Gaming Articles

D&D Theory: How to be a great DM

Without question one of the most controversial discussions you will ever have in the opinionated world of dungeons and dragons, or role-playing in general is about how to be a great DM.  In fact, if you google “how to be a great DM” you are going to find link after link after link of “politically correct” advice, always structured carefully as to not say something that might upset someone.  It’s a really strange thing among D&D gamers that this is such a sensitive subject, where opinions are criticized and people are quick to accuse you of being a Gronard or worse.  In fact, most advice you will find is so general, its too obvious to be of any use to a new DM or a DM having issues trying to get his head around a problem in his game.  The advice tends to be something along the lines of “there is no wrong way”, or “everything you’re doing is great”.

There are however fundamentals of good DMing, many of these fundamentals you will hear a lot of people speak out against because they are generally very… well lets just say, harsh.   DMing a game is both fun and a responsibility, at least if your intention is to ensure quality of the game.  The concept of “just have fun” is important, but games tend to derail even if you are just having fun when not approached with a firm hand and plan.  DM’s will defend this idea of this “all inclusive, there is no wrong way” approach, to which I always pose the question do you want to be right, or do you want to have a good game?

Before I start I do want to say one important thing here, perhaps the most controversial thing of all.  In my not so humble opinion there are many right ways and  many wrong ways to be a DM!  There I said it and I have 30+ years of DMing experience and the battle scars to prove it.    What are the right ways?  Well that is what today’s advice article is all about.  The gloves are coming off and we are going to do this straight up, honest and without the political correctness filter often associated with such advice.

Don’t take my word for it, there are plenty of other great unfiltered sources for D&D advice, Critical Role is among the best in my humble opinion.

The DM is ALWAYS right, the social contract

The basics of running a game as a DM is that you must establish the standard social contract between you, the DM and your players.  This social contract is sometimes made  to be complex, or not at all both very terrible approaches.  Its quite simple in reality and absolutely vital to establish before your first session to ensure you start off on the right foot, in particularly with a new group.

The basics here are this.  D&D and any other RPG is a game, but unlike board or card games, the boundaries for the rules are not clearly defined, in fact, they are very intentionally made vague and left up for interpretation in many places.  The reason for this is that in the course of an RPG session, player’s (aka characters) will come up with all sorts of crazy ideas about “stuff they want to do” and no rule set could ever efficiently cover every conceivable scenario and activity.   You won’t find answers to most questions posed by players in the book, such a ruleset would be thousands of pages long.  That said, as a DM it’s not your job to dictate what players can try or can’t try, its your job to give them the results.  Which means you must always find a way to rule over the game, no matter how nutty the scenario’s are, you simply cannot say “no” you can’t do that, the correct answer is always “ok, here is what happens”.

A good DM can turn what he imagines a game to be into reality, this is not a talent however but a developed and practiced skill.

The core of the social contract is that someone at the table must decide the results of these actions and that someone is the Dungeon Master, the nominated referee of the game, the translator of the rules and the manager of the game.

The social contract is basically an understanding and acceptance of the DM to be the authority on resolving the activities of the players.  Another words, they tell the DM what they “want to do” and the DM gives them “the result”.  That result is not up for debate, its not up for negotiation, its a ruling made by the DM and accepted by the players, this IS the social contract everyone must sign (figuratively speaking).  The social contract empowers the DM to be always right.

This social contract is something the players must go into willingly, another words, this isn’t about a player at the table taking power and being a tyrant, nor is it an assumption that he is the most qualified person to have this authority or that he is (actually) always right, but rather an understanding that someone has to decide what happens when a player says “I jump on his head and stab him in the eye”, and there is no space in the game to debate it.  There is no rule for that, someone must determine what happens, what rules might be used or what rolls might be used to determine the success  and someone must decide what actually happens narratively as a result of all that.

Consider that there may be potentially 6 players at the table with a wide range of opinions on what “should” happen, and they may even be more logical than what the DM proposes, they might even know the rules better than the DM.  You could spend time debating it, hell you could spend your entire day making arguments about it, debating it and discussing it.  The social contract empowering the DM to make the call is vital to ensuring you focus on the game, rather than debating its rules/mechanics/results endlessly piece by piece or the merits of the DM’s decision or narration.   Its a contract designed to prevent constant hard stops to the action of the game, but more than anything to keep the game moving forward without a lot of out of character discussion.

The social contract says “The DM decides and we accept whatever decision he makes”, aka, the DM is always right!

What will inevitably happen if you do not clearly define this social contract with your players is that you open your decisions, interpretations of the rules and narrations to debate and negotiation.  Each and every one of them.  You give an inch and they will take the whole arm.  Your players will become more and more challenging over time, in particular if they win negotiations and sway your decisions, setting the precedence that you can be swayed.  Before you know it, every-time you open your mouth, someone will have an opinion about what should come out of it.   It’s physically not possible to have a successful game in the long run without this social understanding between the players and their DM.  Do yourself, your players and your game a favor and establish this social contract firmly on day one of any campaign.

Always in the present, never allow the testing of waters

First, lets define what Testing the water means, in short, it works like this.

The player tells the DM what he wants to do, when you give him the results, he says “oh in that case I don’t do that”.

Alternatively and perhaps even more grievously is the DM version.

The players tells the DM what he wants to do, then the DM says “IF you do that, this will happen”, giving the player an opportunity to change his mind and back out of the action.

I can’t think of a more destructive thing a DM can do to a game than allow the testing of waters to become a precedent in his game.  This really is the shortest route to ruin that you can take.  What it really does to a game is that players will know the results of their actions before they take them, the exact opposite of what role-playing is.

As a DM you are doing your players a disservice and being firm and setting a precedence for running the game in real time is the most effective way to keep your game on track and in the present, putting the players in a position that they must listen, absorb the information and use it to make decisions knowing that whatever they decide, is now part of the game.  It really is one of those subtle keys to success.

The advice here is simple.  NEVER tell your players what is going to happen until its happening/happened.  Another words, don’t tell them the future, describe the present.  If a player poses a testing the water question, the answer is always the same.  “Tell me what you want to do and I will tell you what happens”.  A players action can’t be an inquiry to find out what would happen “if” he decides to do something.

Fear & Anticipation makes it real

There is a very common antidote in play writing and storytelling,  “tragedy makes the best story,  everything else is just noise”.  The reason this antidote exists is because as human beings we have a natural empathy for tragedy.  A tragedy is a motivation for hope, inspiration to rise from the darkness, a way to sympathize with our characters and a way to put ourselves in the shoes of the afflicted.  You cannot triumph unless you have something to triumph over.

This is why I always say that all good D&D adventures, are the stories of heroes who die tragically while saving the world.

I feel very strongly that as a good DM you must constantly present the players with challenges which if failed would result in their characters deaths.  The more tragic that death, the more memorable the story of it will be.  In short, don’t be afraid to kill characters and be merciless with their emotions when doing so, give them the tragedy.

This advice really pisses against the wind of D&D logic and design.  In a sense, the game mechanically is designed to ensure that the players always face balanced encounters and there are so many “save me” mechanics in the system that to die is really just a statistical anomaly.  This is a good thing, because you don’t want to kill characters by the mechanics, but rather by their decisions.  You want to make sure that when you kill a character, it can be traced back to a decision a player made.  A choice he had that lead him to his death, not a random encounter, die roll or some other form of “bad luck”.

Death should never be random, nor a concoction of the DM, but it should always be a surprise linked to choice and it should always be a heartbreaking event.  The design of a campaign should always include points at which characters lives are at risk, a risk they chose themselves,  the rest of the time events should be balanced in the favor of the players. The more of these events there are, the better.   Above all else however when the time comes, don’t hesitate, when a characters ends up in a situation where his death is inevitable, make it harsh, abrupt… make it tragic, dig into their emotions, give them no refuge or hope, force them into acceptance, give them the emotion their characters death deserves.

If you do this right you will create a permanent state of fear and anticipation for the rest of the players and all new characters that join the campaign.  Everyone will know that you don’t “save” characters, that death of characters is a real possibility, that it could come at any time and their actions and decisions drive that engine, not luck.  This is KEY to running a great D&D campaign, without it you will find your campaigns are always missing some intangible quality, this is what is missing!

Time is not an issue, unless it is an issue

One very common mistake DM’s make, or perhaps better to say, one common sentiment DM’s have is that “their players are taking too long” or “They are wasting time”.  Another words, you have written a adventure, campaign or story and you want to get to it, but your players seem to be doing everything but just that.  Frustrated you steer the session towards the story, skipping over less important scenes, railroading through parts of the story and events and driving the game to where you want it to be.

