Scene It

I consider myself a bit of a movie buff. Not on par with some but I know enough. My wife, her sister and brother-in-law and their kids are big into movies as well. That’s why my wife’s sister picked up Scene It.

I had never played this game before and they started me off with the Disney version. From my poor performance and complete confusion I seem to have missed out on quite a bit of these flicks. After I had an extreme loss at this version we attempted the regular edition. I did considerably better.

I like that the game includes a board that can be folded or unfolded for long or short games. Play proceeds by each player rolling two dice. One six sided for movement and an eight sided one for question category. Trivia questions are either presented on the trivia cards or on the included DVD. This keeps game play more dynamic as the videos seem like a break from trivia game routine.

Categories include:

Take Three- player must determine a film, actor or actress from the three hints given.

Songs and Slogans- questions revolve around songs from movies or the tag lines (such as Aliens- “In space no-one can hear you scream")

My Play- the person who rolled watches a video clip and answers the question that follows.

All play- All players watch a video clip or participate in a random challenge. Whoever gets the right answer gets to move.

Buzz card- A buzz card is selected, each has a random effect. Some move your piece forward, others backward, some make you miss a turn others allow you to make another player miss a turn.

Miscellaneous- Answer a miscellaneous trivia question about any movie topic.

Players Choice- allows a player to choose their category, any trivia card category, my play or a buzz card.

The rules are quite simple and easy to follow so all ages can play. There are quite a number of older films however so many younger people may be at a disadvantage if they haven’t watched classic films. The upside is that there are a number of editions that are for specific genres or series or age groups so you should be able to find an edition that works for your group. Personally I would love to get the Dr. Who or James Bond editions.

One thing to point out is that there are a number of questions about behind the scenes knowledge. Stuff on directors, awards won, actors/actresses. Not everyone will be expecting that and some people don’t get that into movies but everyone should still have fun.

This would be a great game to get to try to entice non-board gamers into playing as it isn’t strictly board play with the DVD play. The regular Scene It game is also an interesting way to learn about your friends fandoms based on which questions they can answer. I was surprised at some of the questions people could easily answer while I couldn’t. I gained some new positive insight into the in-laws. It led to some great discussions about movies I would now love to see.

I would recommend this game for family game night or for a party game night atmosphere.

Pandemic

Sometimes you need to change up board game night. A fantastic way to do that is to play a co-operative board game, a game where you compete against the game itself instead of each other. One of my favourite co-operative board games is Pandemic.

In Pandemic you are members of the World Health Organization working to cure four pandemics. These diseases aren’t named but every game I play people name them anyway. It’s part of the fun.

Of course curing all of the pandemics is the only way to win. Now losing can be done in so many ways. The game is “timed” after a sense where once you run out of cards in the player deck the game is over and you lose. If you run out of disease cubes (used to show how much of the disease is present) you lose. And you lose if you reach 8 outbreaks.

Outbreaks occur when there are three cubes on a tile and another cube is to be added. Instead of adding a fourth cube a chain reaction occurs. All cities connected to the outbreak city receive a cube of that disease’s colour. So outbreaks = very bad.

I have encountered a few people who refer to the game as easy and that they win every time. I’m fairly certain that they ignore certain rules because I’ve had games spiral out of control and end quickly.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is a time and resource management game. It isn’t about the technical aspects of dealing with a pandemic. Logistics and timing are your concerns. Spend your 4 moves per turn wisely.

Speaking of 4 moves, I like that there are no dice involved in the game. You have 4 moves per turn and that’s it. No chance for more no chance for less. In a sense nobody can be the lucky roller to become the superstar and nobody gets shafted with bad rolls. It’s an entirely thinking game. Plan and execute.

What really mixes this game up is the Epidemic cards. These are spaced out in the player deck. Whenever one is drawn take the next city from the infection deck and add three disease cubes. Then shuffle the infection discard pile and add it to the top of the infection deck. What this does is open previously infected cities to being infected again. This is where outbreaks become a concern. But this isn't all, the infection rate increases. At the start of the game only 2 cities are infected per player turn, however as epidemics start to occur the number increases. You can suddenly find an infection rate of 4 cities per turn which can be extremely difficult to manage.

