Greetings, citizens! It is I, your one and only Comfortable Couchman! Today, we’re talking about the first issue in the latest D&D mini-series, Frost Giant’s Fury.
D&D has a special place in my heart, and always will. It introduced me to the world of tabletop gaming, which has been my primary means of socialising since I was in middle school. It was what forged so many wonderful friendships, many of which I still cherish to this day. You can say that it’s just a game, but it really is more than that. It’s a bonding experience, a collaborative effort between you and others to tell a story. A way to just unwind and de-stress from the bleakness of the world we live in, and do some derring do while earning piles of gold that would wreck economies in the real world.
I got introduced to the first mini-series by the writer himself, Jim Zub, at Gen Con 2014. The short little preview that he handed out (and signed for me) was immensely entertaining for only being a couple of pages. I didn’t recognize the character of Minsc, but one of my friends who I was at the con with was more than happy to explain who he was, with many an enthusiastic “Go for the eyes, Boo!” I was unemployed at the time, but I still managed to pick up the entire series. It was a bright spot in what was a mostly otherwise dark time.
So, with all that out of the way, let’s get into the comic itself. This is the first issue in the third series with these characters. Right away, that’s a frustration of mine. While I don’t dislike the stories themselves, I do kinda wish they were longer. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about decompressed storytelling in comics, but I have to say that I’m quite fond of it, when it’s done properly at least. Limiting the stories to only being five issues is a frustration, especially when the stories are ones that I would love to see explored more. The first series was about a dragon cult, and being a huge dragon lover, I really wanted to see that continue. But ultimately, this is a minor complaint, and one that can only be directed at people paying for the work, and not the creative team themselves.
The writer, as I mentioned earlier, is Jim Zub. He’s been the only consistent member of the creative team throughout all of the series, which is good. Keeping the same writer means that the characters will be portrayed consistently, which is a necessity when you’re trying to keep people reading from one mini-series to the next. Zub’s writing is efficient, moving the plot along at a steady pace, but also managing to get in some good character moments and good one liners/jokes. This series is something of a departure from the previous ones though. There is a decidedly dour note to much of the dialogue, and the situation the heroes find themselves in. Which does make sense, considering how things are for our heroes. The last series did not end on a high note, and this one picks up almost immediately thereafter. Minsc is the one most affected by this. In the previous series, he was positively jovial and energetic, eager to leap into adventure regardless of what it was. That optimism served them well on Ravenloft, but it seems that the Plane of Dread took its toll on our brave ranger. I was actually sad, seeing Minsc like that. There is a real sense of tension in the issue
For the artwork, we’ve got Netho Diaz as the artist, and colors by Thiago Ribeiro, and they do an excellent job. I was thrown at first, because the artwork is very different from the previous two series. They each had different artists, but they did have a similar sort of feel to them. Max Dunbar on the first series had very tight, detailed linework, with some bright, diverse colors from John-Paul Bove (and Joana Lafuente as well on issue #2). On the second series, Nelson Daniel provided some very energetic panels, as well as colors which were toned-down and muted to reflect the bleakness of Ravenloft. For Frost Giant’s Fury, the lines are dynamic and heavy, along with the shadows. The colors are dark and moody, meshing with the tone of the issue exquisitely. More than a few panels have a sort of baroque feel to them, and I adore it. You can feel the weariness of the characters, the sense of sorrow and bitterness that’s enfolding them. When the characters get hit, you can almost feel it. I legitimately winced when I saw a particular strike, something I don’t think I’ve ever done with a comic before.
Overall, this is a fantastic start to the series, and I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.
Greetings, citizens! In case you missed the news post from
Sunday, I’ve got the schedule for the next couple months posted. I also
mentioned that I might not be able to have the Superior Spider-Man finale ready
for this week, which turned out to be true. So, instead of just not updating
this week, I bumped up what was supposed to be next week’s review. So let’s
dive right in!
Because my last game review was so popular, I decided to
take a look at another game which I absolutely adore. So today we’re looking at
Red Dragon Inn, by Slugfest Games.
