Quarantine Game Night!

Social distancing has really cut into our gaming time. Yes, there's normal online gaming, but sometimes you just really want to pull out a board game or hunker down for a session of your favorite RPG. Rest assured there are plenty of solutions out there!

Digital Ports

TONS of games have made their way to the digital realm. Honestly, there are too many for me to even list. But if you go to Steam & type in your favorite board or card game, there's a good chance you'll find it. 

Personally, I would recommend Sentinels of the Multiverse, which is currently on sale for $5 (base game only). You can buy the expansions if you so choose, but the base is still a solid game. This is also a game that gets clunky in simulators (more on that below).

Love Letter is another affordable game at $8 (same as a physical copy). You might want to couple this with a video chat (honestly I would do voice chat at least for anything on this post, but the video is ideal), since apart of the fun is reading your opponents.

(Settlers of) Catan is an official port. The base game is free to play, up to 3 players. Beyond that, you'll need to invest some money, but it looks like only 1 payer needs to paid content, which is a plus. We haven't checked this out yet, but it is on the short list for the future.

There's an Asmodee Humble Bundle going on (through May 20, 2020) that has a pretty good selection. For just $1 you get Love Letter, Carcassone, and Small World. For those of you unfamiliar with the platform, Humble Bundle is a pay what you want service for a variety of digital goods. The more you pay, the more you unlock, but you always get something decent for under $5.

Board Game Simulators

Tabletop Simulator is near & dear to me. We jumped on this when it first launched. It's a 3D physics engine with table & moving parts (you can even flip the table! which is cool, but also sucks because you have to pick it all back up lol). The Steam Workshop has a lot of plug-ins for you to add custom game content, although you will need to know or have the rules, as the program does not run the game, just create a virtual environment for you to play it. You can also design your own if you are so inclined. As this has grown in popularity, a lot of board game publishers have started releasing their own official plugins (paid) for the game. This is a bit pricey at $20 for the base simulator (although if you buy a pack of 4, everyone saves $5), and then throwing on the cost for official games. However, Steam Workshop offers a lot of free content and only 1 player needs the content for everyone to be able to play (so you don't all need to buy Cosmic Encounter).

Tabletop Playground seems to be very similar to Tabletop Simulator. It's currently in beta with early access opening May 15, 2020. You'll need to create and connect to an account at mod.io, and I'm not sure about potential pricing/licensing for games. It seems worth checking out though.

Tabletopia is another like the above. It is free upfront and requires you to create and connect to an account on its own platform. The advantage here being it supports multiple platforms, so you can play on mobile or desktop. Tabletopia has its own workshop as well as pre-made games. There are subscription levels for advanced workshop features, premium games, and guests.

Web-Based Solutions

Some games actually have web-based platforms. These tend to be clunkier than an official digital port, but often are free and/or support playing with randos, in case your group is too small.

Cards Against Humanity has a pretty decent platform that is free to play. We had a few hiccups with loading, but overall the experience was still there. Even without a video/voice chat, you are still amused, and there is a text chat box available.

PlayingCards.io is another option if you want to play generic card games. They also have things like checkers & cribbage.

If you are looking for something a little more "hobby gaming," check out Tak. Board Game Arena also has quite the selection of hobby games, or you can check out Board Space which tends more towards the classic & abstract but still has some hobby games listed (like Hive & Santorini).

Role-Playing Platforms

There's a lot of opportunities out there for RPGs. At the simplest, you could just hop on a group video call and use theater of the mind. Either trust everyone's rolls, reveal your rolls (kind of annoying with a laptop, but doable), or use an online tool for rolling. 

D&D Beyond is a great campaign & character resource. One of our DMs has bought all the content, so as long as we are all in his campaign we have access to all the books. This tool makes building & leveling characters a breeze & your DM can easily run any book campaign. To be honest, most of us pull up our character sheets on our phones or tablets even when playing in person! Being the official toolset, it also tends to functions a bit better than some of the others mentioned below.

Roll20 might be one of the best-known solutions, and since it is not tied to a franchise it works well for any setting. You can upload your own maps and tokens, use fog of war & accommodate different vision settings, create custom character sheets, build macros that will accommodate for roll adjustments, and more. It also rolls your dice for you (I personally like to enable 3D dice & see them roll, but the values will pop up in the chatbox too), so you don't have to worry about anything untoward ;)

Infinitas DM is newer to the playing field. It offers a lot of what Roll 20 does, but is not a browser-based solution. We've talked about this before back when it launched on KickStarter, as Wakowski knows the creator. This app solution allows you to customize content & cast to your players. It's a bit more refined than Roll 20 in some aspects, but also requires some more work on the DM's part.

And then, of course, some of the tabletop simulators work if you want a more 3D dungeon to work through. It really depends on how you want to do it. People use to play via BBS (and might still? I'm out of the loop), so continuing to get your RPG fix is 100% doable during the time of quarantine and self-isolation (or lockdown, depending on where you are).

Party Games

If you are not familiar with the JackBox series of games yet, go check them out. they have 6 different bundles, plus quite a few stand-alone options. Everything is on sale through their website right now too! While these games were designed more for sitting around together, you can have someone stream the game using Zoom or a similar service. There's a bit of lag so a few games may not be ideal (e.g. Zeeple Dome), but since players control their actions from their mobile device (or tablet/computer--it's browser based), the impact is minimal.

Drinking Games

Good old-fashioned drinking games still work too! Use a web-service for card games, but if everyone has dice they can play for themselves. My friends & I have successfully done a few nights of Pirate's Dice / Liar's Dice via Zoom (they seem to be the popular choice, but WebEx, Chime, UberConference, Hangouts/Duo/Meet, and Skype are also free solutions...check around).

And check your area...a lot of bars near us are doing pick-up/delivery for both food & drinks. Liquor stores are also offering delivery if you don't want to go out (and who would blame you). Or learn to brew your own (distilling, however, is illegal in our country so...at your own caution). Our newest DM is brewing a batch of beer he has dubbed "The 'Rona Reserve." I'm thinking about stealing all of Rabbit's mead equipment to give sours a try, and if I ever stop being lazy and go pick about a gallon of dandelion flowers (heads only), I might make some dandelion wine too. Hell, you can even do a brewing Zoom party (I did it for bread baking & taught my friend how to make burger buns, why not do it for beer?).

What are your favorite gaming solutions during the pandemic? How are you getting your analog gaming fix? We want to hear from you. Share links, advice, and more in the comments!

Infused Vodka Round 2: Apple Pecan & Cardamom Fig (Set-Up)

Back before Booze Clues & Drink.Smoke.Games were a thing, we tried our hand at infused vodkas. It's been almost 4 years since that first endeavor, so we decided it was time to give it a go again!

This time we did not want to add sugar if possible (time will tell if we stick to this!). We're going for more fall flavors this time as well. Since we already had the 2 half gallon mason jars on hand, and decided not to be so snobby about the vodka (last time we used Belvedere), I thought this round would be cheaper. But, figs are pretty pricey!