This is a terrible, habit that you must break.  The reality of an RPG session is that its the story of the characters.  Who they are, how they act, what they believe, what they think, who they know, how they interact with the world and what they love and hate.  Those attachments, emotions and drive does not appear in the story nor can it be artificially created, it happens outside of it and this is a really hard thing for DM’s to get their heads around.  You only fully understand it as a player.

The reality is that those half a session tavern crawls where the characters get drunk and make asses out of themselves are often even more important to the games story, than whatever grand scheme you have invented for the campaign.  They might be on a mission to stop a powerful necromancer from opening the gates to hell, but if you don’t make time to let them live in the world they are saving, the story of how they save it becomes less relevant.

Allowing the characters to become friends in character, allowing them to get to know the local tavern keeper, befriend the local blacksmith or marry the local milk maid may seem irrelevant, but it drives attachments to the world and to their characters, as a result are absolutely vital to the main plot, in most cases even more so than the main plot itself.

Allow your players to take the time from the session to role-play these moments with the same gusto you put into your main campaign events.  Make sure that they can explore the world and give them the time to do it.  Only when the players see it as a waste of time should you approach the game with more progress driven thinking.  Time is only an issue, if they make it an issue, but as a DM you should never “skip” anything the players want to take the time to get involved in.  Another words you are DMing a game at the pleasure of your players.  Your opinion about what they are and aren’t doing, frankly, has no relevance, you are the least important member of the adventuring party.  Make peace with that.

Prepare to be unprepared

Most veteran DM’s will spot this very general advice and nod their heads in sad agreement but the reality of DMing is that generally speaking, most preparation you do for a session will be wasted.  True preparation is about knowing the world and knowing it well, realizing that its the world not the adventure that you must have ready for whatever the players throw at it and that much of an actual adventure you will have to invent on the fly no matter how much you prepare.

While less controversial advice, perhaps not at all, one thing I can say about what I see in terms of preparation by most DM’s is a rather silly focus on trying to steer a session into a particular place, while being completely ill prepared for when the players inevitably derail the whole thing.  Don’t do this.  Its good to always have read (if you haven’t written) any material in preparation for a session but always know going into it that not only will the players likely completely skip over, avoid and derail it, but that its ok and you can’t give the appearance of not being ready for that, nor is it appropriate for you to steer them into it against their will.

From the perspective of the players, everything that happens should appear to be totally planned and expected.  Never let the players realize that they are off the rails, they should always feel like “they are onto something”.  Its in particularly important when they are dead wrong, when a decision is a horrible mistake that will cost them dearly.  If they think the idea is brilliant you should absolutely not steer them away from it.  Bad decisions are a key part of the game and you have to let them make these mistakes and suffer the consequences without them ever having any clue how far off they are from the material you intended for them.  This is a vital component of making the world feel real, vibrant and giving the players a sense of control over their own destiny’s, which notably will often lead them to tragedy, another key element of a good story.

Don’t take breaks from campaigns, make it a religion

This can be really tough advice to follow, real life is a pain and it’s not always possible to have a steady game going but the truth is that a successful campaign is reliant on the commitment of the DM and the players to play regularly with a established time and place.  Typically once a week is ideal, you can get away with once every other week but anything longer than that and people will be having trouble remembering events, people and places in-between session and you will not be able to maintain that “attachment” to the game that is necessary to run a solid, story that maintains cohesion over several sessions with built up personal attachments.

After 30 years of playing D&D, I have been involved in countless campaigns and the only successful ones I have ever been a part of have always been ones with a steady, weekly session with all participants being able to make the large majority of the games.  Everything else pretty much fell apart in relative short order.   I’m convinced steady, regular sessions are absolutely mandatory to the success of a D&D campaign.

When you are establishing your group and you are planning a D&D campaign, if you can’t get everyone to commit on this level my suggestion is that you create, shorter, unrelated 1 night adventure style games rather than trying to run a linked long term campaign.  D&D is always fun, even if sporadic, but as a DM you don’t want to put in a lot of effort if the end result is a campaign that flounders as a result of extended breaks between sessions.  It’s frustrating as a hell, and ultimately deflates your enthusiasm for future games with a sense of in-completion.  If at the end of a night, the story is done, even if you don’t revisit those characters again, their isn’t this looming sense of failure around the game, opening the doors to future stories with enthusiasm.

There is advantage to one shots to in that each time you do it, the players are treated to new plot twists, characters and locations which is always a fun piece of starting new campaigns.  In a sense with one shot you are starting a new campaign each time you play.

Tough DM’s are Good DM’s

I saved perhaps my most controversial advice for the last I’m going to leave you with but I firmly believe it to be the single most true statement about running games as a DM that applies to all groups everywhere.  The only good DM is a firm, tough DM that gives no quarter and is always in command of the game.

It takes a strong personality, good handle on the rules, effective philosophy and zero tolerance for bullshit to be a good DM. If that doesn’t describe you, my advice is either to develop those skills as quickly as possible, fake them if you have to or resign from the position and let someone else DM.

Players, even good ones, including friends and family, pretty much everyone you might expect or not expect to will try to pull the wool over your eyes during a D&D game.  Some will argue with you, try to rules lawyer you, manipulate you, whine, bitch and moan and everything in-between.  Some of it will be subtle, some of it not so subtle and truth be told, this is all very normal.  Chalk it off to human nature.

None the less you will have to deal with it all and as a DM it’s your responsibility to be the firm authority and handle every situation quickly and effectively, not only for the preservation of the game, but as a courtesy to the other players at the table.

In a D&D game there is no room for “issues” and really there shouldn’t be any, after all, everyone is there to have fun, its a social activity, this is not a competitive sport.  Still D&D is a game that will pull the emotion out of players, this is a good thing, but with that passion for the game and for the story, will sneak out bits and pieces of that human condition that can create uncomfortable situations and issues. Its here the DM’s authority and decisive action is vital to maintain a good game and keep things in a happy place.

The advice is simple.  Be firm, be an authority and nip the bullshit in the butt quickly and effectively.  Give no quarter, accept no compromise, be vigilant about growing problems in the group and don’t hesitate to make changes if things are not progressing in a way everyone at the table enjoys.  This is really less advice and more a responsibility every DM has and it is perhaps the toughest to follow given that every person at the table is going to be a friend or relative.  Be a strong, firm DM, that’s the best advice I can offer anyone.

Conclusion

Being a DM is a lot of fun, for many, its the only way to play D&D as some of us are simply bursting for an outlet for our creativity and the idea of just being a player is to stifling.  Despite all the creativity and joy being a host to a story brings, there are plenty of things that can go wrong and I believe unequivocally that having a strong philosophy and applying good methods is absolutely vital to success.  DM’s fail all the time at producing their visions but most of the time its not a lack of creativity that destroys their efforts, but rather the little meta details, that approach to the process of running a game that creates the most problems.

Every DM eventually develops their own methods, often they are unique but if you really research the success story’s, really listen to DM’s experiences you will find that there are definitive conclusions you can draw to certain pitfalls they are all trying to avoid.  Much of the advice offered here is really designed around those pitfalls and though I haven’t named them all by name, if you follow this advice you will find it easy to avoid the vast majority of problems that rise up as a DM hosting a game.

Above all other advice however I can say that the key is to make sure you are enjoying it.  A happy DM is a good DM, you can never be a successful DM if you don’t love doing it and its hard to imagine a DM failing if he loves what he does.    Surround yourself by friends, take your time with the creative process, be patient with your players and always keep an eye out for those subtle pitfalls by being prepared to deal with them long before they rear their ugly head and you will always find success as a DM.  Have fun out there!

News

Lord of the Rings LCG: Companion Online!

Gamersdungeon.net is very happy to announce that The Lord of the Rings LCG: Companion, a wonderful resource for my beloved LCG has a new home and its us, Gamersdungeon.net.  If you don’t know what the Lord of the Rings LCG Companion is, well, it’s HERE and its a fantastic resource for Lord of the Rings LCG fans.

Great resources like the LotR LCG Companion bring the community together and offer a wealth of information for your everyday fan. Suffice to say it would be a tragedy if such a resource was lost.

A few months ago I learned that the creator of the Lord of the Rings Companion, you might know him as banania on the fantasy flight forums was having trouble with the host of the site.  Long story short, I volunteered to take over as the host to ensure the tool would continue to live on the inter-web.

This amazing toolset includes a wealth of information about the game, including a campaign companion, player reviews of the many expansions, all of the rules for each expansion not to mention a whole lot of connected resources via links that makes this the perfect tool for Lord of the Rings LCG fans.

