You Win or You Die – Reflections on the Final Seasons of Game of Thrones

George R. R. Martin’s epic has never been a personal favorite, but I’ve read all five novels and now I’ve finally caught up to the HBO series as well. Initially, my decision was to stop watching it, as I don’t find much delight in brutally killing off characters I’m fond of; but the hype around these latest episodes turned my head around.

Turns out that they weren’t worth the hype, but they taught me a thing or two about the creator’s integrity.

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Avengers: Endgame Is Lazy Writing

In a world where a handful of people can defeat an army, surely superbrains and supercomputers exist, too? If a glowing superheroine can blow up an alien warship in an instant, does it not make sense that a superintelligence could solve an impossibly difficult scientific problem in a second? Handled well, by maintaining the world’s internal logic, staying true to the themes of the story, and respecting the audience, it would work.

But Avengers: Endgame botched it, and rewarded a year’s worth of waiting with lazy writing and more gods out of the machine than you can throw Mjolnirs at. A collection of funny scenes and some admittedly dramatic moments isn’t enough.

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Testauksessa: Brass: Birmingham

Teemansa ja nimensä puolesta ei suoraan sanoen mikään kauhean houkutteleva peli: Englannin teollistumista 1700- ja 1800-luvuilla.

Mutta nätti se on! Tummia sävyjä, jotka onnistuvat luomaan teollistumisen ajan fiilistä ja olemaan myös omaperäinen värimaailmansa puolesta: pelaajien värit ovat violetti, kulta (messinki?), about tiilenpunainen ja jonkinlainen vaalean sävy. Tykkään jo siitä, että ei ole sellaista perushailakkaa meininkiä, vaan voimakkaita, teemaan sopivia värejä.

Alkuvaikutelma oli kaoottinen, mutta kun peliin pääsi sisään, niin se onkin tosi kivasti hahmotettavissa ja opittavissa. Komponenteista ja visuaalisesta ilmeestä täydet pojot! Kickstarter-laitoksessa vielä on pokerichipit rahana, mikä on todella jees.

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Testauksessa: Arboretum

Nätti korttipeli, jossa on 80 korttia: 10 puulajia, jokaisesta kahdeksan korttia numeroituna ykkösestä kasiin. Jokaisella vuorolla nostetaan kaksi korttia joko yhteisen nostopakan päältä, tai sitten jonkun pelaajan poistopakasta, jossa kortit ovat kuvapuoli ylöspäin. Yksi kortti isketään pöytään, toinen omaan poistopinoon. Kädessä on lopuksi kahdeksan korttia.

Pöydällä olevista korteista pyritään muodostamaan pelaajakohtainen verkosto, jossa ortogonaalisesti voi jäljittää puiden polkuja kasvavassa numerojärjestyksessä. Samanlajisen puun pienin ja suurin kortti määrittävät sen lajin polun. Jokaisesta polulla olevasta kortista saa pisteen – tuplapisteet, jos polulla kaikki ovat samaa lajia. +1 piste, mikäli polku alkaa ykkösestä, +2 mikäli se loppuu kahdeksikkoon.

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Testauksessa: Kemet

Sotaisaa menoa muinaisegyptissä!

Pelaajien korteilla on jumalat eli pitäisikö siitä päätellä, että eri kultistit palvovat omia jumaliaan ja yrittävät saada toisiaan päiviltä. Vallataan temppeleitä, manataan pöytään hienosti figutettuja hirviöitä (jättikärme, skarabee, sfinksi, jne.).

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Old School World: Our First Session of The Black Hack

It had been some time since I’d last got to be a GM. After resolving a few challenging IRL random encounters, I was ready to step into the ring again and return to gamemastering withThe Black Hack, that made such a great impression on me upon reading it. My guild brother Harri had kindly printed out and bound a copy for me.

I felt the game would lend itself well to a First Session in the vein of Apocalypse World and its ilk. All the four character classes have a small table for some colorful items, and the players create a single, one-or-so sentence Background for their character which lets them participate in the worldbuilding, as well. My idea was to let the players make their characters and ask some more or less provocative questions from them, and use those as my main springboard for the world.

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Review: The Black Hack Second Edition

Old School Renaissance is a wonderful trend. I don’t know it too well myself, but every time I take a peek or venture a little deeper into the jungle, I find endless adventures, ideas, hacks, additions, and other stuff that all seems very cool. That, of course, means that it can be really difficult to spot the stuff that’s the best for you.

I’ve looked into a lot of games. Many of them promise room for imagination and a return to a rules-light approach, but to me, they don’t live up to the promise. Still, I have kept looking. To find a treasure. A real treasure: a game that would encapsulate OSR ideas and energy but whose design felt modern enough.

With David Black‘s The Black Hack, I may have found what I was looking for.

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A Newcomer’s Review: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition

As Lauri said in his review, I have never played or read any edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or WFRP. My own experiences in RPGs are mostly horror and then American indie games during the last 10 years. My tastes have been drifting as of late, though, which is why I was eager to set my eyes upon a relaunch of a British classic.

Disclaimer: Cubicle 7 was kind enough to send us a pdf for review.

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