We also debated a lot about which vodka we wanted to use, and ultimately settled on Tito's. I was unsure about using them for infusions, but their website has a ton of recipes. Also, Tito's is totally a house favorite. You don't need to use an expensive vodka, but make sure it's something you like the taste of. To save some cash, I picked up a handle and split it between the two infusions.

Big Bear wanted to do something with pecan, and we kept playing around with different ideas. Wakowski did that spiced pecan bourbon, which was delicious, but we wanted to branch out a bit more than switching up the liquor and thought about doing a cinnamon roasted pecan instead. We actually decided to go for an apple crumble type of flavor by adding in baking apples and cinnamon.

• 3 baking apples (gala, fuji, braeburn, pink lady, honey crisp, etc), peeled & diced
• 1 cup pecans, toasted
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 750ml vodka

Mouse kept jumping between different fruity ideas (mostly debating between peach basil or strawberry peach basil), but ultimately decided on cardamom fig. Which is fitting, since she always made sure we had brie & fig jam (or brie & apple date chutney) at Booze Clues.

• 1 tray figs (about 1 pound, or 18 figs), quartered
• 1.5 Tbsp cardamom pods, crushed/split
• 1 vanilla bean, split
• 750ml vodka

We're letting these go for about 1 week, keeping them in a cool, dark place and shaking/mixing once per day. Next week we'll do a taste test & post the results. We plan to roll these out for Halloween, but given how early we are starting there may be time for another 2 flavors! We've got a few ideas lined up at least, and if not Halloween then by New Years will feature them :)

If you are interested in our previous attempts, be sure to check the post on Mouse's personal blog:
Infused Vodka Round 1: Cucumber Melon & Sour Apple (Set-up)
Infused Vodka Round 1: Cucumber Melon & Sour Apple (Week 1) 
Infused Vodka Round 1: Cucumber Melon & Sour Apple (Week 2 & Final Results)

D&D Character Introspective

My sister just asked me for a description mine & Big Bear's D&D characters...for reasons. I'm sure she is doing something artsy or creative, possibly as a belated Christmas gift. She not only asked for a description of the characters, but also some insight as to how they interacted. I wasn't sure which characters to pick until she mentioned the interaction, and then I knew it had to be our characters from our year-long Princes of the Apocalypse campaign. If you have ever followed one of our live-tweeting sessions (which yes, I know they are not as consistent as they should be--I want to say blame the DMs because our game schedules have become rather irregular, but there are some sessions I totally forget to tweet too), but if you have ever followed along, you will probably recall some of our most amusing tweets came from this campaign, and specifically revolved around Big Bear's character Gary.

Anyway, as I was writing this up I thought it would be fun to share. Maybe it's not as amusing if you don't know us personally or at least our personalities, but I always find it interesting to see how people get into their characters. Now remember, we played these guys for a year so some of this totally evolved during the course of that campaign.

Alright, so Gary & Alana...  

Gary (Gary's Niece, pronounced like Gary Sinese although he acts and looks more like Gary Busey), of the 'S Niece family who owns 'S Niece Whale Oil, comes from a noble background. He is a human fighter with a pompadour, signet ring, and scroll of pedigree (which he carries on his person). He considers himself a hero of the people, but is pretty pompous and spiteful, and in fact goes off the rails very easily (and often hilariously to the players & DM). He is a battle master who wears heavy armor (splint mail I believe) and dual wields (used to be long sword & magic dagger --it lit up-- before he got "Gary's Hammer," which is in fact an iron war pick). He did have small bout as Nautical Gary, in which he carried a sharktooth longsword and mariner's scimitar, fought with a trident, and painted himself blue... He has a love for cheese danish, and carries a bag of torture implements.... 

Alana is a half-elf fighter (who also dabbles in magic, with a keen interest in necromancy--not the evil side though). Previously a soldier, she is now leader of the Knights of Samular (turns out this was basically her birth right, as she discovers to be a descendant of Samular). Her preferred weapon of choice is a longsword, although she has been known to do some damage with a glaive and also tends to carry a great axe, and she is clad is some shiny full plate armor (master crafted). She is also a were-bear, much to the chagrin of her cleric friend, and embraces her strength and abilities rather than sees it as a curse. She & Gary met as escorts to a group of faction leaders. They were 2 of the main fighters in their groups as well as the tanks. Gary, being Gary, saw everyone as beneath him and called her his minion. Despite the implied disrespect, he did think highly of her. They would run into battle together, and when she fell in battle he would carry her unconscious body out (actually, Alana died in one battle and he carried her to a temple to be revived, which was a bit of a rushed process so her right arm is not 1/2 inch shorter). Over time Alana warms up to Gary, and while never truly taking him seriously, does began to joke around with him or at least humor him from time to time. There are many a quizzical eyebrow raised during their time together, and lots of complete disregard of the minion comments. 

Somewhere along the line the whole party became known as Gary's Ramblers. They had the interest of the people and worked to protect them, although their methods were occasionally questionable and their timing not always great

Now, while I have played Alana in a one-shot since this campaign wrapped in July 2016, and am totally open to playing her again in the future, Big Bear claims Gary is retired. Supposedly he has gone on to be an oil lord or baron in his family business, but he keeps an ear to the ground and has sent adventurer's in his stead. I'm hoping one day he'll make a come back.

Hot Toddy...Good for What Ails You

Hope everyone is staying warm out there! Winter came hard and fast to the Midwest and we are now dealing with lovely below zero temps that are keeping our half foot of snow around. It's so cold, our dog doesn't even want to be outside! (Granted, she is a 5 month puppy, but very quickly discovered her love for running in the snow before these temps hit.)

Anyway, it is time to keep yourself warm! There are some good boozy options out there, like Irish Coffee (mmmm), spiked cider, hot buttered rum, spike cocoa, mulled wine... maybe we are due for a hot drinks post? But today I am rocking the good ol' Hot Toddy.

Traditionally a toddy (or tārī) is an Indian (Hindi) drink made from the fermented sap of the Toddy Palm. The British brought a version of this drink back with them and it has evolved into what we know today. There are a ton of varieties, but the basics are spirit, sweet, lemon, and spice (typically cinnamon or clove).

The Scots are likely the ones who decided to drink this warm and touted it as a cure. Even in modern day, many claim this drink as cure for the cold and flu, and even some doctors agree it will soothe a sore throat. On a basic level, all of the ingredients have been used as medicine (historically and even in modern day). That being said, it sounds like a great reason to make myself a drink without worrying about day drinking ;) At least that was my excuse, as I am suffering a horrible cold right now. We all know hot drinks are good for congestion because the steam soothes our sinuses and the warmth soothes our throat. Why not throw some extras into the mix?