My first goal for the site was to ensure that it had a permanent home, ensuring the resource will be preserved forever (or at least as long as I’m around).   I have not given a tremendous amount of thought about what we will do in the future with the tool but while its already populated with the vast majority of  currently available content for the game, new expansions and other future releases will require us to update the site.  I will be looking into how we as a community we can arrange for a way to do that to ensure this wonderful resources is properly taken care of.  For now, I’m just glad we were able to find it a home.

I would like to simply thank Banania for entrusting Gamesdungeon.net with this wonderful toolset and of course for creating it in the first place. We promise to take good care of his creation!

From this point forward if you have any questions, comments or would like to report bugs, please do so on this thread in the FFG forums.

 

PC Game Reviews

Elite Dangerous: A New Way To Game

Elite is the title of one of the oldest PC games on the PC platform, add the word Dangerous and you get the modern remake released in 2014.  Elite Dangerous, I believe is one of the true gems of our generation, a revolutionary game that not only redefines the space simulation genre, but challenges the definition of what PC gaming entertainment is or could be.  Now that is a bold statement and while this is not going to be a review, today I’m going to tell you my take on Elite Dangerous and the many reasons why, if you haven’t already, you should give this one a go.

First, lets back up to 1984 with the original release of Elite.  It was a game released in a time when gaming genres were largely undefined, a time when game developers created in an environment where they didn’t really have a basis for comparison.  It was an interesting time because when a game was released and you installed in on your machine, you really had no idea what it was going to be.  The internet was barely a thing, gaming was largely a “in your moms cellar” thing and when someone said “game developer”, they weren’t referring to a company but rather a person.

On approach to a space station in Elite circa 1984. It wasn’t much to look at, but this simple concept and vision would one day be fully realized.

David Braben was that developer and he was a guy with a vision about what his game would be, but like so many game developers back then, he was way ahead of his time.  His vision for the game was massive, he essentially wanted to create the universe, give you a ship and allow you to explore it.  With the technology available in 1984 he did the best he could, but the truth was that it would take 30 years before the technology would catch up to allow him to actually realize that vision and that product is Elite Dangerous.  A robust, living, breathing, representation of the universe experienced from the cockpit of a futuristic, faster than the speed of light vessel.

On approach to a space station in Elite Dangerous in 2014, its amazing what 30 years has done to PC gaming.

What is Elite Dangerous Really?

It’s a simulation, first and foremost but this surface explanation is not really what people mean when they ask What is Elite Dangerous.  The reason is that most people (around 3 million as of this writing), buy Elite Dangerous, jump in their cockpit and find the lack of instruction a bit disturbing.   Now most experienced Elite players will say “well it’s a sandbox you have to make your own game”, but I think while this layered explanation touches slightly on defining what Elite Dangerous is, I think to many gamers its a turn off and when you get right down to it, is hardly a fitting definition of the game anyway.  This is because the term “game” is really not what I would use to describe what Elite is, in fact, I think a more appropriate definition is that it’s “An experience”, and its in this wording and context that Elite truly comes alive and can be digested.

Consider how we perceive entertainment that is not a game.  A book, a movie or music.  The moments spent absorbing the content is an experience, we judge it sure (I like it, I don’t like it) but really its a rather 2 dimensional experience designed to inspire imagination.  We use some of our senses, but in most forms of entertainment, one of our senses is turned off.  This isolation is part of these mediums.

Elite Dangerous to me is much closer to a book or a movie, but its one in which you have more control and use more of your senses than you typically do.  You interact, you decide, you explore and in a sense you tell your own story.  That story is an opened ended tale of your exploration of the cosmos, an imaginary world based in reality to a great degree, one that challenges you to design your own science-fiction future as an individual, a small insignificant object in a vast and endless galaxy.

Elite Dangerous is often a very empty place, after all, this is the universe we are talking about, but centers of civilizations can be heavily populated.

Is it a game?  Sure to a degree, we at least interface with Elite in the same way we do with other games and sure there are certain elements here that are going to be familiar to you but the truth is that Elite Dangerous is about entering a world, turning on your imagination and allowing the experience in.

Its a digital role-playing game and much like pencil and paper role-playing games you can be anything, go anywhere and do anything you want, but there are no directions, there is no quests to guide you, few physical rewards and no DM to give you hints, you are on your own.  You start out in the cockpit of a ship and you must decide what you will do and why you want to do it, the reward is the experience of that journey.

There are countless factions, organizations, empires, federations and the like, but there is also a personal touch with a nearly infinite amounts of unique characters who you can side with or oppose. What activities and stories result may surprise you, finding out for yourself what that surprise is, is a big part of the games charm.

Elite Dangerous is really almost a test to see if you are human, does the concept of exploring a boundless universe trigger your instinct to explore it, or do you find the lack of instruction a limitation.  I say this because I believe much of the entertainment value of Elite Dangerous, most of what you get out of it, will be in the form of a memory you will create inside its environment.  Elite is a challenge to see what you do with it and while some might be confused about the lack of direction, in a sense, Elites principle concept is finding your way without instruction through exploration, that is what Elite Dangerous is at its core.

Why you should be experiencing it

There are many space simulation games out there that will walk you along a path created by its developers, Elite is one of the few that simply says “here is the universe, have fun”.

Still we are gamers, we want to play games so here are 10 reasons why Elite Dangerous is worth your time, as an experiance, as a game, simply as entertainment.

Space Combat

Elite Dangerous uses a robust and detailed physics engine that will force you to think and see in three dimensions.  Combat is challenging not only because of the wide range of ships and equipment, but the functions, tactics and strategies of using that ship and equipment.  Much of what drives our interest in a game like this is space combat and while the setup is all there, the true mastery of space combat does not come in the form of what you can afford but in skills you develop.  Between the sights, sounds and feel of combat you are going to experience what I believe to be one of the best space combat simulations ever designed in a PC game and I say this from vast experience, you would be hard pressed to name a game I have not played in this genre.   If Space Combat simulation is what you are after, Elite Dangerous will quench your thirst.

While there are war zones and other places you might expect to find space combat, truth about Elite Dangerous is that it can come anytime and from anywhere. You always have to be ready to fight. Like the old saying goes, if you want to make god laugh, tell him your plans.
Unexpected Danger

The universe is vast and you can go anywhere, one of the things that you will discover is the many undiscovered things out there that will surprise and potentially kill you. While danger is not routine, it comes when you least expect it and that is one of the thrilling aspects of Elite.  One of my favorite aspects of Elite is that no matter how much I play it I’m constantly running into new, unique dangerous situations that require me to think on my feet, in the moment.  This potential and sense of danger every time you leave a space dock makes the experience feel more real, thoughtful and present.  You will have a feeling of isolation when events transpire, out there in the vastness of space when something goes wrong and you have no one to rely on but yourself.  Its truly an experience that no fan of science-fiction should pass up.

Strange and Wonderful Universe (Exploration)

The model for the Elite universe is one built on principles of space, theories about our universe and imagination of its developers.  The result is a wonderful yet strange and alien galaxy through which you will travel, experiencing its sights and sounds.  The first time you see a Nebula up close, land on an Ice World, or travel to a Neutron star and encounter the countless other anomalous objects in the galaxy you will find the experience pushing you to find more. There is nothing routine about the exploration of the universe and because of the boundlessness of space in the Elite Dangerous universe you will never run out of curiosities to explore.  Their are so many bizzare things to see in this game I can’t imagine any fan of science-fiction or science could possibly pass up the opportunity to experience them.  Mankind dreams of exploring the galaxy and here you can do it from the comfort of your office chair.

Space is not the only place where you can encounter strange stuff, in fact, some of the most interesting finds in Elite have been on distant planets now accessible using the Rover like vehicles that can be deployed and driven.
Economic Simulator

One aspect of space simulation games is very often the economic model, often players seek to build trading empires and focus there efforts on hauling goods, seeking that thrill of finding the perfect trade route that earns them billions.  Elite Dangerous has a robust, ever changing economy driven by supply and demand, often impacted by the activities of other players and the political events of local or global factions.  If you follow the stories of the factions and events in the galaxy, you will find opportunities.  If you love trading, while there are no ways yet to build stations, or trading empires per say, as a hauler/trader you will find a elaborate model on which you can create those perfect spread sheets that help you asses and find your billions.  A true player-ground for the science-fiction capitalist.

The Politics Reflect The Opportunities

Speaking of economic opportunities, one of the things that drives the changes in the human occupied space known as “the bubble”, are the politics and thanks to a very elaborate backstory, countless factions, power players and global powers there is always something going on.  These are hints to what the opportunities in the galaxy are, the closer you pay attention to the news stories and the more you follow it, the more these stories will engage you and the more you will see humanities space as a living organism filled with ways for you to leverage that knowledge and turn it into credits.

