Cosmic Incursion Announced!

Taking a break from filming the Halloween Special to let you all know that Fantasy Flight has just unveiled Cosmic Incursion, the first expansion for their shiny edition of Cosmic Encounter.

BOOM! Here it is!

20 new aliens, some new mechanics, and the ability to add a SIXTH PLAYER to the game. Brilliant.

Read all about it RIGHT HERE

ZOZ!

Going Rogue – Part Two

Last time, we took a look at how a Rogue Trader character is drawn up. Now we’ll take a look at the rest of the characters in the party, so that you have a nice overview of who is going to be setting out on this grim adventure.

PLAYER 2 – LOUISE

Our second female player and our second female character.

Louise’s character is Rosa, a Seneschal. A master of commerce and an ace of spies, Rosa was born on a Hive World, and dragged herself up through calamity and disaster to become a survivor.

Her stats:

Weapon Skill: 34
Ballistic Skill: 43
Strength: 37
Toughness: 37
Agility: 37
Intelligence: 38
Perception: 39
Will Power: 37
Fellowship: 37

A strong all-rounder, but we can see that Rosa is going to be a particularly strong shooter, no doubt due to her Stubjack background. She’s comfortable with weapons, and her history gives her the Quick Draw talent.

Her other talents suit her character class – she has a Resistance to interrogation, Nerves of Steel, and is Accustomed To Crowds, having spent her youth on that seething mass of humanity that is a Hive World.

She speaks Traders’ Cant, which lets her communicate effectively with the trade houses of the Imperium. A Common Lore skill of the Underworld rounds out her chararacter as the sneaky, savvy Seneschal she needs to be.

PLAYER 3 – KENNY

Kenny’s character, Sarvus, is an Explorator. Origin Path choices have him born on a Forge World, and a renegade member of the Adeptus Mechanicus. He is a bitter, vengeful character, having been press-ganged into service in the past. He answers to no-one but his Rogue Trader.

Weapon Skill: 35
Ballistic Skill: 44
Strength: 39
Toughness: 38
Agility: 41
Intelligence: 49
Perception: 34
Will Power: 35
Fellowship: 29

As can be seen, Sarvus is known for his blazing intelligence, which allows him comfortable use of his Tech-Use skills. He is a Free-Thinker who denies the God-Emperor, and the bonus to his intelligence he gains is balanced by a Willpower penalty and a position as an enemy of the Ecclesiarchy. He has the capacity for Mechanicus Implants, and is skilled in Forbidden Lore.

Sarvus starts with a Servo-Skull. One of these guys:

It floats alongside him, and can carry out tasks for him. It is his extra eyes and ears. And Kenny, for reasons we were afraid to ask, has fitted the Servo-Skull with a pict recorder, to capture video.

PLAYER 4 – RICHARD

Richard’s character is called Thrall. And he is the Arch-Militant. He stands at the side of the Rogue Trader, as her enforcer.

Born on a Death World, and hardened by miltary service, Thrall is also a mutant. Distrusted by many, he is loyal to his crew because they have given him somewhere to belong.

Weapon Skill: 42
Ballistic Skill: 42
Strength: 44
Toughness: 46
Agility: 42
Intelligence: 33
Perception: 36
Will Power: 30
Fellowship: 32

As you can see, Thrall is built for combat. What must be mentioned here is that, as a result of his past and his mutation, Thrall has an incredible capacity for taking damage.

Wounds: 20

A massive Wounds stat, making him the perfect protector and servant of a low-wound Rogue Trader. Thrall also has the Jaded Talent, his history of battle making him unflinching in the face of horror, which frees him from having to make Fear Tests. He has a hatred of Void Pirates. Why? At this point, we can only guess at the reasons. He has the Unremarkable talent, which makes him the master of vanishing into crowds, and defying description by witnesses to his acts.

Oh, and he starts with some Power Armour. Should he need to tear someone in half.

And that is our party. A well-balanced group with some nice history to explore.

Next time, we’ll be building a spaceship.

Farewell, and may the God-Emperor protect you.

The Isle of Doctor Necreaux Review

I’ve come to realise that I really, really like card games. Packed in slim, small boxes, with lovely cards and able to offer a beautiful game with minimum fuss. I really, really like card games. I place them inside my sideboard, where they take up little room, and I smile at them and stroke them lovingly.

One of the newest card games to hit the shelves is The Isle of Doctor Necreaux, a co-operative adventure game designed by Jonathan Leistiko and published by AEG. It’s a game about going to a nutter’s island to rescue some scientists.

Inside the box you’ll find two decks of cards. One is a Character Deck, and the other is the Adventure Deck. Three dice come with the game, and a handful of counters to mark “charges”. That’s it. That’s all you need.

At the start of the game, each player is dealt three Character Cards. These character cards represent traits that will make up the player’s character.

You might have the card above, and a Ninja card, and a Stone Cold Killer card. That would make you a Stone Cold Killer Echo Medium Ninja. Which is, you know, a decent calling in life. Each card gives a special ability that will assist your team in the dash through Necreaux’s lair.