Vitamin C for health

Honey to soothe

Alcohol to numb

--Victoria Moore (How to Drink)

Hot Toddy
1 cup hot water
1-2 oz bourbon (or whiskey/rum/brandy of choice)
1 Tbsp honey (or sugar)
1 tsp lemon juice
spice (optional): 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tea bag (black), 1 tsp loose tea/herb/spice

Dissolve your honey in the hot water. Add tea or herbs/spices if desired, and allow to steep a few minutes (I personally like to use Twinings Chai as it has all the spices I love, but I also think a good Earl Grey and cinnamon stick would be lovely as well). Add bourbon and lemon, stir, and sip. I tend to use only 1 oz bourbon, but many recipes call for 2 oz (and sometimes less than 1 cup of water!). This is easy enough to adjust to your specific tastes, but do make sure you are using a good spirit as that flavor will be the strongest one you taste.

GenCon 50 Game Reviews

It's the final day of GenCon 50, and it was an epic adventure! This was my first (of hopefully many) GenCons. I got the chance to try out a few games, and my friends signed up to demo games for Renegade.

Previews & Reviews

Pixel Glory (Zafty Games)
This was a quick little drafting game with it's own little spin. You do all the drafting at the start of the game, which I thought was pretty cool as it cuts down on AP later on. Basically you get a preview of the monsters you will be facing and take rounds choosing spells using an auction mechanic. Most spells also include lesser spell cards. There are 3 elements and a hierarchy amongst them, which makes some spells (even lesser) advantageous against specific monsters. As the draft moves on, you get more peeks at the monsters you are about to face.

Once the drafting phase is complete, it's time to battle. This also has a unique spin as you work together to bring down the monster HP, but only the player making the final blow gets points for the kill. So it changes the typical strategy you may use, as you try to recall which spells and elements your opponents have and gamble on whether you can get the kill or give it to someone else. There is, however, a concession of those who manage a monster but no not kill it. Players collect combo points on rounds where they do not kill, and once they have enough they can be used for an insta-kill.

This game plays super quick! It's light and easy to learn, and at only 4 players will be a great filler when you only have a small window or are waiting for the rest of your group to show up. I definitely had a lot of fun, and this game was a great way to wind down Day 1 at GenCon 50.

Dice Forge (Asmodee)
This was a fun, quick game. I really enjoyed the mechanic of physically changing the die faces. It definitely added a level of depth to the game. Beyond that, it was a pretty simple resource management game. And of course, being true to it's name, there was a ton of dice rolling. This is a quick, light game and would be a great introduction for non-gamers. It took us about 60 minutes to learn & play. Clean-up is a bit of work though, as you will need to reset the dice (Or incorporate this into set-up). There is a really cool tray that holds all the die faces for both storage (w/ sleeve) and in-game.

The game is pretty simple in it's set-up. Each turn is split into a roll phase and a buy phase. A neat spin Dice Forge uses is that everyone gets to roll during the roll phase and accumulate the resources shown on their dice. This can be both good and bad, as it does guarantee you will have a good amount of resources to spend on your turn, but you may also max out a resource and miss the benefits of subsequent rolls. The buy phase allows the active player only to purchase die faces or cards, but no both. Players can buy as many die faces as their resources allow, provided none are in the same category. However, only 1 card can be bought (allow there is a option to essentially purchase a new buy phase as well). Cards grant instant/reusable abilities and victory points.

Ex Libris (Renegade)
I wanted to play this earlier in the weekend, but had to duck out of BGG's Hot Games Room just as my buddies were about to start. Luckily, I found it in the Exhibition Hall (which was probably better, as Renegade reps were available to teach us how to play). First of all, this game is beautiful! and pretty witty if you take the time to read the book titles.

Ex Libris is a pretty light & simple worker placement game. Each round your available actions change, with a new permanent action added and the others swapping out each time. This keeps things interesting as your strategy is constantly changing. The goal is to collect book s and build the best library. You want to focus on keeping the books alphabetical, keeping a diverse selection of book types, and maintaining a stable shelf. Bonus points are added for shelving the chosen book type of the land as well as books withing your focus, while points are lost for shelving banned books. All 3 of these will change from game to game.

We only played the basic version, but there are additional/advanced features as well. I absolutely love this game and was so sad to hear it was sold out. Renegade was only selling pre-release copies, so now I have to wait a month or so to get it in my hands for good. My friend fell in love with this game as well, and is declaring it her favorite game ever! Really high praise there, and we can't wait to get more plays in soon.

Spy (Perplext)
A rather in-depth card game that seems to get more difficult as the player count increases. Your goal is to be the last spy standing. Each player gets a hand of cards: 2 bombs, 2 safes, 2 secrets. Each card type has the numbers 1 & 2. Your hand, or "base," is arranged in any order you like and kept secret from your opponents. You then move your spy (another card) throughout your hand based on the number of the card he is facing. This gives your opponents a hint at your cards. They can "spy" on your card types (you tell them the type). Players are knocked out by having their cards discovered in order, or by finding a bomb and exploding.

The spy is the only card that moves in your hand, and discovered cards are flipped around so your opponent can see them. While this makes things easier over time, the moving spy can make it more difficult than you would think to keep track of where your opponent's cards are. We played a 3-player version and definitely had a hard time keeping track of 2 different hands. This is a super quick game, and since the cards always stay in your hands it would be great for travel.

Bus (Perplext)
A fairly quick strategy game for 2-3 players. You start by setting up your road in any manner you choose. Players move their buses along the road, following normal rules of the road guidelines, to pick up and drop off riders. Each rider card has 2 different riders, a speed limit (the number of spaces you can move), and a point amount. Your goal is to get your riders to their designated destinations as quickly as possible. Once 1 player has completed 5 rider cards, the game ends and you tally points.

We played the 3 player version and greatly enjoyed it. We started with the example road set-up, but I anticipate a lot of replayability and varying difficulty levels based on the unique road arrangement you choose (for example, we though doing 1 large loop would make things very difficult). Each bus has an arrow in it so you know which direction you have to keep moving in (buses cannot move backwards or do U-turns). There is quite a bit of strategy and weighing risks vs gains in this little game. There is also a little twist, which none of us took advantage of, that allows each player a once per game opportunity to swap the location of 2 roads. This would definitely keep players on their toes.

Keep Calm & Game On (Breaking Games)
Another spin on the Apples to Apples/CAH game style. I liked the concept, but wasn't sold on the content. Keep Calm is stylized after the posters and artwork we see all over the internet. The game itself is situational versus pick the best noun/answer the question/fill in the blank, which I found quite refreshing. Basically the judge chooses a red situation card, such as "What would you do if life gives you lemons?" Players then submit their best blue response card, my personal favorites from the demo being "Keep calm and shake your jazz hands," and "Keep calm and do anything for love, but not that."

Up front, this does just feel like another skin of a popular game mechanic. What Keep Calm does offer to make it stand out, aside of a situational spin, is panic cards. These are mixed in with the blue response cards, and allow you to play them at different points in time during the game. For example, you can play some panic cards during judging to add or eliminate submissions. I thought this was a neat twist, although we did not come across any during our demo. The judge also changes based on who the winner is, instead of going around the circle, which helps keep the scores a little more even and balanced.