The premise of the game is pretty simple; each player picks
a character who’s part of an adventuring party. The dungeon’s been looted, the
monsters slain, and the treasure divided. So what’s left? Why spending that
hard earned dragon gold at the local tavern! Because what would games like
D&D be without taverns?
Each character has a unique deck of forty cards, which
represent the various capabilities of the character. Each one has different
strengths and weaknesses, some of which you can guess at by what class they
are. For example, Fiona the Volatile (human warrior) is great at blocking hits
and can hold her liquor, Gerki the Sneak (Halfling rogue) is great at gambling,
and so on. Some characters also have additional cards, such as Kaylin the
Renegade (pixie enchanter) who has a deck representing her animal companion,
Wulfric. The additional cards aren’t always positive though, in order to
maintain game balance. Anyway, players start with a hand of seven cards, twenty
fortitude, zero alcohol, and ten gold.
On your turn, you’re allowed to discard any cards that you
don’t want in your hand, and then you draw until you have seven. You can then
play a single action card. Action cards have a variety of effects, though the
vast majority affect another player’s fortitude, alcohol, or gold. If a player
runs out of gold, or if their fortitude and alcohol meet (i.e., if both your
fort and alcohol are at ten or whatever number they happen to meet at), then
you’re out of the game. But of course, players aren’t defenseless, and each
deck contains a number of Sometimes cards. Sometimes cards are ones which are
triggered by something happening. For example, if someone plays an action to
make you lose three fortitude, and you have something which reads “ignore
action card that affects your fortitude,” you could play that and not lose the
fortitude.
A special kind of action that you can do if you have the
right card is to start a round of gambling. When a round of gambling begins,
each player antes one gold (providing a player doesn’t have a card that gets
them out of gambling), and the player that began the round is in control. Then,
the next player can play a gambling or cheating card in order to take control of
the round. If they don’t have a gambling/cheating card, then they pass. Play
proceeds like this until all players other than the last to take control of the
round pass. The winner gets all the anted gold, and ire from everyone else.
After you play your action, you then go to the Buy Drinks
phase. In spite of the name, you don’t actually spend gold for this part
(usually). You take the top card of the drink deck and place it face down on
another player’s Drink Me pile. Once that’s done, it’s time for the Drink
phase, where you take the top card of your Drink Me pile and reveal it. There
are two kinds of cards in the drink deck; drinks and drink events. Drinks are
pretty straightforward, usually causing your character’s alcohol to increase,
but sometimes doing other stuff like healing you or causing fortitude loss.
Drink events are more interesting, causing something else to happen, and can
affect other players. I’ll talk about some specific cards from the drink deck a
bit later.
That’s the basics of how play proceeds. There are of course
nuances to the rules, but it’s a fairly simple game, but lots of fun. The game
is also modular to a degree. There are, at the time of this entry, four
different box sets of Red Dragon Inn, each including a drink deck and four
characters, along with six standalone characters (called Red Dragon Inn
Allies). While each box says it’s for two to four players, you can play with
more with little change. Hell, most of the time my friends and I play, there’s
between five and seven of us. We pick characters from any of the twenty-two
characters available, and have an enormous drink deck (the rules recommend
keeping the deck at sixty cards, but I can never pick out which cards are good
enough for the deck, so we just play with all of them).
Red Dragon Inn
Deirdre, the Priestess
Deirdre is an elf priestess of some (as far as I know)
nameless goddess. She’s a solid character, who isn’t bad at dishing out
punishment, but is really hard to hit. Her only drawback is that she can’t hold
her liquor. She’s not one of my favorites, but I don’t dislike her.
Fiona, the Volatile
Fiona is the first character I ever played as, so I have a
soft spot for her. She’s a human warrior, and has a good mix of damage dealing
and defensive cards. She also has some of my favorite card names in the whole
game.
That was something I forgot to mention earlier; the humor.
The game just has a great sense of humor and fun to it, and Fiona’s one of the
best examples of that.
Gerki, the Sneak
Gerki’s a Halfling rogue, because fantasy does so love its
stereotypes. He’s good at dealing damage and gambling, but his defenses are
somewhat lacking. I’m not all that fond of him, but I’m also not fond of
rogues, so I’m biased.