While you might not personally be able to swing the powers of global factions like the Federation or the Empire, but there are countless systems in which you can get involved in the local struggles. Help a cartel or independent faction rise to power in the system and reap the benefits.

More than that, Elite Dangerous offers countless hours of news, recorded for your pleasure that you can listen to while your traveling around the galaxy giving the universe yet another layer of time and place, a true role-playing experience.  From politics to alien attacks and everything in between you learn about the humanities plight in the Elite Dangerous version of the cosmos, while reaping the opportunities that come as a result.

Impact on all scales

As a solo pilot you may feel small against the back drop of this giant universe that no matter how much players explore will always remain largely unexplored.  Yet, despite this, fly into any human system and you can truly impact the success of the various factions in that system all by your lonesome.  Pick a faction to support, run mission, trade to benefit them, blow up their enemies and in no time you will see the power in the system shift.  Its amazing feeling to take a small independent faction and watch them grow from an insignificant power to a major player in a system.

Then there is larger scale events, politics and activities.  Power play, community goals, conflict zones and other faction based missions, not to mention random encounters.  All of these activities represent shifts in the power scales on the system, faction and galaxy levels.  While your personal influence gets smaller the higher the level you are trying to influence, its been proven that when members of the community gather to impact areas together, it happens quickly and the shifting events can be quite dramatic.

Its a fluid galaxy, always shifting, always changing and even though you are just a small fish in a big pond, there are small pockets everywhere and you can get involved on a smaller scale on your own and watch things change.   This should really appeal to the role-playing minded player.

A True VR Experience

Every VR owner knows that while there is a ton of VR content out there, generally speaking most of it is rather hastily slapped together and not really what we hoped VR would bring, in a sense game development is still catching up.  The world of VR gaming is filled to the brim with “demos” of how wonderful VR gaming might one day be, but the true experiences of a fully fleshed out game made for VR are few and far inbetween.  Well not with Elite, not only is the Elite Dangerous VR experience mind mindbogglingly amazing, it is in my humble opinion the single most complete VR game you can play.

Exploring the galaxy while peeking out of the window of your cockpit never gets old and getting in a intense dog fight with lasers blasting all around you is about as close to being in a Star Wars movie as you can get today.   Without question one of the most immersive gaming experiences I have ever had with the VR, If you own one, THIS IS the best game for it on the market today.

A World of Consequences

Gamers are quite used to playing in an environment that is always quick to forgive their mistakes, the universal reset button is a default element of the vast majority of games.  Elite Dangerous however gives you for better or worse real consequences, even if those consequences where of the “Oh shit I forgot to” persuasion.  Not enough money to buy insurance, fuck you!, got ambushed by pirates unprepared while mining..too bad, fuck you!, flew 300 light years and realized you forgot to buy the cargo you though you where hauling.. too bad fuck you!

While there are all sorts of ways to end up in trouble in Elite Dangerous, sometimes it’s just something as simple as over estimating the power of your thrusters can end your day as you attempt to land on a high-G planet.

Ok that was mean I know and maybe annoying but Elite Dangerous does not hold your hand, you make a mistake you will have to live with the consequences.  Sometimes these consequences are unfair, like accidentally shooting a defense force ship while chasing after a pilot and being charged with a crime, sometimes you will make them consciously like committing piracy in a Federation system but such is life in space.  Some consequences are the result of benefits, other times they are accidental, the point is that it happens in real time and there is no reset button.  While these consequences vary from screwing with the wrong faction, to flying through the wrong part of town (space), every action you make you will have to own.  This aspect of the game is vital to maintaining respect for the environment, in order for the world to feel real, it must be designed this way.

Multiplayer or Multi-Crew Experience

Whether you fly in formation as a squadron of fighters, or you are part of a crew on the same ship, players can experience this galaxy together.  Built in comms that give you that “radio” experience helps to enhance the experience but in large part in groups you can get on the open play servers and become pirates or bounty hunters, form a trade empire or travel out together and experience the galaxy together.

Most gamers know that while the A.I.’s of a game can offer a challenge nothing compares to meeting another player on the battlefield and Elite Dangerous has a wide range of ways communities come together from the story driven community goals, to straight up unsolicited PvP or directly in the form of organized competitive play.  Elite Dangerous is a vast world, but open play multiplayer mixed in with the ability to share ships as members of the same crew or squadron creates that signature Star Trek feel and is an amazing way to experience Elite Dangerous.

Constantly Growing and Expanding

While admittedly the pace is relatively slow, Elite Dangerous has adopted a loyal fan following and has really converted into the “life style” format of games.  The developers are dedicated to producing new content several times a year and while slow the updates are always very significant.  Each new upgrade brings the game ever closer to the expansive concept David Braben had created for this game and one by one he is meeting the challenges and bringing us the promised features.

Season II Horizons, brought us some of the most highly anticipated features to Elite Dangerous including planetary landings, multi-crew ships and the return of the THARGOIDS! Now Season III is just around the corner!

The game is expanding by leaps and bounds and while I personally believe its best in doses, its a game of progression because its a universe of progression and as such each new update opens up new careers and ways to experience the game.  Season III is almost upon us and promises to bring us closer to a science-fiction experience as a great alien threat approaches threatening humanity.  There has never been a better time to get involved.

The Final Word

I will admit that while I personally love the concept of Elite Dangerous as an experience rather then a game, this sort of approach to entertainment might not be for everyone.  Its not a reflection on gamer’s at large, people want to play games, not everyone is up for simply experiencing a virtual world simulation and so I strongly urge you to consider the following.

Elite Dangerous is not going to entertain you like a typical game, it’s there as a space to explore, to digest and to experience.  Its not a fair game and if you where to explore online the commentary of most gamers who try to “game” Elite as opposed to simply experience it you will probably find quite a few unsatisfied customers and the truth is that everything they say about Elite Dangerous is true.   If you want levels, content and be given a waypoint to where you are supposed to go and a journal that tells you what your supposed to do there and an X that marks the spot, this game is going to let you down.   Its not that kind of game.  It tells you nothing and expects you to find something, that something is special, but its there, waiting to be found.

Elite Dangerous is definitely not a game for everyone, but for those of you who get excited about the prospect of exploring a vast galaxy and participating in a science-fiction universe on your own terms, this is the ultimate game for you.

You might be tempted to go online and find out “how”, “where” or “what”.  My suggestion is don’t.  Log in and experience the game from within.  You won’t get rich at first, you will be confused for sure, but the joy of this game is exploring it, discovering its secrets.  Sure you can go online and get the coordinates to a Black Hole, or you can venture into space and try to find one on your own.  One way is easy and will lead you to getting bored, the other will open up the world of Elite Dangerous, a world to be experienced, not played.

Board Game Reviews

Star Wars: Destiny By Fantasy Flight Games

While I had initially passed on it, Star Wars Destiny the collectible card game landed in November 2016 with a bang on the gaming scene and its clear over the last year it has gained momentum globally.  It celebrated its 1st birthday in style, enjoying a top 5 spot on the ICV2 most sold collectible card game on our little blue planet.  While I have been slacking on reviews the last few months (work, life, etc.) and the result of a very RPG focused agenda, I could not ignore this one any longer, I had to take a closer look.     Destiny has enjoyed a very quick road to success as far as collectible card games go, though it should come to the surprise of no one given that FFG was behind it.

It really just seems like Fantasy Flight Games doesn’t know how to fail and while it took some leg pulling to get me to shell out for a CCG (more on why that is later), I finally got behind the wheel, albeit belayed, to give this little Star Wars bird a thorough whirl.

Overview

Final Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star christmas_star(3.9 out of 5 Stars)

Star Wars: Destiny is a classic formula for a CCG dueling game on the surface.  Two players build decks and face off against each other trying to knock the other out to win the game.  Like all FFG games however, Destiny takes the theme, in this case Star Wars and pushes it a bit closer to its roots.   By making it about special Star Warsy signature characters with special powers and throwing  the entire thing on its head by adding specialty dice the game entered into an entirely different CCG genre than most card games fall into.  While not a white elephant, the genre today is quite thin competition wise.

The DCG (Dice Collectible Game) is a new genre that was only recently established, Destiny has really confirmed that this is going to be a thing now.

We have seen this emerging genre before in games like Dice Masters (its primary competitor), which has also been very successful (enjoying the no 9 spot of top 10 collectible games on ICV2 as of this writing).  Star Wars Destiny however boasts a powerful IP, the stupidly high quality components and original art work of  FFG and two of the most successful designers at FFG Corey Konieczka and Lukas Litzsinger. Suffice to say, it has a lot going for it out of the gate.  Today we look under the hood of this year old stud and see if it earns all of its accolades.