My main problem was the content. Games like this almost always degrade, and let's be honest, we expect them to. Apples to Apples was an innocent family game, but in the right hands it gets dark and dirty. CAH obviously, and intentionally, took this and ran with it. I don't dislike CAH for that though, because you know what you are getting into with that game (and I am a terrible person). Keep Calm does try to mitigate this by removing racial, dark, and questionable content. However, it is very heavy on the sexual innuendo and definitely intended for adults only. I personally think this is unnecessary and too prevalent in the game. I always enjoyed subtly, so find the overt sexual cards a bit crass. Then again, despite my enjoyment of CAH, I was always a fan of Apples to Apples as it catered to the group you were with.

Buy the Rights (Literally Wizards)
This party game for 3-10 players really deserves your attention. We almost walked by, but the way the spokes girl approached me I couldn't say no. We played 2 rounds, and I am so glad we did! This is a very fun party game, but at a glance you may not think it's anything special.

In a somewhat familiar mechanic, there is 1 judge per round and all the other players submit cards to win. But from there we depart from familiarity. There are 4 decks of cards (100 each): genre, descriptor, hero, plot. Each player will have 2 of each card type in their hand, and needs to string together 1 of each card type to create a movie. It is really easy to get into this and completely embellish your movie while you pitch it to the judge (or producer). I honestly did not think I would get sucked into the world of my movie while pitching it, but it just naturally flows when you start reading off your cards. From there, there judge has $20 million to spend on the movies he likes best (in increments of $5, $10, or $20 million). This mean there is not necessarily 1 winner per round. After however many rounds you choose, the winner is determined by who has the most money.

I really like this game because it is family/kid-friendly, and great for non-gamers. I also really like this game because it is less likely to degrade like some of the others (this may have been more of a plus because we played it after Keep Calm and Keep Gaming). Buy the Rights also offers a neat twist to the party game, and accommodating up to 10 players (possibly more to be honest, if you really wanted to deal with a group that large) definitely means it can be played in many situations. This also works well with small groups, as we demoed in a group of 4 and has a blast.

Our Haul

I intentionally went into GenCon this year rather blind, as I have 2 international trips coming up within the next 8 months and didn't want to spend too much. However, I was focused on finding good games for plane and train travel.

• Pack-o-Games 1 (Perplext)
• Bus, Fly, Gem, Hue, Lie, Shh, Taj, TKO
• Pack-o-Game 2 (Perplext)
• Boo, Box, Dig, Gym, Orc, Rum, Sow, Spy
• BONUS: Nut for buying both packs

Wish List

There were a few titles I really wanted to get my hands on, but they were sold out. I can guarantee you I went home and immediately bought/pre-ordered these.

• Ex Libris (Renegade)
  This pre-release game was amazing, but unfortunately by the time I got to demo it they were sold out of copies. If you were one of the lucky ones to get your hands on this, please let us know! None of our friends were able to get their hands on this one.
• 5-Minute Dungeon
  I did not get to demo this, but a bunch of my friends did. It was described to me as a co-op dungeon card game that was like a combo of Uno and Pit. It's a fast-paced card game (five minutes, as the name suggests), that is also family friendly. A great little filler and a fin way to bring your young ones in to the D&D or dungeon gaming culture.

Friends of DSG
My friends also made some different purchases that you may be interested in as well (and in fact, I cannot wait to try out some of these!) These games will also be worth a look, and I recommend you check them out.

• Dragonfire (Wizards of the Coast)
• Down Force (Restoration Games)
• Buy the Rights (Literally Wuzards)
• Pixel Glory (Zafty Games)
• Twilight Imperium 4 (Fantasy Flight)
• Bob Ross: Art of Chill (Big G Creative)
• Code Names Duet (Czech Games Edition)
• Legend of the Five Rings (Fantasy Flight)
• Photosythesis (Blue Orange Games)
• Pandemic Legacy Season 2 (Z-Man Games)
• Cthulhu Wars (Peterson Games)
• Gonuts for Donuts (Gamewright)
• Wizards Wanted (Mattel)
• Unearth (Brotherwise)
• Plus a bunch of Guild Ball & Bushido minis...

Our DM also got these cool transparent overlays for spell effects by Arcknight. We've been harassing him to run a tabletop campaign again (he's got 2 or 3 online right now), and I think this is a good sign ~_n

And We're Back!

DSG has somewhat fallen silent lately, if you haven't noticed. Wakowski moved out of House DSG and Rookie moved in, and Big Bear has been studying for a licensure examination. Wakowski's departure made keeping up with Booze Clues far more difficult, as his new place doesn't quite have the set-up for broadcasting as we had planned, and I am not able to make every session, so we would have been trying to share each session after-the-fact or not at all. We moved on to wines after Wakowski moved anyway, and sort of stopped following the movie series, which made things far more difficult to share.

Also, D&D sort of petered off. Our online session which included most of the DSG team fell to the wayside as our DM lives in a different time zone and has kiddos, making it difficult to keep up with. Our local sessions were set to alternate DMs, which might have been confusing on twitter ;) After we switched DMs I kind of fell off the live-tweeting wagon. And now both sessions are currently on hiatus. If/When they pick back up, I will work harder at live tweeting our highlights and more humorous encounters. In good news though, we are looking to start up a Shadowrun campaign, played at House DSG! Our expected start date is around mid-April. This I can guarantee we will live tweet!

Twitch has also been put on pause :( We hoped to live-stream our online campaigns, but due to scheduling difficulties we have no idea if that campaign will continue. I still have a lot of the old sessions recorded and might see if we can edit these down into amusing videos or podcasts to share on our Youtube channel. We've yet to get a good flow and cadence down where I think we would be amusing live, at least for D&D. Maybe Shadowrun, or maybe we'll pick up the channel for video game sessions (since we basically already do something similar in the basement!).

However, while I can't guarantee what is going to happen with Twitch, I can say I am making plans to get Youtube active. I have been tasked with becoming the House DSG Game Master. We have a TON of unplayed board and card games sitting on our shelf because nobody know the rules, or nobody know them well enough to run a game. So I have started going through these unplayed games and educating myself on the rules. Once I am comfortable running a game with minimal reference to the rule book, I plan to put together "How to Play" videos which I will be posting on our Youtube channel. This should also, hopefully, lead to more game plays on our end. Not sure if we'll get video or live-streams as intended (nobody can come to an agreement!), but I can definitely start posting some post-play reviews. Let us know if you prefer blog reviews, video reviews, or if we should aim for both!

As we start getting back to this project, I will also work towards some of our original plans. Booze Clues will still "exist" online, where once every 1 or 2 months we will put together a post about how to enjoy alcohol. The aim is still to keep things educational and include recipes or recommended drinking lists where applicable. I also want to get going on our Baking with Booze series, where we provide snacks or treats to make. Our plan was a video series, but we want to know from our followers what their preference is!