Zot, the Wizard and his familiar, Pooky
Zot is… kind of disappointing, honestly. The more
interesting cards that he has are actually about Pooky. That’d be fine, except
that they eventually made Pooky his own character (see below). I’d have
preferred a more interesting array of spells that he had at his disposal, but
what’re you going to do? His main weakness is that, like most wizards, he can’t
mitigate damage too well.
Red Dragon Inn 2
Dimli, the Dwarf
Dimli, whose name in no way resembles that of a popular
character from a fantasy series, is a dwarf of ambiguous class. In some of the
stories on Slugfest’s site, it’s implied that he’s a warrior, but he doesn’t
have much in the way of abilities to reflect that, save for his armor. He’s
good at gambling, has great defenses, and was the first character to have a
good amount of cards to get other players drunk. I’m not really sure what his
weakness is, and yet I’ve never won with him.
Eve, the Illusionist
None of the other party members are sure of what Eve really
looks like, but the form we see most is her as a blonde human. While she’s an
illusionist, she does have a few other spells at her disposal. I’m usually not
a fan of illusionists, but Eve’s a lot of fun to play, with a good selection of
actions and gambling/cheating cards, not to mention her illusions keep her from
getting hit. However, she can’t hold her liquor all that well.
Fleck, the Bard
I don’t like Fleck at all. Part of it is because he’s a
half-elf (50% too much elf for my tastes), part of it is because he’s a bard
(my least favorite class), and part of it is because I can’t figure out what it
is he’s supposed to be good at. He’s alright at gambling, but everything else
is just so lackluster. Nobody in my gaming group likes him very much either, so
he almost always stays in his sad little box.
Gog, the Half-Ogre
Gog is a load of fun to play, and I always really get into
character with him. His cards that refer to him do so in the third person, such
as “Gog Not Think So” instead of “I Don’t Think So” (a staple card in
everyone’s deck). He hits hard, and has decent defenses, but he’s not good with
his money. Like Fiona, he’s got some cards I love as well.
Red Dragon Inn 3
Kaylin, the Renegade
Kaylin’s a pixie enchanter with a wolf companion (the aptly
named Wulfric). I’m not quite sure what makes her an enchanter, but I’m not
arguing with someone who’s got a wolf at their beck and call. She’s got an
extra deck to represent Wulfric and his ever-changing moods. Each mood has a
different effect, like lowering the amount of alcohol you gain from drinks, or
making your cards unable to be ignored/prevented. She’s not bad at gambling,
and has some decent defenses, but I can’t quite put my finger on what her
strengths and weaknesses are.
Brewmaster Phrenk
Phrenk’s a troll alchemist, and like Kaylin he’s got a
separate deck. His extra deck is full of potions and the occasional poison. He
has the option of selling the potions for gold to other players, or keeping
them for his own use. His greatest strength is getting everyone else drunk, but
he doesn’t have much in the way of defense. Though really, are you gonna hit a
guy who keeps giving you drinks?
Serena, the Pious
Serena is an orc paladin, which instantly makes me like her.
Unlike every other character in RDI3, she doesn’t have an extra deck. Instead,
she’s got a piety tracker. Various cards of hers raise or lower her piety, and
many of her cards have different effects depending on how pious she is. For
things like healing, you want her piety to be high, but for hitting people, low
is the way to go. She requires a lot of strategy and planning to use
effectively, but can be a lot of fun.
Wizgille, the Tinkerer
Wizgille (whose name I have no idea how to pronounce) is a
gnome artificer, and one of my favorite characters. Many of her cards have
little gears on them, like this;
When you play one of those, you flip over the top card of
Wizgille’s Gear deck. The gears alter what the card does, sometimes increasing
the effect of the initial card played, making it affect other players, or…
The randomness makes her a lot of fun to play as. Combine
that with how she’s well rounded and the adorable artwork, and she’s one of the
characters I most often pick.
Red Dragon Inn 4
Captain Whitehawk
Captain Whitehawk is a human sailor, captain of the vessel The Crimson Drake. Whitehawk is another character I love to play, because she’s very defensive. She’s got a lot of really fun counters, and can even do a few things other characters can’t. Lost a round of gambling? You can still get half the pot. A drink or sea event comes up that you don’t like? You can ignore it. Don’t want somebody to make you Tip the Wench? You can negate it. She’s somewhat lacking on offense, but is great at defense.
