A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

games

Pandemic Legacy: Quite the gaming experience

Spoiler alert: I’ve done my best to not have spoilers in this post, however, there is a chance some might view some of the things I talk about as potential spoilers. Therefore, if you haven’t played Pandemic Legacy and are thinking about doing so, you might want to avoid the post.

The Pandemic series of games is excellent. Since I got into the board game hobby a few years ago, the original Pandemic has been one of my favorite games.

First, I love the cooperative gaming experience. Win as a team or lose as a team. Second, the game can change drastically with the number of players you have and what characters are used. Add in different expansions and it can be fully different, of course.

So when Legacy was announced, I was highly excited.

Basically, Pandemic Legacy takes you through a year – January to December. Each month, you play the game. If you lose, you play the month again. If you win, you move on. However, no matter what, you only play two times per month. Lose both and move on.

Pandemic Legacy was an excellent gaming experience.

Pandemic Legacy was an excellent gaming experience.

Your goal is to stop a deadly disease from spreading all over the world and destroying humanity. No pressure or anything. And every decision you make has the chance of making this outbreak even worse. The kicker to this game is the game actually changes throughout. Based on your decisions, cards can be ripped, characters killed off, changes to cities etc.

There are a whole slew of pull-off tab boards with different things that you unlock along the way, as well as small boxes to open. Inside each of these is something to change the game one way or another. It could be added components, or stickers for the rulebook or somewhere on the board, or something you possibly might be using from that point forward.

The game changes. Rules are added. Sometimes it takes something away. Maybe there’s something you aren’t allowed to do something. Objectives have to be met and sometimes they change.

All those changes stay with the game as you move forward, too. There’s no repeat, rewind or do over button.

At the end of 12 months, the game is over. There’s no replaying it because so many things have been destroyed and you know what happens. So, at the most, you get 24 plays with the game (which I think is well worth it).

The best part about this game, though, is it’s basically a narrative. You are part of a story that is being told. Your decisions impact what happens and which direction you go.

Can you save humanity?

The group I played with went 18 times, which comes down to about three bucks per play. I’ll take it.

When done, you have a game full of all sorts of items to not play again. I have some ideas on what I am going to do with the stuff. I had each person sign the board though, which is cool. I’m sure I’ll post about that once I have it done.

As for the game…

This was a fantastic experience. This has been called Season 1, and the rumors are Season 2 will be out in 2017 and I plan on getting that one for sure.

But Season 1…

First, the Legacy aspect of the game was cool. Things happened. The objectives we had to fill changed some. There were different things we had to do to try and make things a little easier on our people – such as build some things etc.

One cool aspect are the game-end upgrades. At the end of each game, you get to choose from a whole slew of things to upgrade the game – and it can be something to the game board itself, to a character etc. Each decision will help with one aspect of the game moving forward, if you utilize it.

The game changes ... and makes it really interesting.

The game changes … and makes it really interesting.

If you don’t utilize it, then it obviously won’t help.

You can change up your characters throughout, but they can also die. They can get “scars,” which limits certain things they can do. They can also form “relationships” with other characters, thus giving them some “powers” to use with that person. When a character dies, you’re to rip up the card and get rid of them.

I think we had two characters die.

The characters, including the original crew and the ones we saw along the way, all had special powers to help us. We built some up with the upgrades.

We kept the same four people throughout, which made it better so we didn’t have to explain the new rules to somebody different. Though, to be honest, after playing it out one time – I think if one had to play it and had to change somebody out, I don’t think it would be a super big deal. Somebody might not get the full experience, but they should still get a solid experience from playing.

The thought process that had to have gone into making this version of the game is pretty incredible. Sometimes I can’t grasp how people come up with more simple games. To think this game was transformed not just to a normal play, but to an experience is pretty incredible.

The game was a story that you helped control. Sure, things were going to happen. That is for sure But the decisions you made and the directions you went were part of what shaped the game.