So check back often over the next 2 months while we bring the DSG project back to life. Let us know your thoughts, requests, and recommendations.

Booze Clues: Infusions

The next Booze Clues is tonight over at House DSG. Hopefully you caught our prep post about 2 weeks ago, so your infusions are ready to go! If not, there is still time to prep the Chamomile Rye Whiskey and Jalapeño Tequila.

Taste-testing will include:

• Pecan Bourbon (Buffalo Trace)
• Chamomile Rye Whiskey (Overholt)
• Jalapeño Tequila (Milagro silver)
• Vanilla Pineapple Tequila (Milagro silver)

We will be using 3 of our infusions for cocktails. The Vanilla Pineapple Tequila is pretty sweet and great on it's own for sipping, so we have not chosen a specific cocktail but feel free to experiment.

Blown Rose
3 apple slices
2 oz chamomile rye
1/2 oz pineapple juice
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz cinnamon bark syrup

Buffalo Soldier
2 oz pecan bourbon
1/4 oz demerara (turbinado) syrup

Short Rib
2 oz jalapeño tequila
3/4 oz lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
3/4 Tbsp (~1/8 oz) pomegranate molasses


So, we didn't do the tests necessary to live-stream the first and educational half of Booze Clues this month. However, we are still starting at 7 pm CDT and you can join us on twitter for some conversation!



CREDITS: 
All of tonight's cocktails and their corresponding infusions (except the vanilla pineapple tequila) came from the Death & Co. cocktail book.

Booze Clues: Infusions (Prep)

We are back on schedule in May, with our next meeting being on the 3rd (first Tuesday). However, May is going to be a bit different as we will be sampling infused liquors, and that requires some prep. So we are making an early pre-post for all of you playing along a home. Below are the 4 infusions we will be sampling. As some of these take 1 week, we are posting about 1.5 weeks in advance (to give you time to acquire the ingredients and materials needed while allowing ample time to let the infusions come together). We chose to prep these all together, pouring the strained 1 day infusions back into their bottles and leaving them be.

Pecan Bourbon (1 week)
750ml Buffalo Trace bourbon
2 cups pecan halves
salt
pepper
cayenne

Soak pecans in cold water for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Drain the pecans well, then spread them on a rimmed baking sheet. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and being careful not to burn the pecans. Let cool to room temperature. In a container, combine the pecans with bourbon and stir well. Let stand at room temperature for 1 week, stirring daily. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve.

Chamomile Rye Whiskey (2 hours)
750 ml Overholt rye whiskey
¼ cup of loose chamomile tea (or 8 tea bags)

Combine chamomile tea and rye whiskey in a container; stir well. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour and 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve.

Jalapeño Tequila (30 minutes)
750 ml Milagro blanco tequila
4 jalapeño chiles

In a container, combine the ribs and seeds from 4 jalapeño chiles and the chopped flesh of ½ jalapeño with blanco tequila and stir well. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes, tasting frequently so you can stop the infusion when the heat level is to your liking. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.

Vanilla Pineapple Tequila (1 week)
750 ml Milagro blanco tequila
1 pineapple, large
1 vanilla bean
1⁄4 cup brown sugar

Cut pineapple into large chunks and split the vanilla bean down the center. Combine pineapple, vanilla, brown sugar, and blaco tequila in a container and mix well. Let stand at room temperature for 1 week, stirring daily. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve.



Join us again on Tuesday, May 3rd for the official Booze Clues post, where you will get the cocktail recipes we will be trying from these infused liquors. Play along at home, or just come by to browse and do things on your own time.

We are debating including Booze Clues as a live-stream show, letting you all watch our in-house lecturer Wakowski as he helps us compare and contrast the liquors, provides some history and background info on the liquors and cocktails, and teaches us how to make each cocktail. We will keep you posted on when that will begin! In the meantime we love to see your comments and tweets about each month's adventure,

Booze Clues: Bourbon

Due to all the cool people going to Mexico in April, the next Booze Clues will be Thursday, March 31. Taking a look at whiskey again, specifically focusing on Bourbon.

Taste-testing will include:

• Four Rose Single Barrel (Binny's select)
• McCallan 10 yr
• Blade and Bow
• Wild Turkey
• Buffalo Trace

For cocktails we will be looking at an old classic, a twist on a mimosa, and a modern cocktail.

Old Fashioned
2 oz bourbon
1 tsp sugar
4 dashes Angostura bitters
splash club soda
garnish with maraschino cheery and orange wheel

French 95
3/4 oz bourbon
3/4 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz lemon juice
1 oz orange juice
top off with champagne

Whirling Tiger
2 oz bourbon
1 oz fiji apple juice
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz ginger syrup
garnish with apple slice

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Ok, so a little belated. Most of us have those boring old 9-5 jobs so, minus a small gathering the night of, our big celebration will be tonight. In the spirit, the host has put together a menu of green and "Irish" drinks. We will be sampling these tonight, and may or may not stick with them (some of these seem a bit questionable...). If you would like to join in, or add some fun green drinks that are a bit more than dyed beer to your menu, keep on reading!

Honeydew Martini
3 oz vodka
1/2 oz Midori
1/2 oz Triple Sec

Emerald Rain
2 oz Hypnotique
1 oz vodka
1 oz pineapple juice

Irish Flag
1/3 oz creme de menthe
1/3 oz whiskey
1/3 oz Bailey's

Grass Hopper
3/4 oz creme de menthe
3/4 oz crem de cacao
3/4 oz milk

Misty Mint
1 1/2 oz creme de menthe
1 oz white rum

Irish Coffee
1 1/1 oz Irish whiskey
6 oz coffee
3/4 oz Irish cream

Evergreen
1 oz equila
1 oz creme de menthe
1/2 oz Midori
3 oz pineapple juice

Jade
2 oz white rum
1/4 oz creme de menthe
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz lime juice

Irish Cola
1 oz Irish whiskey
1 oz Irish cream
4 oz cola

Irish Car Bomb
3/4 pint Guinness
1/2 shot Irish cream
1/2 shot Irish whiskey

And of course, lots of Irish whiskey. Ours of choice (at least for the night) is Egan's. You may or may not recall from an earlier post that our friends (the hosts for tonight, actually) are Irish and their family can trace their ancestry back to make a connection with the family who makes Egan's Irish Whiskey. Highly recommended, if you feel like importing it.


UPDATE: The questionable ones were not as bad as anticipated. Evergreen surprisingly works--tastes a bit strange, but works. The Honeydew Martini is incredibly strong, I would recommend making a smaller one. Emerald Rain needs more pineapple juice, but isn't bad. My personal favorite was the grasshopper, which tastes as the name implies it should.

Booze Clues: Gin

Hey boys & girls. Are you ready to figure out Booze Clues?

What is Booze Clues? It's like a book club, but less books.