Some of the rookie mistakes I have made in the game include not keeping track of cards spent. Getting to the end of the game waiting for one more card of a specific colour to cure that disease only to discover you spent all of those cards on travel is a real let down. Another mistake is sticking to my role. Each player gets a role card. Focusing on your speciality, say the scientist who needs 1 less card to cure a disease, if all of that focus is only on curing diseases it can end with diseased cities not being treated in a timely fashion leading to outbreaks. The next mistake involves eradicating the disease, which can be beneficial, but only if it isn’t at the expense of curing other diseases or treating other diseases prior to outbreaks. Also you don’t need to eradicate a disease, merely cure them to win. Finally it doesn’t matter who contributes what to the game, who cured more, who eradicated what. You all win or you all lose. Don’t seek personal glory in a co-operative game. You are a team.

Ironically the game is easier to win with fewer people yet more fun with more people. With fewer people you get more turns per player and cooperation is easier. With more people you get more roles, long term planning and interaction become more important.

The expansion On the Brink is a good one to pick up. It features more roles, an option for a fifth player, variations on the Epidemic cards, extra Epidemic cards for an even harder game, an option for a competitive player the Bio-terrorist, an optional fifth disease that mutates, an option for one strain to be virulent with new rules, new special event cards, and even petri dishes to store your disease cubes in.

A new edition of the game has come out and I am really thinking of picking it up. For those with the older edition there is a compatibility pack to work with new edition expansions. This includes the upcoming "In the Lab" expansion.

I can tell you right now, you will not get sick of Pandemic.

Why I hate Monopoly

I think the most ubiquitous board game, the one everyone has played, would have to be Monopoly. I think everyone I know has at least one edition of the game on their shelf somewhere. Today I’m going to talk about why this is the worst game on my shelf.

To be fair I’m going to start by saying I don’t recall ever winning a game of Monopoly and this is one of the go to games my family played during my childhood. A little of my disdain stems from the hundreds of terrible losses I was subjected to. But only a little.

Originally Monopoly gets its basic concepts from an earlier game called “The Landlords Game” which was put together to prove that monopolies were a bad thing. Basically it showed that the winner was a jerk and the common person was screwed by the system. Now that’s a family fun theme if I ever heard one.

One of my biggest issues is the nearly unachievable end game for Monopoly. Even the company has had to come out and suggest a time limit. The longest game on record lasted 1,680 hours. Who has 70 days to set aside for family game night? There have been games I have participated in where everyone just agrees to just end the game for the sake of our sanity. No-one is a clear winner after an eternity of playing and nobody is having fun anymore and the game just… ends. Everyone just goes home to bed, turning game night into futility night.

As the game time lengthens the exclusion factor becomes more and more of an issue. Being the first one to lose your fortune and being forced to watch everyone else have fun is excruciating and boring beyond belief. But to achieve that Monopoly you have to have people knocked out of the game. And isn’t family night about working to exclude each-other and rub in that loser feeling?

I would love to follow one of the several strategy guides out there but the game has little to no real strategy, you just roll the dice and hope you land on a good spot. It’s all luck. Personally dice seem to want to kill me so I usually don’t land on good spaces. One game sticks out in my memory where I was the last to roll out of 5 people. I went around the board three times and had to pay every spot I landed on. Most of the board was bought up before I managed to buy a single property at auction. The only strategy that has ever worked for me was to stay in jail late in the game. It saved me from being the first player eliminated.

Nothing says broken rules system like the need to add house rules to make a game playable, and Monopoly has the highest number of house rules I have encountered so far. I find that I don’t like playing Monopoly with new players because each group has its own variation of house rules. I never know what rules to play by because there are so many that are ignored, added or tweaked by player groups. And nobody does their house rules the same.

Speaking of terrible house rules, free space is just that: a “free space.” It's in the rule book. Nothing happens when you land on it. However a popular house rule makes it so the space becomes a lottery space. This is an issue because I find it lengthens the game time when not playing within a time limit. People who should be eliminated end up sticking around for numerous turns because they just keep winning the free parking lottery. This house rule just breaks the game further. It doesn't fit with the theme or the mechanic.