First Mate Remy
Remy is a drence (RDI’s word for dark elves) fighter. I’m honestly not really sure what to say about him, having never played as him and only seen him played once or twice. He’s an elf, so I’m biased against him.
Bryn, the Boatswain
Bryn is another of my favorites. Mechanically, she’s very similar to Fiona, and I like her for many of the same reasons. I just have a soft spot for female warrior types. Also, Bryn juggles cannon balls and has biceps to rival Gog, so there’s that. Oh, and this;
Tara, the Navigator
Tara’s a seer, and like lots of seers, she’s blind. The seer stuff makes her a lot of fun to play, enhanced by some of the more comedic cards that reference her blindness, like these;
Not sure what to say about her beyond that.
Allies
Pooky, the Vicious
Lots of people think that Pooky’s a rabbit. The rabbit from
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but still a rabbit.
However, he’s not a rabbit. On his deck, he’s described as a
“Strange Thing” and in the story detailing Zot’s backstory, it’s implied that
he is something very powerful. My bet is a demon of some sort, but as far as I
know they haven’t revealed it. Anyway, mechanically he’s interesting to play.
Similar to Serena’s piety, he has a mood tracker, which is affected by things
like getting hit and losing a round of gambling. Many of his cards have
different effects depending on what his mood is. He’s not bad, but not one of
my favorites (which works out, since I have two friends who love playing him).
Erin, the Ever-Changing
Erin is an elf druid. In spite of those facts, I actually
don’t mind playing her. Her ability to change form is a pretty neat mechanic,
with each form having different upsides and down. Being a raven makes her
really good at gambling, but easier to get drunk. Being a bear makes her do
more damage, but she has to pay more to gamble. Being a tree makes you unable
to play cards, but you reduce any alcohol gained or fortitude lost, making her
pretty invulnerable. As an elf she… has pointy ears. While she’s not one of my
favorite characters, I don’t mind playing her.
Cormac, the Mighty
Cormac’s a human barbarian, and totally not a Conan
knock-off. Cormac’s thing is that some of his cards have a… coin I guess on
them.
Instead of going to your discard pile, these go into your
“building rage” pile. Once you get enough cards in the pile, you go into a
rage. While raging, you’ll do extra fortitude damage with all your cards.
However, most of the rages also cause you to gain more alcohol, so expect
people to buy you lots of drinks. He’s still one of my favorite characters to
play as, but barbarians have always been fun for me.
Witchdoctor Natyli
Natyli is a troll shaman, and Phrenk’s niece. Many of her
cards, in addition to their normal effects, also bestow a curse on the target.
The curses each do a different thing and last until triggered. The mind hex
increases the alcohol gained from the next drink or action by one. The power
jinx decreases the numeric effect of the next action that the player uses by
one. Finally, the pain curse causes the afflicted player to take an extra point
of fortitude damage the next time you lose fortitude. She’s an interesting
character to play, but not one of my favorites.
Ozrik, the Adept
Ozrik is a human elementalist, though I usually just call
him the “Sorcerer Superb” because he looks a lot like Doctor Strange.
Many of Ozrik’s
cards have an element associated with them. Other cards can have additional
effects to them if you discard cards of the right element(s). Take the above
card for example. If you discard a water card when you play it, then each
player will lose two fortitude instead of one. If the card has multiple lines,
you can discard for each one to gain the effect. So, if you were to play the
above card, and then discard three water cards and two other cards of any
element, then each other player would lose four fortitude. He’s one of my
favorite characters to play, partly because of his versatility, and partly just
because of his attitude.
Brother Bastian
Bastian’s a human cleric, a worshiper of the same god that
Serena prays to. Serena’s actually the reason that Bastian met up with the
party. He had heard that an orc was worshipping his god, Korash, and thought
that they were a heathen who needed a good smiting. Ah, fantasy racism at its
finest. Anyway, after meeting Serena, he was convinced that she was a true
follower, and joined her group. Bastian starts each game with three prayer
cards which are randomly selected from a small deck.