Many Character Cards start with “charges”, tokens placed on the card, which are spent to activate abilities. Got all that? Good.

The game itself is very straightforward. The aim is to run through the Adventure Deck until you find the group of scientists and the escape shuttle. Once you’ve found both, you can cheese it and pat each other on the back. Unfortunately, there’s a time limit in play. Each turn, the clock ticks down by one minute, bringing you ever closer to the island exploding and killing every man, woman and Stone Cold Killer Echo Medium Ninja unfortunate enough to still be sunning it on the beach.

In the players’ turn, you can do one of two things as a group. You can Rest, or you can Move. Resting lets you heal up a little, and place a charge on one of your chargeable cards. A Rest action is often necessary, but never chosen lightly, as it advances the clock one stop without moving you any closer to finding the objectives. The Move action is where the meat of the game is, so lets get comfy and go into a bit of detail.

The first major decision players have to make in their Move action is HOW FAST TO MOVE. This is vital, vital shit. Your chosen speed tells you how many cards you will be peeling off the Adventure Deck in that turn. So, for example, if you choose a speed of 5 you will resolve 5 Adventure Cards in that turn. You will be moving 5 cards through the deck, searching for that Escape Shuttle card and these lovely bastards:

I'll look after the one on the right, guys, okay? Sweet.

Inside that Adventure Deck you can expect to find MONSTERS, ITEMS, TRAPS and EVENTS. Your speed often plays into the effects of things such as Trap cards. Many traps ask you to roll over your chosen speed to safely duck the effects, so if you’re hammering through Necreaux’s base at a careless and crazy speed of 15, you’re not going to get much joy from that single dice roll. It’s a nice, logical way to deal with traps. The faster you move, the more your team is likely to blunder into tripwires and lasers. (Although, on occasion, moving swiftly can also help you outrun a trap). The faster you move, the more monsters you will have to battle before you get a chance to take a Rest turn and heal up. So logic would suggest you go slow, right? No, because that clock is ticking and you NEED TO FIND THOSE SCIENTIST SUMBITCHES.

Combat is simple, and rarely slows the pace of this exciting game. It’s simply every player attempting to roll over the Monster’s Combat Value to land a hit. If you roll under, your team takes a hit instead. The hit your team takes can be given to any player, so even in assigning damage there are decisions to be made. Taking a hit means you flip one of your Character Cards face down, losing that ability until you can Rest and flip it back up. Here’s a monster:

He’s a bastard. Just saying.

The most impressive thing about Necreaux is contained in this next block of text. Yes, it is such a good thing I am giving it its own block of text.

I’ve played a lot of co-op games by now. And here’s the dark, terrible secret. Most of them aren’t very co-operative. Often one player becomes the lead voice, pointing out the optimal decisions and steering the entire team. Players can often become passengers. NOT IN THIS GAME, BABY. The table is in constant debate, with everyone discussing their own character’s abilities, and how best to negotiate the obstacles.

“I’ll take the hit, my guy can get a free heal if I roll even.”

“No, just re-roll, I’ll discharge to re-roll.”

“But we’ve seen what’s coming. We might need that re-roll. Let me take the hit, this character’s only useful in-”

“Hang on, if you use that item to shift your charges from that card to my Psychic’s card, I can discharge them to eliminate that point of damage!”

“Yeah, but wait-”

With the flip of almost every card, it’s decision time again. It’s maybe the most co-operative co-op game I’ve played. And it’s just a card game!

In closing, here’s what happened at the end of last night’s game:

–ONE MINUTE ON THE CLOCK–

They could sense that the escape shuttle was up ahead. The team dashed towards it, giggling already at how sweet it would be to snatch this victory from the jaws of defeat. Then…

TRAP!

The ground opened up beneath them.

(The card told us that a pitfall trap had appeared and we had to make a choice – either we lose a minute off the clock to negotiate it safely, or one character has to fall in, taking 5 points of damage. 5 points of damage that would kill any of our characters outright.)

Robert fell in. They tried to save him.

“Give me your hand!”

“Leave me! I’ll only slow you down! GO! RUN!”

With that, Robert slid off into the blackness. The others screamed in horror at the loss of their most beautiful boy. Their perfect beautiful prince.

Later, in the Escape Shuttle, they spoke of how amazing he is and how he is brilliant at everything and is the best.

THE END.

Please buy this wonderful card game. You can even play it solo, so there’s no excuses.

FF’s First Mystery Game Announced: Runewars!

For the past little while, Fantasy Flight has been teasing the world with three mystery board games. Speculation has been rife, with people suggesting a re-themed Dune might be on the way, or an adventure game set in the A Song of Ice and Fire universe.

Well, the first game has just been revealed, and it’s none of the above. It’s Runewars.

Size of this! FUCK!

Set in Terrinoth, the world where FF’s Runebound and Descent take place, it’s a game of conquest, adventure and fantasy empires for 2-4 players. And it features, get this – 3D MOUNTAIN TERRAIN!

Go and look at Fantasy Flight’s minisite for the game to find out more. GO!