Another issue is that many people don't play with the auction rule. The rule book states that if a person doesn't purchase a property he/she lands on the property goes up for auction from the bank and is sold to the highest bidder. This rule helps move property and shortens the game time considerably. But this rule is often ignored and people just wander the board until property can be purchased for full price.

Then there is the fact that no new edition works to fix this broken system. No matter which edition of the game you buy it’s the same game. It’s just different property names or currencies. The putting makeup on a pig analogy comes to mind here. No matter what style, how much, or how well done the makeup is it’s still a pig.

Nostalgia keeps this game alive. For some reason people think they had fun with this game as children. Their rose coloured glasses don't allow them to recall the hours of boredom, the inevitability of defeat, and the humiliation as you slowly mortgage off your property so you can pay off the lucky winner.

I find that all of the fun in the game comes from selecting your piece. I love when I get to claim the race car, Oh YEAH! Then everything just sucks after that.

To sum up: stop allowing this game to Monopolize any more of your precious time. I suggest you look into another game, may I suggest Settlers of Catan as an alternative?

Axis and Allies: Classic

There is an old war game on my shelf that is battered and well used. I’m talking about Axis and Allies: Classic from 1984

This game is for up to 5 players. You can play with less, each person taking control of multiple world powers. This game is set in world war two. Russia has just joined the war and Pearl Harbour has yet to happen. The Goal is to conquer and hold at least 2 opponent capitals. The game incorporates land, air and naval warfare.

The Axis players are Germany and Japan. The Allies players are Britain, Russia and the US. Here is a break down of each player’s position.

The first player to go will be Russia. This player has the weakest military and the lowest income. Most players hate playing Russia but this is the most challenging role. Also as it was in World War 2 Russia is a key player. Russia keeps the Axis powers divided in their efforts, Japan fighting on two fronts and Germany fighting on three. If Russia can keep in the game long enough the Axis powers must divide their forces, giving the other allies softer invasion points.

The second player will be the Germans. This is the strongest player in terms of might. Making this the most desired player. However the German position starts where World War 2 takes a turn for the worse for Germany. Even the smallest mistake in planning or execution of tactics can end game for the German player.

Player three is Britain. This player has forces and territory scattered all over the map. This player needs to build a strong navy and/or air force in order to be effective in the game. Focus should go into planning a D-day style invasion but also in playing a support role for the allies.

The fourth player is Japan. This player is stuck on islands in the pacific and must decide on whether to perform a Pearl Harbour invasion on the first turn or not. Attention will be divided over the Americans across the pacific and the Russians in mainland Asia. There are some British and American holdings nearby that can be invaded.

The last player will be the Americans. This is the wealthiest of players however they are stuck on a completely different continent than the war. Transporting forces into the conflict will be a major concern.

Here is a list of my tactical advice:

Buy infantry. The backbone of any military is the infantry. All the expensive units you have could be easily destroyed without the protection of infantry. Infantry units will win the war for you.

Protect your more expensive units. Keep tanks and bombers away from the front lines. These can travel for a distance and do poorly on defence. Only utilize them for attack and pull them back from the attack zone at the first opportunity. Tanks and bombers are solid gold for attack. They are not worth throwing away in an attempt to defend ever. Save these units for key battles.

Speaking of bombers, don’t waste them on bombing runs. During the actual war bombing runs barely made a dent in production. A bomber is worth 15 production credits whereas they eliminate 1 to 6 credits (average of 3) on a bombing run. The cost to benefit ratio is stupid. Having a bomber shot down attempting to make your opponent not buy 1 more infantry unit does not make sense. Again save bombers for key battles.

Don’t bother with research. Research is expensive and there is only a 1 in 6 chance it would yield anything. Put the money towards units which are more effective in winning the war. Whenever I am successful getting a technology it’s usually something I can’t use like rockets for Japan, or attack submarines for Russia. Every player dreams of getting that awesome combination of long range aircraft and heavy bombers but I almost never see it.

If it looks like a territory will likely be lost move antiaircraft out of there. This unit can be captured by your enemy and makes your counterattack more risky. This is especially true if your enemy won’t be using many aircraft.