To use these prayers, you
have to spend a certain amount of prayer tokens (indicated by the arrow) which are gained from using his
standard cards.
His play style is a little different each time, depending on
which prayers you get. He’s a well rounded character, and fun to play as.
Now that we're done with characters, let's look at some drinks!
Drinking Contest is a drink event card which is a lot of
fun. Starting with the player who revealed it, each player takes the top card
of the drink deck and drinks it (or ignores it, gives it to someone else,
etc.). The person who revealed the drink with the highest alcohol content wins
the contest and everyone pays them one gold. If there’s a tie, then the players
that are tied have to take an additional drink, and so on and so forth until
there is only one “winner.” The longest drinking contest I’ve seen ended up
with two players needing to down four drinks each, and neither one was in good
shape afterwards. Drinking contests can really speed up a game and knock
somebody with a strong lead back down to everyone else’s level.
My friends and I have affectionately nicknamed this thing
“the boot” because of its illustration. This was a promo drink which I received
from backing the RDI 4 Kickstarter back in 2013. While straightforward, this
thing is a beast. FIVE alcohol before people screw around with it? That’s a
quarter of what you can take, all in one go.
Another promo drink, this one has a decent strength at three
alcohol content, but it also gives you the ability to give out two drinks to
people. So, while fairly strong, it can be worth it to take the effect, just so
others can end up with more drinks to down.
A drink from the original set and reprinted in each one. At
four alcohol content, it’s a potent drink, and you can be sure that if you try
and dodge it, the others will try and stop you. This was “the boot” before
there was a boot.
At two alcohol content, this ale
isn’t too strong. What makes it stand out is that it lets you draw two cards if
you drink it. Normally, you only drink at the end of your turn, so this can
give you extra options for things to do on other players’ turns. It’s also one
of the very few ways you can get more than seven cards in your hand.
Yet another promo drink which I got from funding the 2013
Kickstarter, the Mystic Martini is a neat drink. It’s a lot like the
aforementioned Gnomish Inspiration Ale, except instead of drawing two cards,
you get back the top two cards of your discard pile. This can be a great drink,
if you get it at the right time. Also, I just like the way it looks. I want
one.
Chaser cards are exactly what they sound like; a drink
followed by another drink. When you get one, you flip over the next card in
your Drink Me pile and take the effects of that drink too. However, the two
drink cards are counted as a single drink, so if you have a card to ignore a
drink, you’ll ignore both parts. If the next card is a drink event, or if you
don’t have another card in the pile, then you just take the effects of the
first one. There’s a bunch of different chaser cards, but the Pixie Punch is my
favorite, just because I like how it looks.
A few weeks ago, Slugfest was running a Kickstarter to fun
RDI5, and it was a rousing success. They not only met their goal, but also hit
the stretch goals to release two new allies. So, later this year (or early next
year), there will be six more characters, a whole new drink deck, and some new
promo drinks. I’ll probably take a look at it when it arrives in the mail,
maybe even doing an unboxing. In the meantime though, I highly recommend
checking the game out. It’s a lot of fun, simple to play, and has a great sense
of humor. The boxed sets are around $35-40, so while not a budget game, it’s
not that expensive either. The Allies are $15, which is pretty good. The fine
people at Slugfest have also written a Pathfinder supplement, the Guide to Inns
and Taverns. I haven’t gotten to take a good look at the book, but I really
want to get it. They’ve also got a bunch of stories up on their website detailing
the backstory of many of the characters, and they’re pretty entertaining. Check
them (and the games) out at http://slugfestgames.com/
.
That’s it for this week. Hopefully next week won’t be quite
so busy and I’ll be able to actually get some work done on the Superior finale.
Until then, citizens!
Greetings, citizens! The birthday celebrations continue here
at The Corner! Today, I’m taking a look at something I’ve never looked at
before; a board game!
I considered myself a gamer for years, but ever since I
started college, I began drifting away from video games. There’s a bunch of
reasons for it which I don’t want to get into right now, but the main thing is
that I’ve always really considered gaming to be a social thing, and there
haven’t been as many opportunities for me to get that sort of experience with
video games. Tabletop gaming, however, does provide that experience. I’ve
already talked about how much I love D&D, but that’s hardly the only game I
play. I play Magic and the Dresden Files RPG, along with any number of board
games. I only have a small collection (being unemployed isn’t conducive to
feeding hobbies), but the ones I do have I love, and I’m always looking for new
ones to acquire.