Components

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt:christmas_star

Pros:  High quality components made to last, dice in particular are extremely well done, awesome visual appeal that gets you in the mood.

Cons:  The box and storage are poorly thought out, the extra storage binders sold separately are not a whole lot better leaving you on your own to find a storage solution.

Star Wars: Destiny follows the very high standard that we have grown accustom to for games coming out of Fantasy Flight Games.  The card stock is the best you can get, the dice quality is amazing and the entire thing has a spit shine on it that will get you excited to play with the pieces.

It wouldn’t be Star Wars without a good Darth Vader card, FFG has done a great job with the art enhancing the experience and confirming that they are the best in the business.

The dice deserve particular mention here, I already mentioned Dicemasters which is the only point of reference in this rather small genre, but by comparison, Destiny blows it out of the water, it may just have the best dice I have ever seen in a dice game or any game for that matter.  The dice are big, colorful, clear and of the absolute highest quality.  They are a joy to roll, just the feel of them in your hand is going to get your gamer juices flowing. Compared to Dicemasters which, well lets just say it, was a big disappointment component wise, FFG really invested in Destiny’s signature component and it shows.

I love the fact that FFG understands what is important to gamers, if you are going to make a dice game, make sure the dice kick ass!

If there was any disappointment for me it was in the packaging, which I consider a “none review-able” item in terms of scoring a game, but I’m going to bitch about it anyway.  The absence of a storage solution will annoy you.   Booster packs are obviously a “rip them open” situation, which is fine, but there really is no good “box” to put your stuff in when it comes to Destiny.  The two player box has a very flimsy box that rips easily, which won’t last and it uses the side opening boxes all gamers loathe as do the pre-built expansion decks.  While the plastic casing inside was pretty good, giving you a place to put some of your dice and perhaps some hope of a solution to store some what you will ultimately collect, quite simply after opening the game and opening some boosters I was left with a mess of cards and dice with no where to put them.

The dice binders sold separately by FFG are pretty, but the design was poorly thought out.

FFG does offer Dice Binders, which would have been great even if sold separately, but I found the choice of being able to store 40 dice but only 44 cards only further fueling my frustration.  Basically a single deck has 10-14 dice in it, while having exactly 30 cards.  The binder is way too big for a single deck of dice, but far too small to have more than 1 deck because a lack of card storage.  It’s not a terribly smart accessory, leaving everyone trying to scramble and figure out an alternative storage solution.  It’s kind of lame enough to put things in a non-reusable box, but offering a pointless accessory is pouring lemon juice on the wound.  Suffice to say I was pretty disappointed, but luckily this component has nothing to do with the quality of the game so I mention it more out of frustration than any impact on the games score.

Theme

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star

Pros: Fantastic artwork, quotable cards and familiar characters will delight the senses and give you that Star Wars feeling.

Cons:  Some might find the blending of eras and lack of cannon annoying, for the record, I do not.

The big advantage of using a big IP like Star Wars is that once you throw some pictures of Darth Vader on the cover, you already have a built in following to the theme.  When I judge a games theme however I’m trying to make a connection between the setting and the mechanics.  Does the theme influence the mechanics and shine through while you play, does it fuel the imagination or impact your sense of the experience, is there some sort of concept of time and place, does it tell a story through play.  All of those things help to enhance a game and are important if you are buying into a game hoping to get some replication of the Star Wars universe.  Does Destiny provide this?

The short answer is yes and no.  Its not exactly what I would call a storytelling experience.  The combinations can get pretty weird as the entirety of the Star Wars universe is blended into a single game.  You will see content from the Phanthom Menance, the old trilogy, the new trilogy, the cartoon and a bunch of stuff you probably have never heard of unless you are a die hard consumer of everything Star Wars.  While it maintains what I would call “The Star Wars feeling”, there really isn’t a sense of a story, time or place, but rather a kind of scramble of everything into a single game.  Now I would imagine most people will not really care, but the first time I built a deck I had Nute Gunray, Boba Fett and a Tie Pilot all in the same deck and that is only a slightly weird combination in terms of what is possible.  If your sense of cannon is easily offended and throws off your sense of Star Wars continuity, this game will abuse that to all hell as you mix and match characters, equipment and locations from pretty much every source and era of the Star Wars universe to make your decks.

Quotable cards like this, paired up with great art will put a smile on your face, but the effects don’t always connect mechanically to the theme.

To me personally this was more a quirk than a problem, everything in the game is definitively Star Wars and belongs in the theme as a whole and the whole concept of trying to maintain cannon in a CCG is far fetched anyway.  The theme shines largely through the fact that every card in the game is universally quotable and as a Star Wars fans playing cards like “He doesn’t like you” instantly takes me back to the movies.  That with the amazing art, is more than enough to give Star Wars: Destiny a well deserved passing grade.  Its very clear that the designers of the game were Star Wars fans.

If you are looking for a more thematic experience, one in which the cards mechanics are linked up to a thematic story and experience, I would venture to guess Destiny is probably not that game.  While it certainly houses Star Wars as an IP under one roof, its really more of a game about gameplay than trying to accomplish some sort of thematic tale of events, for that you might need to seek out the Star Wars LCG.  Even there however I think you would find that there is a general blending of “everything”, as this is really how most card games are, this one is no different.

Gameplay

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star

Pros: Streamlined, easy to teach, easy to learn mechanic. Robust card pool with a wide range of deck building options make this dueling game a winner.

Cons: It’s a small game with big investment requirements, in particular if you plan to compete.  Casual players should approach with caution.

I think without argument when it comes to dueling card games, gameplay is without question the single most important element that needs to be done right for it to be successful, a moot point when one does a review of an already successful game, but none the less.  For any collectible games unfortunately there are many external factors that can really affect the gameplay experience,  in particular ones like Destiny that use the random booster concept.  While I won’t dwell here, I will say that I prefer the now well establish FFG Living Card standard which alleviates a lot of the anxiety and potential gameplay or balance issues randomness and investment differential can create.  When buying into a CCG this really comes with the territory and in many ways is an extension of the games “pre-game” deck building concept.  I will talk a bit more about my feelings about the CCG concept later, but let’s first talk about the gameplay in general.

Center stage in a CCG is always going to be deck building. Great thing about Destiny is you can grab a card, see what it does and immediately go off on a tangent on potential ways to build an entire deck around it.

On the positive side, the mechanics of the game itself and how it incorporates dice in particular is really well thought out here.  Destiny is a very tight and streamlined game, cutting out a lot of the nonsense of old school CCG’s like the “I can’t do anything” turns or “Mana screwed” issues, or “not enough cards dilemma”.  All that is eliminated and in a fashion that is both fair, consistent and reliable.  Each turn from the first to the last round is going to have you contemplating your plays one action at a time, rather than complaining about some shitty game state you find yourself in.  There is always something you can do, in fact, most of the time there are hard choices and tactical decisions that you must choose between which really fuels both deck building (the pre-game, game) and the constant re-assessment of the in progress game.  There is constant tension throughout, your always trying to solve some puzzle at every stage of the game.  You are rarely out of options.

I especially liked the fact that there are very few “no result” dice results, which is great given its a dice game and a part of your success will be affected by how well your roll.  You might not always get what you want and depending on how you built your deck you may or may not have things to control your dice, but because you can discard a card to re-roll dice and most dice generally have only positive results (something), your getting benefit from them most of the time in some way.  Its interesting as well how despite a pretty massive card pool, each card/dice combination brings something new to the table.  There are no “bad” cards really that I found, there are just cards that are clearly designed with certain types of deck builds in mind.  Sure, one can say that clearly some cards are more competitive than others, you will of course see the emergence of a meta where certain cards see more play.  That said however I found that when I zeroed in a character, a piece of equipment or even a certain mechanic, there was a deck waiting to be built out of it.  This creative pre-game deck building element of CCG’s in general is arguably one of the most addictive parts of the game, though your collection will dictate how much flexibility you have here and unfortunately this will also affect how balanced your experience will be.

The point here however is that there is a lot of design space when it comes to deck building assuming a robust collection and let’s face it, when it comes to card games like Destiny or really any collectible game, even miniatures, the concept of list building or deck building is a game in its own right.  You will spend countless hours contemplating “builds” and when discussing the game you will always be talking about it in terms of deck building.  This is part of the fun and really part of the gameplay of Destiny, trying to find that perfect combination of cards and tactics to win more than you lose.  On a competitive level you’re always working on trying to outsmart the meta and in a sense in competitive play I imagine this becomes an entire new level of gameplay where you know what people will play and your trying to build decks that can beat those decks.  This stacking of concepts gives Destiny many layers of game to explore but aiming to play competitively isn’t going to be the only driver to trying to find that perfect deck combination.  Its a built in feature of the game, serious, casual, competitive or not, you are going to be trying to build the best decks you can.

