Notable Posts
Scenarios
The Martians have landed. Their goals remain uncertain; indeed, they seem to change continuously: one moment they're attempting to capture Washington, D.C., the next they're trying to abduct humans, only to turn their attention to the great cow menace. Of one thing, there is no doubt: once the Martians figure out what they're doing, we're doomed.
This is the premise of Martian Fluxx, a card game by Loony Labs that's expands upon the rules of its popular Fluxx card game.
"Six men came to kill me one time. And the best of 'em carried this. It's a Callahan full-bore auto-lock. Customized trigger, double cartridge thorough gauge. It is my very favorite gun." -- Janye, Firefly
That quote is the reason why Borderlands rocks. Sure, it's a competent shooter with some basic role-playing aspects thrown in, and yeah, it's got kick ass multiplayer campaign, but in the end, it comes down to the guns.
More specifically, it's about finding your very favorite gun.
Munchkin Cthulhu is the umpteenth expansion in Steve Jackson Games' venerable card game line dedicated to killing monsters, stealing treasure, and stabbing your buddy in the back.
This time around though, the game is infused with horrors from beyond time and space drawn from the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft ... and a new game-ending mechanic that eliminates one of Munchkin's biggest flaws.
My long, dark tea time of the gaming soul came in 1995. I was one year out of college and having no luck finding a regular Dungeons & Dragons game. I was working at a daily newspaper in Stroudsburg, within walking distance of a comic book store on Main Street. And it was there that I found my substitute: Magic: The Gathering.
The collectible card game was decimating the local role-playing game community; while it was difficult to get even a one-shot D&D game together, pick-up games of Magic were always waiting at the comic shop.
I was desperate. I needed my gaming fix. So I did what had been unthinkable in college: I put away my polyhedral dice, and started buying Magic cards. I spent two or three years playing Magic, finally giving it up once I was able to get the Blackrazor Guild campaign off the ground. During that time I had a lot of fun delving deep into the game's mechanics, constructing different concept decks, and spending way, way too much on boosters.
Blink is a rapid-fire card game in which two players attempt to match shape-filled game cards as quickly as possible based on design, number or color. It’s also become our stocking stuffer/birthday present of choice in the Newquist household.
In the standard game, each player’s given their own deck with the same number of cards. The top card from each deck is flipped over, and players draw three cards from their respective decks. They then launch into frenzy, matching cards in their hands against the face-up cards. As they get matches, they draw new cards from their deck. The first person to run out of cards wins. Games typically last about 30 seconds.
It makes it a great way to pass the time on camping trips, at the airport, whatever. But what my wife and I love most about the game is how scalable it is. It’s designed for older kids and adults, but at its heart Blink is a matching game. That means that as long as kids can match, they can play the game.