Today, we’re looking at Mice and Mystics, a cooperative game
for 1-4 players by Plaid Hat Games. Plaid Hat is a smaller game company, whose
games focus more on the narrative experience. Mice and Mystics is one of their
bigger successes, along with the newish Dead of Winter (which I’ll probably
look at somewhere down the line).
The concept of the game is pretty simple. King Andon, ruler
of the land, has fallen ill. His son, Prince Collin, as well as his closest
advisors believe that this is all part of a plot by the King’s new wife,
Vanestra. Collin and the advisors are imprisoned when they meet to discuss their
concerns, and are jailed for treason. Maginos, one of the advisors and the
court wizard, transforms everyone into mice so that they can escape from
prison, but they’re stuck as mice. They must then try to thwart Vanestra’s evil
plans and find a way to return to human form.
The game is played from one chapter to the next. The base
set (Sorrow and Remembrance) has eleven chapters, each one with it’s own unique
rules and goals. Every chapter has a victory condition which must be achieved
in order to win and proceed with the story. The victory condition are things
like defeating a particular enemy, rescuing someone, or gathering information
about Vanestra’s plans. While victory is a variable, defeat is pretty
consistent; if everyone is captured at the same time, or if time runs out, then
you lose.
Each player chooses a character from one of the following:
Prince Collin: Son of King Andon, Collin is a skilled but
inexperienced warrior and leader. His abilities can make him an excellent tank,
a serious damage dealer, or just the most helpful guy ever. Collin's versatility makes him a really fun character to play, and as the only leader character, he gets exclusive access to some really useful powers.
Nez Bellows: Nez is a blacksmith, but also a skilled
warrior. His abilities can make him a truly formidable damage dealer, or serve
in more of a support/crowd control role. Nez is one I don't get to play much, since everybody wants to be the guy what does the smooshing. I'd personally like to see someone explore his more techy side.
Tilda: Tilda is a healer, and if you’re a veteran RPG
player, you know how useful she is just from those four words. However, she’s
also got some good (if situational) damage potential. As is common, nobody wants to be the healer, in spite of the need for her. I actually really want to try out playing her as more of a damage dealer.
Maginos (see below for picture): Maginos is a venerable wizard of some skill. His spells
allow him to do a number of things. His versatility makes him probably my
favorite character to play as. But that might also just be because I love
roleplaying my headcanon of him.
Filch: Filch is a dastardly thief. Unlike the previous
characters, he’s not actually one of King Andon’s advisors, but instead was
just in the same cell as the others and got caught up in the spell. While he
acts selfish, he does help the rest of our heroes without (too much) complaint,
and his roguery is a great boon to the party. While he doesn’t hit as hard as Nez
or Collin can, he’s got his own way of felling foes.
Lily: Lily is another odd one. She’s actually a real mouse,
part of a town that lives in a tree in the courtyard of the castle. She joins
the others after they rescue her. She’s probably my least favorite character,
if only because I feel like she doesn’t do anything that other characters can’t
do better. Also, I dislike archers.
Certain chapters either require or forbid certain
characters. Regardless of how many people are playing, most chapters require
four mice, so players can double up on characters if needed. Personally, my
gaming group and I really like using Filch, Nez, Tilda, and Collin. Filch’s
mobility lets him get around the board with ease and take out the weaker
enemies, Nez can take out the tougher enemies with little problem (other than
being slow), Tilda keeps everyone from going down, and Collin can pitch in and
help out with any of the above, depending on how the battle is going.