Going Rogue – Part One

Rogue Trader is the new pen and paper RPG from Fantasy Flight, and it landed in DowntimeTown Towers a couple of weeks ago. Enough time for it to be read, digested, and brought to the table to allow the players to roll up some characters.

I thought it might be nice to keep you all involved in the process as we set out to play Rogue Trader. It might give those of you who are interested in the game a chance to see how it all works, and gain an insight into the new ideas it brings to the table. For those of you who have never played an RPG before, this will be a chance for you to see exactly what an RPG is.

Rogue Trader is set in the Warhammer 40K universe. For the uninitiated, imagine a far future world where everything has gone to shit. The Emperor is a corpse on a throne, surrounded by twisted administrators and political/religious/military bodies operating in His name. The known universe is embroiled in war. Neverending war. Only war.

In this universe, no man is free. Apart from the Rogue Trader. Operating under an ancient Warrant of Trade, the Rogue Trader and his crew have the God-Emperor’s blessing, enabling them to explore the uncharted areas of space in an attempt to establish new trade routes and make CRAZY MONEY.

And that’s where the players come in. The first thing that sets Rogue Trader apart from most of the other RPGs out there is the decision to place new players into the game in a position of power from the get-go. Rogue Trader Player Characters are well-trained, wealthy, own a starship and they oversee the fate of 20,000+ NPC crewmates. Think about that for a moment. No starting out with a shortsword and a pouch containing 10 gold coins here. In Rogue Trader you have a financial empire to control, crewmates to care for, and a ship to maintain and commandeer.

I will be Gamesmastering this foray into the grim far future. Let’s start our series of articles with a look at the first of our players:

PLAYER 1

The character creation process is very deep, and takes a bit of time. It took two sessions to have everybody rolled up, and the starship built and ready to undock. The process is a beautiful balance of luck and design, with players able to make up for any poor characteristic rolls by tailoring their character’s origin and backstory to compensate. When role-playing begins even during character creation, it’s clear something special is happening.

JOANNE

Joanne is the Rogue Trader. The Captain of the ship. Joanne was clear that she wanted her Rogue Trader to be an insufferable braggart with a decadent past. The origin path chart allows her to create a logical and consistent background for her character.

This is not Joanne's path. But an example of how the path works. Each choice on a track allows you to only choose the options directly below and adjacent.

Joanne first chose a Noble Born homeworld from the Home World track. Then, the option directly below, for a Vaunted Birthright. Each option gives your character certain bonuses and penalties. She follows through, right down to the bottom of the Origin Path, where she makes her choice of career – Rogue Trader. The Origin Path ensures that the character you create makes narrative sense. It is, as an example, impossible for someone born on a Death World to become a Rogue Trader. That career is simply “out of reach.”

Joanne’s choices tell us that her character was born into luxury, fell into decadence and drug-taking, and became embroiled in a blood feud that left her paranoid and unable to ignore any insult (the brilliant Brook No Insult trait, which means Joanne must make a Willpower check to restrain herself if someone besmirches her).

Joanne’s characteristics now.

Weapon Skill: 41
Ballistic Skill: 37
Strength: 33
Toughness: 35
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 33
Perception: 36
Will Power: 30
Fellowship: 52

As you can see, Joanne felt that Fellowship, her ability to charm and deceive others, would be her most important characteristic as she plays the game. She’s the leader, the person who will be responsible for keeping morale high, and the person who will have the responsibility of conducting diplomatic exchanges.

(Note for new kids: In an RPG, Joanne will be expected to conduct roleplay conversations with the characters she meets, and when trying to win them round she will need to make a percentile roll on two ten-sided dice. A Fellowship of 52 means she has a high base chance of rolling under that figure, and making a success of her “check.”)

One more characteristic we must note for Joanne.

WOUNDS: 7

Your wound score measures the amount of damage you can take. Joanne feels happy enough with this low total. Happy enough to be a Rogue Trader who can’t take a beating, because she intends to be barking orders and surrounding herself with people who would take a bullet for her.

She chooses her skills, spends some starting XP to tinker with characteristics, and with her starting gear freebie, she buys a Lord Captain’s Baton – a ceremonial staff that will inform onlookers of her importance. Oh, and that she can use to hit people with. Oh, and her ship won’t be able to operate unless she places her baton into the command panel.

The Rogue Trader’s name? Livia. Named after this Livia who held the Roman Empire in the palm of her hand.

And with that, Livia the Rogue Trader prepares to take to the bridge of her Starship.

But who will be joining her on this adventure?

CONTINUED IN PART TWO

Arkham Horror Miniatures – Ai!

Arkham Horror is a game we haven’t yet covered on DowntimeTown (we’ll get to it soon), but it’s essentially a big Lovecraftian epic co-operative dicefest of horror and death and chocolate.

Fantasy Flight has just announced the upcoming release of Arkham Horror Investigator Packs, each containing two miniatures. Which means there must be many, many packs on the way if all the investigators from the game are to be covered.

You can read about the new minis here, and you can gaze at the photo below and try to look up her skirt or down her dress, or whatever it is you do with miniatures in your own home.

UPDATE: These are now cancelled because people didn’t want them. BYE!