On a ground level there is much to like about Destiny but my favorite really has to be the hero design.  Each hero card has a two costs, a one die cost and a two die cost.  With only 30 points to spend on heroes, it means you are not going to have this “put the best you have in a deck” approach.  The cost is a huge limiting factor ensuring the most powerful heroes come with the drawback of limiting who you can partner them up with.  This tender balance is well done and while their are certainly some pretty great combination that formulate the competitive meta, the game really isn’t won or lost on heroes alone.  The deck you build that supports them is far more critical, in particular the equipment that brings in additional dice.  A seemingly innocent 10 point hero can be turned into an unstoppable machine of death with the right combination of gear and this both plays into the strategy of the deck building and the tactics at the table.  This all in turn helps to bring that tightness of play to the game.  Contemplating the possibility feels endless, even with a small investment you will discover countless combinations to try out, driving both the addiction to collect and to play.

Its unfortunate however that to get the most out of pretty much every hero you will need to collect both dice for him.  The way the cost works out, if you buy 1 die for say 11 points, getting the second one might only cost you 3 or 4 points more.  Hence building decks with heroes for who you don’t have 2 dice for is extremely inefficient and doing so will definitely result in a sub-optimal deck that in turn will affect your rate of success in particular when facing more optimized 4 dice, dual hero decks.  This makes collecting a sizable collection that much more important to deck building and in general to your success in the game.

You have already spent 12 points on a character with 1 die and it will cost you 4 more to get the other die. It’s clearly the optimal decision but you can’t make it if you don’t have a second copy which puts you into that awkward space of either making a sub-optimal build or simply not use the card.

Many cards have zero cost, or are low cost, which means your success isn’t really driven by resource availability during a round entirely.  In fact you will spend most rounds with very few resources or sometimes even none and it does not prevent you from participating aggressively in the events of the round.  I love the fact that the game goes back and forth with each player getting a single action you, the end result is that you always have an opportunity to respond to the changing state of the game based on your opponents last play.   This fuels the game tactically as it ensures that while you can plan, you must constantly adjust.  Pulling off those deadly combos isn’t just a matter of fact, there is a counter to everything both in terms of cards you can field in your deck but also what order you make your plays, the timing of them and of course the always important results of the dice.  Battlefileds are also a part of the overall strategy of the game and can sometimes offer significant advantage to getting your timing right.  All this amounts to a consistently interesting and ever changing state of affairs on the table.   You might have a plan, a player takes one action and you find yourself completely re-assessing the entire round.  Things turn on a dime and I absolutely love that.

In short, the game-play is absolutely fantastic from a mechanical stand point, you have a lot of control over your destiny making this without question one of the most aptly named games in the FFG lineup.

There are low cost, 1 die cards like this one, but these are clearly meant to be paired up with the more expensive heroes, suffice to say 3 die decks are not completely out of the question and certainly designed into the game as an option.

A big part of your success in any match is going to be in the pre-game deck building, really a game in its own right and a core part of CCG’s in general.  You have a lot of choices to make here including which characters to use, what equipment, upgrades and support cards to add to your deck which in turn defines what dice you will have available in the course of the game and of course the all important event cards which is really where much of your subtle strategy comes from.   In many ways this is also the flaw of the CCG model because what cards you have available is a limiting factor of your collection, one that is largely randomly done through the booster concept.  Its particularly a problem when you are on a tight budget and you find yourself facing opponents with a more flexible income.  This differential can and probably will create some imbalances.  You might not have those 2 dice heroes, so you may find yourself facing 4 dice vs. your 2 or 3 from your limited collection and that is a major unbalance in the games structure.  In fact I found even after buying all of the starter packs and 2 of the big booster boxes I only have  5 heroes for who I have 2 dice, significantly reducing not only what parts of my collection I can make but in particular what types of decks I can make that are optimized.  Most of my decks are made up of 3 heroes 3 dice, simply because I have no other option and when facing a 4 dice deck I’m at a pretty severe disadvantage.

Suffice this is just part of the CCG model, for better or worse.  The question of course is, should this affect the games score and the answer is a simple no.  I can’t count being a CCG against a game if a CCG is exactly what it intends to be.  It’s a collectible game, collecting is part of the game, an expensive part and if you think that’s unfair than you should definitely skip this game, but it does not make Destiny any less of a game.  Mechanically speaking I have to rate the game with the assumption that I have the entire collection and in that capacity this is a fantastic game.

The caveat for me in the model is the 2 dice hero model balance of the game.  Essentially the game is designed on 30 points worth of heroes, however the average cost of a 1 die hero is about 8-12, and the average cost of a second die for the same hero is 3-5.  This means that if you spend points for 1 die of a hero, if you don’t buy the second die you have locked your deck into being a 3 die deck in all but the rarest circumstance with no way to work out the math any differently.  This creates an inherent problem with how collecting works, but more importantly it impacts greatly the global balance of the game where effectively a player who has a set of 2 die heroes of every sort will always be able work out decks to have 4 dice, but a person who does not have 2 dice heros to work with will be locked into the less optimal 3 die decks constructed from either 2 or 3 heroes.

To me the decision to balance the game this way hurts it. Only including 1 die in a booster, not to mention making all heroes “rare” or “legendary” at the least means that you will struggle to make use of your collection even if its fairly robust.  I for example don’t have any 2 die yellow (good guy) heroes in my collection which means all yellow hero (good guy) cards are effectively not used at all unless I want to play with a sub-par, 3 die decks which frankly after a few frustrating efforts I know well enough that it’s just not fun.   The disadvantage is too great against a 4 die deck.  Effectively these 3 die types of decks feel incomplete and can create a frustrating experience to say the least when facing a player who has a complete 4 hero deck.

I think this pain point is significant enough to affect the score of the game, to me, this is more a design decision problem than a CCG model problem.  Grant it, it can be overcome through collecting but personally I think there is a limit to how much a CCG model should impact the balance of a game based on collecting and how much a CCG model can demand before you can make use of your collection.  I would say right now, after 200 dollars spent, perhaps 10% of my collection is viable to be used in a deck thanks to this awkward hero/die pairing issue.  Most of the cards I can’t use are great and I would love to use them but the lack of the 2 dice hero pairings I need to do so means I have to build those less effective 3 dice decks. After a fair amount of testing it’s abundantly clear to me that 4 dice vs. 3 dice is more than just a disadvantage, it’s a serious unbalance, its not game breaking but not easy to ignore either.  In short, you need the pairings, its really not an option in most cases.

Still, from a stand

Replay-ability and Longevity

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star

Pros: The robust nature of CCG’s combined with FFG’s commitment to the product means this game likely has a long and bright future ahead of it.

Cons: To really get the full experience you are going to have to dive knee deep into this, with a constant push to expand your collection driving your replaybility.

The really nice thing about collectible card games is that we can generally rely on the publisher to continue to put out expansion after expansion for their game, in particular with FFG.  This in its own right gives Destiny a huge advantage in this category as we know it will be heavily expanded.  For CCG’s, expansion is also one of the most important categories as decks get old, cards get old and you are always going to be chasing a refresher.

There are a great many unique and interesting event cards that can significantly alter how events play out in the course of a game.  Much of the longevity of this game will rely on FFG constantly creating new cards that continue in this tradition.

Still lets assume for a second you don’t make a major investment in the game, how much can you replay that same 2 player starter deck before it gets boring and loses its polish.  The answer is more than you expect, but probably not enough. Considering the two player box is 30 bucks retail, I would say you get considerable bang for your buck, but CCG’s like Destiny beg to be expanded, its assumed you will deck build and it really is about finding new and clever ways to beat your opponents.  I think the 2 player set is a nice, cheap way to find out if you like the game, but in the end unless you expand your replay-ability is going to be fairly limited.

Personally after a few plays I was ready to start deck building and needed cards to do it with.  I think I got the 2 player set, played 4 or 5 times and ordered 2 booster boxes in the same week.   I managed to get it on a discount but by the time I was done ordering stuff I was a good 200 bucks into it.  The question now is how far will this take me?  The answer is not nearly as far as I had hoped.  Part of the problem is the dependency on 2 dice hero pairings.  As mentioned before after 200 bucks I still don’t have pairings for the vast majority of my heroes, in some cases entire sections of the game, for example I don’t have 2 dice for yellow heroes so my yellow hero cards really don’t have a home in any decks right now.  That was disappointing.   Suffice to say you will need to collect, trade and/or buy off the 3rd party markets to really get that replay-ability and deck construction possibilities going that this game is capable of and that is going to be a significant investment of your time and money.