A single infantry unit can stop an enemy tank blitz. Territories with less strategic value can be defended by a single infantry unit while concentrating your forces in key territories.

Remember you are allies. Taking a hit or softening up a target for an ally to follow up on can win you the war. Just because you aren’t making progress doesn’t mean the war effort isn’t. Liberate your allies’ territories.

Hold Africa. This continent has few units and could be easily conquered by either side if they devote enough effort. It is rich in resource points and can tip the economic scales to either side.

Eliminate your opponent’s navy. The navy is extremely important to moving around the map. Several powers will require a navy in order to be effective in the war effort.

The Axis powers lost the war for two reasons: Pearl Harbour brought the attention of the Americans onto the Japanese and the prolonged war in Russia cost the Germans. Japan player, forget the Americans for the first few turns and focus on weakening Russia. The Americans will take several turns to build their military enough to concern you.

Russia is the key to victory. Like I said before, this power divides Axis attention. If the Axis powers eliminate Russia they can fight back to back against the other two world powers. Also they are only one victory away from winning the game. Axis powers: focus on eliminating Russia quickly. Allied powers: make sure that doesn’t happen!

Germans pull back from the Ukraine territory. It is better to defend the single territory on your Eastern front because if it is lost the next to fall is your capital. Your invasion into Russia will usually happen through Karelia. The lost income will be made up by your invasion into Africa and the Russian gain should be countered by the Japan player’s efforts. Leave a single infantry unit to hopefully take units out in the Russian Attack.

Allied forces should focus on taking out Germany first. In the war it took the involvement of all of the allies to accomplish this, it will require this in game too. Americans this means don’t focus solely on Japan. Help with defending Africa and Russia. Participate in attacking Germany. All of the allies should eliminate Germany’s navy preventing them from supporting the invasion of Africa. Britain: Build a large army and navy and Sabre rattle about invading somewhere in northern Europe, Americans do the same but include southern Europe. This forces the German player to build defences all over Europe and blunts their power for invading Russia. If an opportunity arises to get a toehold in the richer provinces of German held Europe take it.

To finish this off, this game does have issues of balance but that fits in with the status of nations in World War 2. There are better designed games out there but this one really works well and is fun to play. It’s a perfectly good way to spend a day with friends, and you will spend a day on this game with epically long turns and set up. I have played numerous games where the board is covered in stalemates or certain territories switch hands every other turn. Eventually someone will have to make a D-Day style all or nothing gamble which will decide the fate of the game.

Heroes Unlimited

When I started getting into having game nights again I was surprised at how often people would get weirded out when they were invited. Of those who have a strange reaction they always say “you don’t mean role playing games do you?” Role playing games have received a negative image. Pasty nerdy pimple faced virgins hunkered in a basement worshipping evil and rolling unholy shaped dice. Well my introduction to roll playing did not involve worshipping evil and the dice are just different geometric shapes. In fact my first games involved superheroes.

The first role playing game I really got into was Heroes Unlimited by Palladium books way back in junior high. The game allows you to create your own superhero from an array of archetypes. All you need to play are some books, pencils, paper, dice and imagination.

For those of you who have never played a role playing game this is a great one to start with. The rising popularity of superheroes on film and TV makes this game accessible and the genre understandable. One player is the Game Master or GM. This player is responsible for moving the plot of the story ahead. He writes up the adventure for the night, sets up the non-player characters, or NPCs, who are everyone from Villains or victims, to bartenders or beat cops. Think of this person as your head writer and director for the night. The rest of the players are just that, Players. They each create a character to play in the game. Think of them as the writers for that specific character and the improv actors for the game. Play works by players making decisions on what action their character would do then rolling specified dice to determine success or failure.

The game does have an issue with balance as some character types have significantly more power than others. Personally I find this more closely represents comic books, think of your favourite team ups: Avengers, Super-friends, Watchmen. In these team ups you have your Superman, Dr. Manhattan and Hulk next to your Aquaman, Rorschach, or Hawkeye. This also allows you to create a game in whatever genre you would like. A super-powered brawl or a dark detective narrative, etc.

One of the things that really makes character creation interesting is the various random tables for choosing character abilities. While the game does allow for players to design characters they want to, these tables should be considered as attempting to create a back story based on an unexpected mix of powers can be a lot of fun.