Each character starts off with one ability, which they can
use by spending cheese (more on that in a moment). You choose an ability based
on which class(es) your character has. The abilities all do different things,
sometimes letting you do a special kind of attack, letting you move in a
special way, or just boosting your attack or defense. You gain additional
abilities by spending six cheese to level up (again, more on cheese in a
minute). One of my favorites is a mystic ability called Invisibility. Pretty
straightforward, but it prevents your character from being targeted by attacks
for one turn. It’s a great defensive ability for Maginos, whose defense is not
very good. Characters also begin play with particular gear. Everyone starts
play with a signature weapon (except Filch, who just has a nondescript dagger),
and maybe some armor. As you journey through the cavernous castle, you can find
even better gear, in standard RPG fashion. However, you’re only allowed to keep
one item that’s not part of your starting gear when going from one chapter to
the next.
On your turn, you obviously have different things you can
do. Each character is allowed to move, use an action, and do free actions.
Moving is pretty straightforward, you roll one of the dice and add the number
to your mouse’s speed value, and that’s how many spaces you can move. Terrain,
such as water or having to climb something, can alter how far you can move, but
most of the time it’s not an issue. Free actions are mostly limited to
equipping/unequipping items, and trading items/cheese with other nearby characters.
Finally, there are a number of actions that you can perform. You can take
another move (called a scurry action), you can search for items, you can
recover, you can explore, and of course you can attack something.
Searching for items it pretty simple; you roll one of the
dice, and hope to get one of the faces with a star burst symbol on it.
If you get that, then you find an item. Sometimes, a tile
will have areas where you can find specific items, but most of the time you’ll
just draw a card from the top of the search deck. Usually, this will be an
item, but it could also be a trick, fortune, or treachery card. Tricks are
special moves that you can do, such as taking down an enemy without having to
roll. Fortune cards grant a boon to you and the rest of the party such as
healing. Treachery cards are… well, treachery. They cause something bad to
happen, sometimes just for you, others for the entire party. Treachery cards
suck.
Recovery is pretty simple as well. When you’re afflicted by a
condition (being webbed, stunned, or on fire), you take a recovery action to
attempt to end the condition. Stunned just goes away, but being on fire or
being webbed requires rolling the dice and hoping for a star burst symbol seen
above.
Exploring is a more dramatic way of saying “moving to a new
tile.” If you’re in the proper space, you can use an explore action to move the
entire party to a new tile. Unfortunately, you can only do this if there aren’t
any enemies on the board. So, if a fight isn’t going well, you can’t just run
away.
The battle action is probably the most used one, because
what kind of RPG doesn’t involve lots of stabbing of enemies?
Battle is pretty simple; every mouse has a battle value on
their character card. That value can be enhanced by abilities or equipment
(weapons usually give a bonus). You take a number of dice equal to your mouse’s
battle value (including all the modifiers) and roll them. If you’re doing a
melee attack, you’re hoping for the sword or sword/shield symbols.
If you’re doing a ranged attack, then you’re hoping for bows
and arrows.
You add up the number of attack symbols you get, and that’s
the number of potential hits. The player to your left then rolls defense for
whatever minion you’re attacking. They’re “trying” (only half-heartedly if
they’re good teammates) to get the symbols with shields. If you got more hits
than they got blocks, then the minion takes wounds equal to the difference.
Most enemies go down after taking one wound, but others (like bosses) are more
resilient. If you roll cheese while either attacking or defending, then you
receive a piece of cheese for each die it shows up on. Cheese is important
because, as mentioned before, that’s what powers your abilities, and also allows
you to level up in order to gain more abilities. The dice are six-sided, each with a different face. There's 3 faces that have the star burst symbol and three that don't. There are 3 faces that have a sword, 2 of which also have a shield, 2 faces with a bow, and 1 with cheese. So, on any given die, you have a 50/50 chance of scoring a potential melee hit, a 1:3 chance of getting a ranged hit or a block, and 1:6 chance of getting cheese.
Those are the basic rules of the game. Each chapter has
specifics that are detailed within the story book, and there's some stuff I didn't get into for the sake of brevity. With that out of the way,
let’s talk about the pieces of the game. The board is comprised of 8 double-sided tiles. Each chapter uses a different tile setup, usually utilizing
both sides of each tile, and requiring you to explore to the other side during
the game. The tiles are all nice and uniquely designed, with some good artwork
to really immerse you into the story. My only complaint about the tiles is that
they’re not the most robust game board I’ve ever seen. Mine have gotten a
decent amount of play, and they’re all dinged up with indents on them and an
annoying amount of damage to the corners.