Each time you add to your card and dice pool you are going to see worlds opening, new deck possibilities, new approaches and in turn more replay-ability.  Really this is typical of collectible games, their longevity generally relies on expanding your collection and Destiny is no different, but in my opinion its far more difficult to do with Destiny, due to the way the model is setup.

In general though I think the replay-ability is very good, there are significant variations in the different sets and new mechanics are introduced in each set that shake things up and refresh certain elements of the game opening up the reusing of cards you might have previously overlooked.  I also think with each new set the 3 hero, 3 dice combinations become more viable and competitive than before.  I noted that when building decks “digitally” with online deck builders with cards I don’t have yet I was able to construct some 3 dice, 3 hero decks that I believe would be a significant challenge for a 2 hero 4 dice deck.  Suffice to say I think some of these collection vs. balance issues can be resolved through mixing the sets and opening the door to more ways to replay the game.

I have high hopes for the longevity of the game, but CCG’s need to establish large card pools for that longevity to really stick.  Destiny remains a question mark in that department, I’m not 100% sure how far I will take the game, but certainly FFG is going to tempt me with the constant expanding.  I think Destiny has a bright future for the dedicated player.

Conclusion

Star Wars: Destiny is a challenging, varied and robust game that takes this genre to an entirely new level.  Its got the chops to be a great competitive game and its design streamlined to a point of near perfection.  It really is an absolutely fantastic game.

Unfortunately it’s CCG model not only comes with the standard economic trappings and overhead of a collectible game but is burdened by a core balance issue if you are not fully committed.  If you want to make reasonably competitive decks, even more so than typical CCG’s, you are going to have to invest heavily, perhaps more so than other CCG’s out there.

I would say for experience CCG players looking for their next challenge this is definitely one you should not pass up, but for casual gamers I think this is one to skip.  The 2 player game is too limited and getting into it uncommitted is going to be disappointing.  Its an all or nothing game in my humble opinion.

Best of List

Top 10 Underated & Overlooked Games

I haven’t done a top 10 list in a while and while I’m overdue for an updated top 10 games of all time list, I thought what we really needed on the blog was something more varied and interesting, a place for gamers to look to find something to play.  There have been a lot of really fantastic releases in the last couple of years and, not to mention other overlooked games over the years worth mentioning and while they might not compete against the spectrum of all games ever made, they are so worth your time that I thought I would make a list dedicated to games that everyone should be checking out that are commonly overlooked.

Legend of the Five Rings LCG by Fantasy Flight Games

When FFG first announced The Legend of the Five Rings LCG, long time fans of the original CCG shared both concern and delight.  The old CCG was really starting to show its age compared to modern designed CCG’s and LCG’s, but it was beloved by a very dedicated,  niche and vocal audience. Thankfully FFG has proven time and time again that when it comes to card games, they are the modern gold standard.  Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Android Net Runner, Star Wars: Destiny and Akrham Horror are just among the short list of absolutely amazing card games that they have put together.  With talents like Lukas Litzsinger and Nate French just to name a couple superstars, your beloved franchises are always in good hands at FFG, but Legend of the Five Rings is without a question their crowning achievement when it comes to taking an IP and making it better in my humble opinion.

The core set is dirt cheap, the game is easy to learn and the art is amazing. For CCG players theír really is no reason to not try this amazing game.

I’m here to tell you that within the genre of Dueling games, despite amazing games like Star Wars: Destiny, Game of Thrones and Android Net Runner; Legend of the Five Rings is without question the best of the lot and by a large margin.  This is in my mind THE best complex, competitive card game on the market today and if you haven’t tried it you are truly missing out.

The smooth as silk mechanics, absolutely amazing deck building options and robust tactical play already makes Legend of the Rings a great game worthy to be on the list of best CCG/LCG’s, but Legend of the Five Rings in my humble opinion separates itself by being based on one of the most unique fantasy settings ever put to paper.  It feels like a proper medieval Japanese battle within the confines of a magical fantasy world where political intrigue and straight up warfare are constant.  Its a game of subtle moves and counter moves thematically linked to an era of Samurai, Legend of the Five Rings is a robust and very repayable experience.  Even with just a single core set you are going to find a deep tactical game and this very expandable game even in its infancy already gives all the others a serious run for their money.

New Angeles by Fantasy Flight Games

Of all the games to come out in 2016, this has got to be one of the most overlooked and underrated games on the market today.  I’m absolutely shocked that games like Gloomhaven, yet another re-hashed adventure game based on tired mechanics and premise can sit in the top spot on boardgamegeek.com while absolutely amazingly unique games like New Angeles are somewhere in the 900’s.  It’s like living in some sort of bizzare world where everything is opposite.  If there was ever a crime against boardgaming, New Angeles’s underrated status is without question one of this decades greatest atrocities.

Easily the top candidate for game of the year, this underrated gem belongs in every gamers collection.

New Angeles is  one of the best board games I have played this year and it’s definitely a contender for my best of all time list.  It embodies everything that makes board gaming a social experience while housing one of the most unique and intriguing mechanics that drives its engine I have seen in a long time.  To say its unique is kind of an understatement, its really the first time in a long time I have sat down to a board game and was surprised on all fronts.  How much fun I had, how social the game was, how mechanically well designed the game was and how almost instantly I wanted to play it again.  The word “tight” is over-utilized when describing games, but this is a game that is always close.  It has a betrayer element, a cooperative element, a competitive element and above all else its a bloody social experiment that must be experienced.

To me, if you are going to buy just one board game this year, New Angeles should be it.

Star Wars: Armada by Fantasy Flight Games

While it sits pretty on my top 10 list of best games of all time and has enjoyed considerable time in the lime light as one of FFG’s flag ship miniature games second only to X-Wing, I’m constantly shocked at how little attention this game gets.  I have talked quite a bit about this game over the last couple of years since its release, Star Wars Armada remains seriously underplayed and underrated in my opinion.  In my mind this is still very much the definitive “THE” miniatures game on the market today, if you have to pick just one, this should be it.  I’m very surprised to see how little attention it gets considering what it is, a game of capital ship combat in the Star Wars universe with what has to be one of the most tactical and strategic miniature games ever made.  I have played a lot of miniature games over the years and all I can say is that this remains among the best on all fronts.

Star Wars Armada is hardly an overlooked title, but it earns its place on this list because its quite literary a crime against gaming that this is not the single most played and most sold miniatures game on the market today. It’s not only the best there is, nothing comes even close to competing with it.

It’s the fine wine of miniature games and while I love my X-Wing and have in the past loved plenty of others that have come and gone, Armada is one of those games I can see myself playing indefinitely.  Its a gentlemens game that requires a commitment from a veteran gamer to learn to play it well.  Its a game of deep thought, one that will have you constantly re-evaluating every inch of its components, potential strategies and tactics.  FFG has taken amazing care of this one, despite a couple of dips here and there they always find a way to bring it back to its roots.

Above all else though I appreciate the fact that while its a miniature game it does not come with the weight of the miniature hobby.  Now I understand that many have a love for the assembly and painting of miniatures and construction of terrain, perhaps this is the reason for its rather underated status but to me the best aspect of the entire miniature hobby is the gaming and its here that Armada will focus your attention..  Its a game made for veteran gamers, so no apologies for length or complexity, but I also firmly believe that its very approachable even as a novice gamer to the hobby.  I would still recommend X-Wing to Armada for casual gamers, but if you are looking for a rich miniature gaming experience that will grab and hold your attention without all the painting and assembly, this is definitely your destination.

Runewars by Fantasy Flight Game

While my initial review of this game was good, one aspect of Runewars that had negative notations was that the fantasy world its based on was rather lackluster.  This still remains true and may actually be the reason why this game has been overlooked by miniature gaming fans, in particular warhammer fantasy fans used to a rich and elaborate game setting, but from a stand point of mechanics Warhammer Fantasy has absolutely nothing on this game.  Runewars makes Warhammer Fantasy look like a toy when stacked up against the intricately designed Runewars.

Runewars lackluster setting is no doubt responsible for its underrated status, but mechanically speaking this game blows the doors off of games rank and file competitors like the defunct Warhammer Fantasy.