Heroes Unlimited holds a special place on my game shelf as I spent many an adolescent weekend fighting the forces of evil with my friends. We collared criminals, trounced terrorists, captured cultists, battled mega-villains on mega-skyscrapers, defeated demons, dove into deep underwater lairs, intercepted invasions of aliens, rescued kittens and saved the world many times over. All from the comfort of a kitchen table surrounded by junk food and good friends.

Follow up books for Heroes Unlimited are few but some of them are very exciting.

The core book- A must have to play the game. It’s mostly filled with all that is necessary to create characters. There is a strong focus on mutant types; aliens or those with special powers. However there are other character types from bionics and robotics (needs more parts!) to hardware and special training types (think Batman or the Shadow) to magicians and psychics.

Heroes Unlimited GM guide is a useful book for anyone wanting to be a game master. The book contains a large section on advice for a GM. There are some quick roll tables for minor bad guys, some more equipment and spells. There are also a few fully fleshed out adventures and some characters to use as villains or antagonists.

Villains Unlimited is one of my favourite books. It includes a host of villains, sinister organizations and teams of bad guys. This book also includes some rules for creating organizations, something very helpful if your group wants to make their own super-team.

The Powers Unlimited source book line comes in three books so far. Book 1 has over 120 minor powers, 45 major powers and 22 psionic powers. Book 2 is filled with 11 more character types, my personal favourites are the minor hero, the immortal, the natural genius and the weapons training types. Book 3 returns focus on more mutant powers, 46 minor ones and 77 major ones as well as new random tables for determining powers.

Aliens Unlimited and Aliens unlimited Galaxy Guide. Both are great books for incorporating space travel and aliens into your game. The books include numerous races to choose from as well as space ships, intergalactic empires and organizations.

Mutant Underground is a small but interesting book. This one centres in a world where mutants are considered outsiders. A great book of you plan on playing with the mutant rights idea.

Armageddon Unlimited is the latest book to come out. This ties in to the companies Minion War story line which spreads across their different genre books. I really like the whole Hades/Dyval War spilling out across the Megaverse idea. Demons and devils come to the world of superheroes who must help stop the infernal minions and their evil war. The book includes some new powers and character types with angelic, demonic, or dimensional powers. I really like the demon hunter and reformed demon character types. There is also a fully fleshed out adventure included.

Century station is the first setting book for the series. I am a huge fan of the Bill Coffin books in palladium’s line up but this one missed the mark a little. I really like the setting but I found too much of the book is dedicated to the heroes of the city. This is what the players are for. The hero characters could have been re-written as villains. Still a great book if you want to have an imaginary city as your setting as the city is well designed.

Gramercy Island is the super-prison for the city of Century Station. The book is full of some really great villains. My big problem is the prison is super awesome and well constructed and all the villains are already inside. How many prison breakouts do I have to concoct in order to get some good villains on the outside?

The Rifter is a series of books that include fan submission rules and information for use with all of the Palladium systems. Some really cool adventures and ideas included. I've been working on submissions for a long time now and should really finish at least one of them.

Ninjas and Superspies is a different line for Palladium books but all titles are compatible within the Palladium Books System. This book is very outdated but includes a huge amount of information on martial arts and spies. Get this one if you want to incorporate 80’s style ninjas and old school spies in your campaign. Also a great game to play after watching the old James Bond movies.

After the Bomb or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are both series to get if you want to use mutant animals. The TMNT license was dropped by Palladium right before the new movie was announced. I’m sure everyone involved in that is kicking themselves as these books were awesome. If you can find these books pick them up. The After the Bomb series is a similar mutant animal concept set in an apocalyptic future where nuclear radiation has mutated animals.

Skraypers is a dimensional book for the Palladium system. It covers an alternate reality where superheroes are fighting to defend a world from it's evil alien conquerors. Pick this up if you want to dip your players toes into the interdimensional travel idea.

If you want to get into role playing just check out your local game or comic stores there should be people there willing to accept new players. Ask friends who have strong imaginations and time to play. To purchase the books go to the Palladium book store or support your local game store.