There are a bajillion little bits representing various
things in game; achievement tokens, party items, condition markers, cheese,
enemy marker things and more. I highly recommend using a bunch of tiny bags to
keep the various different kinds of pieces separate. Sadly, the game doesn’t
come with a bunch of baggies, so you’ll have to get them yourself. I didn’t
have any baggies for awhile, and it was a huge pain sifting through the giant
pile to find the pieces we wanted when we wanted them.
The best component of the game in my opinion is the
miniatures. I’ve never really been a miniatures gamer, since minis games
generally require a bank loan in order to get into, but I love minis. I started
collecting them for D&D several years ago, so I’ve seen quite a few minis.
The ones for Mice and Mystics are great. Every mini was made from a quality
sculpt, and the details are nicely preserved in spite of them being
mass-produced. Each of the heroes has a nice, unique look to them, and there
are some nice details to each one, like little tools in Nez’s apron, a clasp on
Colin’s cloak, etc. The minis are unpainted, however, which is a turn-off for
some people. I, however, loved it because it gave me an excuse to do some
painting (something I hadn’t done in entirely too long before getting the
game). Minis painting is a lot of fun to me, and if you don’t like how a
character looks in the artwork for the game, this is a great opportunity to
change it.
Speaking of artwork, I absolutely love the artwork. From the
tiles, to all the cards, to the illustrations in the story and rule books. The
artwork is reminiscent of the artwork from Redwall illustrations that I’ve seen
(not the cartoon though), which is fitting because it does have a similar sort
of feel. There’s a great balance between detail and simplicity, realism and
stylization. The colors are all warm and inviting, much like the illustration
from an old fable might be.
Likewise, I also really like the writing for the story. Some
would say that it’s childish, because it’s about a group of adorable mice.
While I agree that there are some elements that are rather simplistic
(particularly the names of things), it really doesn’t bother me. It just has a
feel of an old fairy tale in my opinion. Not as dark as the Grimm tales, but
it’s darker than any of the stuff I was exposed to as a kid. It’s serious and
somber at points, and also has some really epic moments if you have the
imagination to envision them. The pacing of the story is kind of slow, with the
heroes taking longer than they really should be in getting shit done, but it
just reminds me of the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring. Get off your ass
and GO FRODO!
Ahem. With all of this in mind, what are my overall thoughts
on the game? Well, I love the flavor, with it having a similar feel to
Mouseguard, if smaller in scope. The aesthetic is also solid, as I explained up
above. The writing has its fault, but is overall still pretty good. Hell, I
read through the stories for no other reason than wanting to know how things
played out. The gameplay is pretty good and if you’re accustomed to turn based
RPGs, you’ll get used to it real quick. My only complaint is that there are
some chapters that are very difficult. Chapter 3 is notorious for
crushing the spirit of every group I’ve played it with. If you get really
unlucky with rolls, then an otherwise alright chapter becomes a nightmare,
although you could say this argument applies to many RPGs as well. Another
point that some people might have a problem with is the price; at $75, it’s on
the upper end of board games when it comes to cost. However, just playing
through the game will take several sessions (each chapter takes an hour to an
hour and a half), and each play-through can feel different. Just like any RPG,
there are choices you can make in chapters to get a different kind of play
experience.
There’s currently two expansions available for Mice and
Mystics as well; Heart of Glorm and Downwood Tales. Heart of Glorm adds six new
chapters to the story, as well as a new character, and the ability to be lit on
fire! Downwood Tales introduces ten new chapters, and three new characters (two
of which aren’t even mice). Heart of Glorm didn’t thrill me too much, but
Downwood Tales I am incredibly excited to play (sadly I haven’t gotten to do so
yet).
Overall, I say the game is worth it. It’s mechanically
simple, but there’s depth and complexity to it as well, and an enjoyable story
driving the action. If you’re not sure about it, I’d suggest trying to play a
demo of it at a convention or your local game store if they’ve got it.
Next week will be the final entry of the Couchman birthday spectacular. Join me next week, as we wrapped things up in a mythic fashion! Until then, citizens!