What makes this game tick is the very clever dual dial action mechanic, unique for the miniature world but one that solves many of the issues I have with pretty much everything I have played in the genre before.  It boasts a lot of really unique and interesting models for the painters out there, but maintains a relatively approachable level of assembly making this a more inviting game for the novice trying to break in.  I personally love this game its really unfortunate that while my gaming group was hot and heavy at the start, the novelty wore of rather quickly.  My hope is that it bounces back because this is a game that is made to be played with plenty of list building and tactics to explore.   Highly underrated and while its too bad it has not been terribly successful, the plus side is that its very cheap to get into these days with much of its product line in the bargain bin.  It’s life might turn out to be short, but what has already been released is more than enough reason to invest.

FFG seems to be painfully aware of the generic nature of their core fantasy setting and are clearly taking action to remedy that situation. Who knows, perhaps a few years from now this criticism will have been quelled.

My advice is that if you have a friend that is interested, pick up a core box and give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Cluedo by Hasbro

A game from my childhood that has made a resurgence in my house thanks to my kids going through their childhoods.  No one is more surprised to find this game on this rather prestigious list of amazing must play games, but truth be told this is a classic family game for a very good reason.  It’s pretty fantastic.

Conceptually it’s a very simple game of deduction, but underneath it’s rather simple premise is a really fun and challenging social game.  Much of the game is played making deductions based on what you see, but there is also a “poker face” element to it where you try to decipher what people say to draw clues about potentially eliminating suspects, murder weapons and locations to determine the “who done it” of it all.

Most of us grew up with Milton Bradly classics like Clue, but some of these games are classics for good reason and Cluedo earns its stripes on this list today.

This has become a family favorite at home, currently wearing out our second copy of the game.  It’s hardly a week goes by that we don’t play it several times and as people get better and better at hiding their poker face if you will, the game becomes more challenging and equally more fun.

This in my book is a far superior family game option to many of the accepted standards like RISK, Monopoly or the always boring Game of Life.  More than that, I think this is actually a fairly legitimate gamers game that can actually work at a more traditional and exclusive gamers night.  I’m almost embarrassed to say but I actually love this game.  It hits all those social sweet spots and despite its multiple decade existence it holds up quite well.  For a great family game, look no further than this classic, it really works!

Star Trek: Fleet Captain

This is one of those games where loving Star Trek the TV shows and movies is an absolute must, but given that 99% of all Star Trek franchise games basically suck balls, perhaps it’s no surprise so many Trekies might have overlooked this one.

Star Trek: Fleet Captain is one of the most thematic games I have ever played, Star Trek or otherwise.   It is the Twilight Imperium or War of the Rings of Star Trek game, essentially, the entire franchise in a single box. I adore this game both because it’s an amazing game mechanically speaking but because it’s dripping with everything a Star Trek fan could hope for.  Explore the galaxy, experience Star Trek events pulled right from the series and films and fight fleet battles using the trickery and gadgetry of the Star Trek universe.

I have introduced this game to people who went from “I fucking hate everything Star Trek” to “but this game is awesome”. For a game to be so good that despite its overwhelming focus on theme it can turn your head even if you hate the theme is amazing, never seen that happen in any other game in my 30 years.

Thematic ships, characters and events all clearly linked mechanically to their role in the Star Trek universe give Fleet Captains a distinctly familiar feel.  While competitive, this is a storytelling game and you will find yourself in all too familiar situations only a true trekie would appreciate from Trouble with Tribbles to weird timelines, from the borg to liquid space, from cloaking devices to using your warp drive to do all kinds of crazy stuff it not designed to do, it’s all here.

Thanks to two great expansions, although not easy to find these days, Star Trek: Fleet Captains is a complete package, this is a game no Star Trek fan should miss.

Illuminati by Steve Jackson Games

This stone cold classic was once among the most played games I owned and remains as far as I’m concerned a permanent fixture of my collection.  Now it is a Steve Jackson game who I believe to be a very talented designer but with a rather odd approach to his games.  I find most people either love or hate his games, but while I would consider many of his games “classics”, this is the one I’m always surprised that people have never heard of.  At this point perhaps its just my age is showing given this game was released back 1987.

Games are often very personal things, memories in a box and while I love Illuminati it reminds me of a friend that died years ago and is probably the only reason I don’t play it anymore. It is however a fantastic social game not to be missed.

Illuminati is a card game driven by a giant fuck you mechanic that pits players against each other as they attempt to complete their Illuminati power structures to take over the world.  The trick is that each player has a unique win condition and because every play anyone can make can be interrupted by any number of players or supported by any number of players its really a game of chicken, deception, prediction, resource management, a bit of luck and more fuck you than is probably acceptable at a traditional family board game night.  This is clearly a game for gamers, in particular for groups that enjoy sticking it to each other.

The rules are relatively simple, but the gameplay is anything but, this is one of those games that if you win, you win because you have truly outsmarted and out played everyone else, you can’t get lucky here.  If you have never tried it and you are looking for a truly messed up social game, in particular among a group with a great sense of humor, this satire loaded game is not to be missed.

War of the Ring by Ares Games

While this one has been and remains still today on my top 10 best games of all time list and its hardly overlooked given its number 12 spot on boardgamegeek.com, I’m still amazed how in conversation when the topic of Lord of the Rings games comes up this one is seldom mentioned.  In my mind this is not only one of the best Lord of the Rings games ever made, its also one of the most thematic games ever made and quite possibly one of the best.  This isn’t just a game, its really an experience, one of the most intimate and elaborate board games for two players you could ever play.  For Lord of the Rings fans this is the ONLY board game I would ever dream of recommending as an absolute must have.  Its the entire Lord of the Rings story, structured with perfection into a single game.  Its clearly made by a fan for fans.

Its sheer epic scale and presumed complexity is probably why this game falls under your typical gamers radar, but this game while true to its scale is actually not that complicated to learn to play. Some games are just worth the investment and time they demand, this one is definitely among the most worthy you will ever find.

Now there are plenty of Lord of the Rings games, in fact, its a bloody brick ton and I have played many if not most of them and while there are plenty of gems, nothing compares to the experience of War of the Rings.  This is the ultimate Lord of the Rings experience, period.

Battletech by Altar Games

In 1985 long before every boardgame was turned in a miniature game the card board cut-up stand ups that came with this classic where good enough because we had imagination and gameplay ruled supreme over everything else.  More than that though the original 1985 Battletech game set remains THE best ever made and despite bloody decades of trying and failing hard to re-capture interest in this genre, the Battletech franchise still largely stands on this stone cold classic.

While miniatures are all the rage these days, this classic doesn’t need them. Mechanically this is a gem in the rough.

What made Battletech unique is that it took the concept of characters from RPG’s, the many stats and custom building, the attention to detail for each unit and the tit for tat balancing of weapons, armor, and utility gear and turned it into a pure thematic tactical war game.  It was back in those days referred to as Chainmail with robots.

The only game that I played more than Battletech back in the day was Dungeons and Dragons itself but unlike those early editions of dungeons and dragons that were terribly flawed mechanically, Battletech was design perfection and holds up as strong today as it did back than.  The fact that it was not reprinted unchanged is a shame, if any game deserves it its this one.

One of my favorite mems, I couldn’t resist, its true, its a long game, you have to make peace with it.

Thanks to the digital world of PDF’s and the fact that the original game actually had no miniatures, you can basically print and play this one today and its well worth the printer ink to do so.  This overlooked and forgotten classic deserves your attention, especially if you are a modern miniatures gamer.  You will find that not only do the rules hold up, they are far superior to a vast majority of miniature games today.  Clean, hardcore robot battles, what else could a person possibly ask for.

The 18XX series by lots of people

While this is not a single game, it does have an original “classic” that most people who do play it know well, 18:30 Railroad and Robber Barons.  This entire series is built on the core premise of operating railroad companies, manipulating stock markets and constructing railways.  In on its own its very much a niche game, often maintained to be for “hardcore” gamers or “those train people”, but as a gamer, both casual and series to me this is one series of games that is severely under played, overlooked and misunderstood.  Its almost as if the community that surrounds it enjoys its “cult” status, but the truth of the matter is that its far more approachable than its typically made out to be.

It isn’t going to win any beauty contests, but 18XX games have it where it counts.

Sure its a bit more complex, but I know plenty of people who play far more complicated games than this, in fact, several games on this list I would consider far more complex than 1830 and while certainly some of the sub-versions of this series get quite deep there are a wide range of levels in this series worth recommending.

To me this series represents the best of the economic line of games, you would think given that games like Monopoly are among the most played/owned games in the world, economic games would get far more attention than what is typical for a game series like 18XX.  None the less, if you like playing with play money, this game is really among the best out there with deep strategy, cut-throat tactics and replay-ability on a scale few games achieve.  Worth the investment.

Dedicated To All Things Gaming