

Terror stalks the night as Zanbar Bone and his bloodthirsty Moon Dogs hold the prosperous town of Silverton to ransom. YOU are an adventurer, and the merchants of Silverton turn to you in their hour of need.

Your mission takes you along dark, twisting streets where thieves, vagabonds and creatures of the night lie in wait to trap the unwary traveller. And beyond lies the most fearsome adventure of them all – the tower stronghold of the infamous Zanbar Bone!

I had never experienced anything quite like it. I’d been a reader from an early age. I started young. By the time I picked up City of Thieves I’d read many a Hardy Boys book. I’d even started on Stephen King novels. But nothing had prepared me for this. It was a story, yes. But it was a story with ME in it. Me! Of all people to have in a book, they chose me! A freckly little Glaswegian boy who was missing his recently-passed Granda.

I was staggered.

I was influencing the world of the story. I could choose where to go, what to do. I had always seen narrative as a conspiracy that I could only see along the surface of – a path navigated by a hooded stranger who would let me see what he wanted me to see, and no more. But in City of Thieves I found that narrative was suddenly a collaboration. A beautiful drunken singalong song. A sea-shanty.

It became my mission in life to get my hands on every Fighting Fantasy book in existence. After all, I was the hero, right? I believed that now. I had a responsibility. And I wanted to sing.

This was next:

The Forest was nightmarish. The Hero (that’s me, by the way) struggled with that long, confusing journey to Stonebridge. My dice seemed to be cursed. YOU ARE DEAD. YOU ARE DEAD.

I was in love. I enjoyed failing. I took death on the chin (which was just as well, because there were a fair few cruel Instant Death moments inside the Forest) and loved rolling up a new character and setting out again. You could not keep me down. I was indefatigable.

Fighting Fantasy started to creep into my real-world play. My childhood pal, Matthew Cook, would come down to my garden and I’d persuade him to take on the role of one of Ian Livingstone or Steve Jackson’s creations. And then I’d attack him. Good thing – I didn’t have to roll a dice before that fight. Bad thing – Matthew was strong as an ox and could fling me about at will. But like I said, I loved to lose. I loved the bittersweet taste of heroic failure.

Glorious defeat. It’s something that has stayed with me. When I play a boardgame with people, I only really care about winning if it’s a “Battle of Wits!” style of thing. If it’s very theme-heavy, with a lot of narrative in there, I quite enjoy being punished. I enjoy playing Arkham Horror and being smashed by the King in Yellow. Heroes do heroic things, yes. And it’s great when they do. But heroes should also fail. And die.

And that’s why I loved this beauty:

Stranded miles from anywhere on a dark and stormy night, your only hope of refuge is the strange, ramshackle mansion you can see in the distance…

But entering the House of Hell hurls you into an adventure of spine-chilling and blood-curdling terror. The dangers of the torrential storm outside are nothing compared to the nightmarish creatures that await you within its gruesome walls.

Be warned! You must try to keep your fear under control – collect too many FEAR points and you will die of fright. Can you make it through the night without being scared – to death?

I played House of Hell differently from how I played the other books. I was a horror film nut, and I wanted to behave inside the House the way I knew a Hero from a horror film would behave. I wanted to adhere to horror convention. I set out to make all the worst possible decisions. I’d walk blindly into danger. I’d take the path that looked the scariest. I’d hope to fail with my dice rolls.

It was a bloodbath.

Fighting Fantasy books were a massive part of my life in those formative years. Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (and Joe Dever of Lone Wolf) are up there alongside Stephen King as people who inspired me to write.

But I see now that they also inspired me to game. Those Fighting Fantasy experiences were the blueprint for a life of seeking out ways of making ME the Hero. Why did I play computer and video games? For the very same reasons I read those books. To feel that sense of empowerment you get from taking someone else’s world and changing it into your own, at least for a little while.

And, crucially, why do I play tabletop games? Why is DowntimeTown here?

Because I love to sit at a table and create a shared narrative with people.
Story as singalong.
That Port Blacksand sea shanty again, as loud and wonderful as it ever was.

We’re going to be doing something quite special with Fighting Fantasy gamebooks down the line. We’ll keep you posted.