Once a month, typically the first Tuesday, House DSG hosts an event where we get together with some friends and learn about booze. The general gist is we pick a theme (generally an alcohol or alcohol category), try some different alcohols, learn a few drink recipes using said alcohols, and then try those drinks (ideally all of them as we hover around 3, but some people pick the one that sounds most appealing or share drinks if they just want a sip).

If you would like to play along at home, I will begin posting (and back posting) our agendas. This month we are revisiting Gin.

Taste-testing will include:

• Bombay Sapphire
• Hendricks
• Beefeater
• Tanqueray 10
• Geneva's Preservation

For cocktails we will be looking at a classic martini vs. modern, the Negroni, and Tom Collins. Since recipes vary depending on your source, below are the actual ones we will be using.

Classic Martini
1 ½ oz gin
1 ½ oz sweet vermouth
orange bitters

opt: simple syrup (classic cocktails used Old Tom  gin, which was sweeter)

Modern Martini
2-3 oz gin
½-1 oz dry vermouth
*the larger the gin:vermouth ratio, the more modern

Negroni
1 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth
Orange twist for garnish

Tom Collins
1 oz lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
1 1/2 oz gin
~2 oz club soda
Lemon wheel and cherry for garnish

Another new game?! A Brief Look at Scoville

Clearly, we have some catching up to do. But I am super excited about this game. I've been wanting to get a copy of Scoville for a long time, but it is on the pricier end of things (for good reason, these are quality pieces!). So when I finally buckled down and went to go purchase it, the game was sold out everywhere. Luckily, Tasty Minstrel Games soon launched a Kickstarter for an expansion and preorders for a second printing. Now, savvy shoppers were able to get the second printing and expansion for quite the deal via Kickstarter, and even though I haven't played yet, everything I've seen online has been stellar and really solidified my desire to own this game. I figured the expansion must be great too, and if not I am not out any extra money. So I jumped on board, and TMG is so awesome they shipped all the second printings in advance of the expansion. Now we will (hopefully!) get some plays in before the expansion shows up.

So what is Scoville? For starters, it's a board game for 2-6 players. Gotta love games climbing past that 4/5 player barrier. Also, it's a multi-phased game involving auctions and set collecting. Players bid for turn order each round, move their farmer through the field, collect/plant peppers, compete to be the first to have the hottest peppers, and participate in the chili cook off.

This second edition is top quality. To start off, all the peppers are actual meeples. Depending on their rank, the pepper meeples differ in height as well as color. The most coveted pepper is is a tall, glitter/pearl, clear plastic meeple. Also, the farmer meeples are super cool looking! Beyond that, the board has pepper cutouts that the meeples fit into, which I find very nice as it keeps the pieces in place and makes it less likely they will get knocked around. The board also fits together puzzle-like, another nice way to make sure the board doesn't get messed up during play. Players also have their own cardboard stands to hide their peppers and recipes behind. The printing is great, and all the pieces are sturdy.

So, what about this expansion? In the base game all players use the same farm field to plant and harvest their peppers. Labs gives each player a 3x3 field (or lab) in which they can plant and cross breed on their own. The base game also provides players with 3 special action tokens (which, if unused are worth points at the end of the game): Move 1 extra space, Double back once, Plant 1 extra pepper. With all that extra planting to do in their labs, players get a second "Plant 1 extra pepper" token. On top of that added fun, there are more pepper meeples and recipes, as well as multiplier tokens (which the second printing also includes, but for all you first printing game owners this is good news).

I can't wait to break this game out and get a few plays under our belt before the expansion shows up in a few months. Wakowski loves things spicy, so I think this is right up his alley ;)

Links to check out:
Scoville
Scoville: Labs
Tasty Minstrel Games

Brewin' USA & Adam's Apple Games

We got another new game over at House DSG. Once again, this little beauty was backed on Kickstarter. A few delays, but at only 2.5 months late that's not bad for a first time publisher. Some backers were worried by the lack of communication, but the creator updated us when he had news and kept quiet when he didn't so I didn't mind too much. He also promoted the hell out of his game during production and will be hosting a #brewmaster contest soon for players (we will be partaking!).

If you haven't realized by now, one of us, and I'm not saying who >.>  <.<, but one of us may have a small Kickstarter addiction. That same one of us might be slightly obsessed with board game youtube channels and particularly board game youtube series. So naturally, that person had to watch season 2 of Tabletop Deathmatch (which, if you haven't been following along, is a contest Cards Against Humanity hosts to find a new game they will publish). The second season seemed to be a bit tougher for competitors, as this time only 8 games were presented and all got professional quality prototypes. Brewin' USA did not win, but as top 8 out of 300 games you know it's got potential. This makes our 3rd purchase from games featured by CAH.

In Brewin' USA, players are startup breweries competing to be the first to launch 5 beers at the inception of the craft brew revolution.This is done by vying for area control. Each area also has specific beer preferences, so players will develop strategies to determine which beer to launch in which city. But be careful! You may not be the only one launching your beer in a city, and you will have to compete with all other brewers in a brew fest to determine who wins the market region.

Season 2 featured play testing as part of the contest. The original design for Brewin' USA got a lot good reviews. It was viewed as a good entry level euro, and a few judges thought it was similar to Ticket to Ride. Everyone seemed to find it easy to learn and play, and really enjoyed the amount of player interaction. The bottle caps were also generally liked and really played to the theme. Speaking of which, the theme is very strong, but most felt it was an accessible themes vs niche (although this was a debated issue), and very marketable. Most criticisms existed due to the lack of play testing at the time. Judges felt the additives seemed a little random (all incentive, no consequence...the reality that some of those additives would create gross beers). There was also the potential to get stuck on your turn because everyone needs basically the same cards, versus different cards (like in Ticket to Ride). Other than that, there were just some nit picks about balancing the card values, working with the hand size and board size, and cleaning up some mechanics (at that point it was more tactical than strategic).

Having done more play testing and tweaking, Brewin' USA moved to Kickstarter. They dropped the hidden objectives, made the map out of interchangeable tiles, and all around polished everything up. It got almost double it's goal, and the designer was able to get a to of craft breweries to join up-you will see their beers featured on the cards. And now that it is in my hands, I will say the box is stunning! Admittedly, not at all what I was expecting in terms of shape. It looks like a wine (or large beer) bottle box, and the bottom slides out sideways (there's a little hole to poke it out with). The components are also great. The cards are a nice linen texture,and the cardboard tiles are nice and sturdy. The colors look great without being blinding. And finally, it comes with real bottle caps for you to play with (currency if you will, with 5 sets of colored caps for each player). Now I'm not sure if future runs will include these or not, as the game was a hefty $45 and the publisher may want to drop price for future runs and include cardboard, wood, or plastic tokens instead. This is just my speculation though, so we shall see.

So, have we played this one yet? No. It just arrived in the mail yesterday, and it was all I could do to behave and not rip everything open at work. Hopefully soon--maybe this weekend. All the bottle caps (100+) came in individual bags, so it's going to take me a bit to get everything unwrapped ;)


Links to check out:
CAH Tabletop Deathmatch (season 2)
Ticket to Ride on BGG
Brewin' USA on BGG
Brewin' USA webpage
Adam's Apple Games

One Step Closer...

Well we're geting there--almost ready for streaming and posting videos. Tonight was our intro session to an online 5e campaign. Not even sure if the sessions from this group will be recorded and edited for youtube, or eventually streamed live, but we took the opportunity to test a few things out.

So the good news, we've got a pretty good omni-/multi-directional mic that should easily pick up all the players at our table for a board game.

The bad news, I'm not sure camstudio is going to be the best recording program. First off, I still can't get it to record mic & speakers together. I got my mic input to play through my speakers, but it would still only pick up the mic. Played w/ some settings (also disconnected my headset, working on a laptop btw w/ built in cam/mic as well), and eventually got it to record speakers only. So I moved over to the table, muted my mic, and 3 of us used the good mic mentioned above. My sound settings are still all sorts of screwed up though. Also, the camstudio window at some point disappeared, although the flashing corners indicating my screen cap field were still active. Eventually, I pulled the window up through my notification area of the taskbar. It looked like it had already stopped recording, but recording data was still showing and I was able to stop. It took quite a while to save, but eventually I got the option. An error popped up stating the audio had been saved seperately. Now, my main file won't play and appears to be corrupt. I seem to still have my temp files but they also won't play (actually maybe the audio does). I think if we can merge them it will work though...

May need to find a new program if we want to do D&D. Definitely need something that will do screen cap, but also need to set an independant field as I'm not sure if this will be a single or multi-window view yet. It would be preferable to support simultaneous audio recording from my mic and speakers though, as I/whoever is recording may not always be able to share another mic. We're not exactly looking to invest in programs right now either, which makes things tricky. Also, I'm not sure what our tableop set up will actually be. I may not need a screen cap program where I can set a specific field to record, especially if we can get our mic and my sony handycam (hey, it was free!) to sync up and provide all the audio and video we need...the question will be how many cam feeds do we need/want for a board game? Currently the debate is between just one showing the whole table (unsure of angle, either top down to show playing space only or angled to get a good view of play space plus players/player areas), multiple (probably 2) cams to show a good view of the play space and probably player areas, or one cam for the board and one on each player (face/hand/tableau depending on game).

If you know how to fix the camstudio issues, have other recording software recommendations (general, twitch/live specific, screen cap w/ simultaneous speaker &mic support, etc.), or have a specific request for the board game live streaming visual arrangements (any of the above or another), let us know in the comments! Your knowledge and opinions are always helpful.

What's Brewing?

Are any of you hobby brewers? Or professional brewers? What do you like to make? We've got some friends who brew beer, another is just starting to give a go at cider, and our very own Wakowski brews mead. Currently he has about 40 gallons sitting in the basement. So what's he got brewing?

• Traditional Honey
• Orange Blossom Honey
• Vanilla Cinnamon
• Cherry Blueberry
• Coffee Chocolate
• Earl Grey
• Grape
• Cyser (made with cider from a local farm)
• Mango (short mead)

Some old flavors he's done in the past (but may or may not do anymore in the future, despite complaints from our friends) include:

• Cherry
• Christmas Cookie (spiced & sweetened)
• Metheglin (spiced)

Kickstarter: Tiny Epic Western

With the launch of their fourth game in the series kicking off today, it seemed appropriate to talk about Gamelyn Games and their next Tiny Epic game, Tiny Epic Western.

I am a Kickstarter junkie, and have backed quite a few games, as have many of my friends. It is a dangerous move, but so far I have not been left gameless or sorely disappointed with my purchases. One way to ensure an enjoyable Kickstarter experience is to go with reliable companies. There is some debate here as to whether established publishers should be using Kickstarter, but there are many that are small companies run out of people's homes and they need to capital to produce a new game so in that regard I am not really upset with their use of the platform.

Now, Gamelyn Games is one of those small publishers. Founded by Michael Coe, who has previous publishing experience with Crash Games before amicably splitting to pursue different visions, Gamely Games hit the ground running with their Kickstarter for Tiny Epic Kingdoms. the first installment of what would become a series of small, portable, strategic games. They flew past their goal in 1 day, and ended with 19x more than they needed from 8,979 backers. From then on the series was a success, and I just can't resist backing each new installment!

For those not familiar, the Tiny Epic series is focusing on small, portable, euro-style games. Their tag line is "tiny box, epic gameplay" and that is exactly what they produce. Designer Scott Almes puts a lot of work into his games and it shows. Each game comes in a 4x6 box, about the size of a large pencil case and easily fit into a cargo pant pocket (or stocking!), but packs enough punch for even serious gamers. With an average play time of 30-60 minutes these are great games to bring out and about, or introduce new gamers to a genre. The components so far have always been of great quality, and at the speed with which they fund there are so many cool stretch goals to be had with the Kickstarter versions. These games also get produced fairly quickly n_~

Tiny Epic Western combines worker placement with poker, and very strongly encourages player interaction/conflict. Each player gets a unique character card, accumulates property, invests in stocks, and manages a posse. Every bit of this game really gets you into the theme, from a wagon wheel set-up to mini poker hands every round. There are even special bullet shaped dice! If you are mildly interested in this series, check out their Kickstarter. The game is a steal at $18.


Learn more about the publisher & series:
Gamely Games
Tiny Epic Kingdoms & Hero's Call (expansion)
Tiny Epic Defenders
Tiny Epic Galaxy
Tiny Epic Western (Kickstarter Jan 11-Feb 6, 2016)

Booze Clues: Twists on Classic Cocktails

Our first round of Booze Clues on our own! Two of our own have come up with the theme for this month and, as the drinks are all twists on classics, there will be no tastings this time.

French 75 (twist on a mimosa)
2 ounces gin -- London dry gin
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
1/2 ounce lemon juice
5 ounces Brut champagne

Bijou (twist on a whiskey sour)
1 ounce London dry gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce green Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters

And since we didn't try whiskey sours back in lecture 3...

Whiskey Sour
2 ounces of bourbon
¾ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ oz simple syrup
1 or 2 teaspoons of egg white (optional)
lemon wedge and maraschino cherry garnish

We're taking February off, due to the Super Bowl, but we'll be back hitting it hard in March.

New Years at DSG

It's New Year's Eve, and we all know what that means--time to party (At least if you are in the U.S. where NYE is a huge party night). Over at House DSG we are hosting this year, which is great for me because I love to cook, and party food is always fun. I was also in charge of making a punch or some such drink. We reached out to some of our Booze Clues members and received the following recipes:

Sparkling White Peach Sangria (serves 4-6)
2-3 white peaches, sliced
3/4 cup peach or apricot brandy
1 bottle moscato , chilled
1 liter peach seltzer water, chilled

Lightly muddle 3/4 of peach slices and brandy in pitcher. Add moscato and seltzer water. Stir to mix. Pour into ice-filled glasses and garnish with remaining peach slices.

Red, White & Blue Sangria (serves 6)
1 bottle pinot noir
1 1/2 cups cranberry juice
1 cup brandy
1 large orange, juiced
Simple syrup
2 cups fresh blueberries
6-8 ounces raspberries
6 ounces blackberries
1 large apple, sliced very thin

Mix wine, cranberry juice, brandy, orange juice, and simple syrup in pitcher. Add blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and apples. Chill overnight. Fill 6 glasses halfway with ice, and use slotted spoon to add fruit from pitcher. Pour liquid over and serve.


In the end, I went with peach, even though it's more of a summery flavor, because I love peach. We had some trouble finding just peach seltzer water, so I settled for 2 bottles of Sparkling Ice peach-nectarine. It was delicious! Wakowski can also attest that the Red, White & Blue Sangria is delicious (and probably a more wintry drink, but oh well!).


And of course, this being House DSG, we had to play some games this evening. We've got a whole shelf, but friends brought some too. In the end these are the games we played:

Love Letter
We've gone over this game a few times, I think. Quick, tiny card game for 2-4 players involving hidden roles. We broke this out early on, around 6 pm, as I was still cooking and there were only a few people here.

Welcome to the Dungeon
Cool little dungeon crawl game for 2-4 players. You basically fill the dungeon with monsters and dare the other players to go in. There is also some press your luck, as each turn you can choose to draw or pass. Drawing then gives you a choice of keeping the card (but at the cost of 1 of your equipment), or putting it in the dungeon. Last player to pass has to face the dungeon with whatever equipment he has left!

One Night Ultimate Werewolf
This game is also discussed elsewhere. While fun, it does often feel like blind guessing and little discussion. However for a night full of drinking and revelry, it was a great choice. None of us had enough attention span to play a game of regular werewolf anyway, and the allegations became wildly hilarious.

Exploding Kittens
With artwork from The Oatmeal, this party card game gained tons of attention in it's kickstarter. We've got both decks, which allows for a group of up to 9 players. The rules are simple, so it was an easy game to break out late in the evening. Plus the cards are hilarious which adds to the allure.

Cards Against Humanity
The classic (?) party game. A much more inappropriate version of Apples to Apples, and tons of fun (as long as you are OK with crass humor and are not easily offended). The perfect game for a rowdy night to degrade into. That is before the karaoke and dance party began...

Christmas at DSG

Did you get any good games for Christmas? Or were you the game giver this year?

Over at the DSG household we gave out games and received another installment of one of our favorite group games:

Sentinels of the Multiverse
My brother plays Munchkin (original, all expansions) all the time. He's into other games as well, but I figured this would be a good segue for his non-gaming friends into other types of games. SOTM is a great cooperative, fixed deck game with a comic book flair. Players each act as a unique hero, and use their powers, abilities, and items to defeat a villain while dealing with the added effects of the environment. Villains and environments are controlled by autonomous decks, allowing the players to focus on their hero team. With a variety of hero, villain, and environment decks this game offers a lot of replay-ability. There are plenty of great expansions as well, providing for even more deck combos and new game mechanics. This is also easy for a new player to pick up, is not overly long, and accommodates up to 5 players.

Takenoko
I sent this game to my sister in Japan, because pandas. Also, it is not language reliant so she can play with her coworkers, neighbors, or students easily enough. I have not played this game, but saw it on TableTop. Players build a board out of hex tiles during the game, and must get water to these tiles in order to grow bamboo to feed the panda. During the game players will acquire objective cards which will score points if the requirements are met (such as a certain tile configuration, bamboo plants of a certain height, or having fed the panda a certain combo of bamboo).

Pirate Fluxx
Fluxx is a game we all enjoy. The rules start off simple (draw 1, play 1) but are fluid and change throughout the game as players introduce new rule cards. There is not much to explain, and all the rules are always laid out on the table for everyone to see so this is a great starter game (however, it is language heavy). Our favorite has been Star Fluxx, although Batman Fluxx is quickly on the rise to replace it. Pirate Fluxx is definitely more of a party version with a lot of interaction/participation cards, such as talking like a pirate.

Our friends also received a game we keep hearing rave reviews about. Hopefully one day soon we can play and give you a review, or maybe even a live play :)

Betrayal at House on the Hill
Touted as on of the best games of its kind, Betrayal is a great cooperative horror game for 3-6 players. During the game, players create the board by laying tiles (similar to Death Maze, if any of you are familiar with this dungeon crawler). The goals vary, but basically you need to survive the haunted house. However, one of you will succumb to the powers of evil and become a traitor. With Mike Selinker as a designer, this is a must play.


Links to check out:
Munchkin
Geek & Sundry's TableTop
Death Maze (1979)

The Shadow Over Westminster & CounterClockwork Games

It's been a long road, but CounterClockwork Games finally got Shadow Over Westminster out! Our copy arrived in the mail today, so if you also backed this and were wondering when it was going to arrive (IF it was going to arrive), you can rest assured your copy is on its way or may already be waiting at your door.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it was a finalist on Cards Against Humanity's first Tabletop Deathmatch (which is a contest the company has hosted twice  to find new games by unknown designers and help them get publish; we also have Penny Press, a winner from the first competition, and you can expect to hear more about that game in the future). Up and coming game designer Robert Huss submitted his game and made it to the final 16. At GenCon 2013 his game was tested and analyzed by the CAH team and their friends, all experienced in different aspects of the gaming and publishing industries. While not publishing ready, Robert received some great critiques and exposure so he set out via Kickstarter in the footsteps of so many others, and with the aid of game publisher Zenion he raised the funds he needed and was on his way! Or was he?

SOW was due to ship in February 2015, but many publishers using Kickstarter are just starting out so delays aren't surprising. However Zenion went defunct, and there was dead air for a long time with the few updates posted only referring to convention demos. With Zenion being defunct, and speculation going around about bankruptcy or other monetary loss, backers started getting nervous. It took Robert a while, but he made good. Due to the Kickstarter being under Zenion's account, he did not have access to the original page for a while. However, he posted in the comments section, and eventually got control of the page. It was still listed under Zenion, but Robert was able to make updates and gain access to the original survey responses. And of course, there were more publishing delays. On the bright side everything is looking great, and he had all that extra time to build up hype and have his game played at conventions all over. A little over 10 months late, but that is the risk of backing a Kickstarter,

So, what exactly is this game? It is a cooperative deck builder where players act as members of an agency in London whose job is to save the world from an impending cataclysm. (the game provides 15 different ones, offering a lot of replayability). Heavy flavor text creates a wonderful environment and really sets the mood for this horror adventure.

Have we played it yet? No, but we will. There may or may not be another write-up about it, but once we get the rules down you can expect to see a play make its way onto our channel.


Links to check out:
CAH Tabletop Deathmatch (season 1)
Shadow Over Westminster on BGG
CounterClockwork Games