There’s no right or wrong way to tackle this experience, either. We played multiple games each time we played. I’ve read about people starting this January with the plan of playing the games within the real calendar month. Looking back, I think that would have been a pretty cool way to play it.

If you like Pandemic, this is definitely a game for you. Add in a cooperative effort for this with the narrative and it basically becomes Pandemic on steroids. Is this the best game I’ve ever played? I can’t say that (though it has shot up to No. 1 in the Board Game Geek ratings), but it was one of the coolest board gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I look forward to Season 2!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

ConnCon a good way to break into gaming conventions

I should have blogged about this a bit before now, but … well, it happens.

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to head to a board game convention – ConnCon, held in Stamford, Connecticut. I went in with an open mind, but had my doubts. And why?

Well, in the past when I had thought about cons like this, all I could think about was a bunch of people dressing up like their favorite comic characters or something else and just … well, general geekery.

My first gaming convention -- ConnCon!

My first gaming convention — ConnCon!

I had wanted to go to one of those cosplay style conventions in the past for photo reasons, but I was going to this one because I wanted to play games. Was I going to be disappointed? The person who leads our local game night assured me different – this is a gaming convention with gaming as the core. It would be fine.

He wasn’t kidding.

From Friday through Sunday afternoon, we gamed. Oh did we game. I met some wonderful people (and, to be fair, a couple that made me shake my head, but that’s to be expected) from all walks of life. There were people who might fit the “board gamer” stereotype a bit more than others and then some you might have thought “he plays board games?”

Stumbling into starting to play modern-day board games was almost accidental for me. Two of us were on a way to an event and the other noted he was missing a night at a friend’s house. A weekly board gaming night, to which he noted it might sound dorky. I said … “so you guys play Monopoly and such?” He then explained the modern games and by the end of the night, the leader of this group had invited me. Outside of a chunk over last summer and such, I’ve been a pretty decent regular and have gotten into it.

I’ve enjoyed the aspects of gaming (including my personal collection of games continually growing), so when the idea of heading to ConnCon came up, it seemed like a no-brainer.

I’m glad I went.

We began Friday morning, before the convention “officially opened” by three of us who traveled down playing a game in the open area. Bora Bora is one I had wanted to play and we broke it out. We pulled in somebody who seemed to be looking for a game – Norm – and he had actually played said game. Norm joined us on several games throughout the weekend.

And to use Norm as an example – he was “common” through the weekend, and by that I mean the friendly, easy-going, want-to-play board games sort of person.

That game of Bora Bora, which we started at about 9 a.m. or so, was the beginning of a weekend where we didn’t sleep a ton and played a whole heap of games. Going to bed between 2-3 a.m. was normal for the next two nights, followed by getting up by 7 a.m.

I’m not as young as I once was, though.

Still, I was home by 6 p.m. on Sunday, which was nice.

Anyway, back to the weekend. I played 33 different times during the convention, including 27 games. That was the best part.

I had signed up to fill each slot scheduled at the Con with a game. The slots were four-hours long, so that still gave a lot of time for some open gaming.

I also ran the gamut of gaming with some really deep ones to the quick and easy ones. Some games took 10-15 minutes, while others went several hours. Of all the games I played, only one had I previously played.

The experiences are far too many to list here, but I’ll share a few.

First, one game I’ve wanted to play for a while is Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice. It’s a neat-looking game and I saw some people playing it. Turns out the owner of the game, Steve, is a wrestling nut – much like myself. We talked the squared circle a bit and agreed to get together to play later in the day Friday. When I went and found him later, he was deep into a game and leaving for the night soon after – so he told me to borrow the game for the evening, which I did.

Steve setting up for some Luchador! action!

Steve setting up for some Luchador! action!

This should tell you something about the Con – trusting somebody you have just met to borrow a $40 game. Now, I think most people there wouldn’t be running out of the building with a game, but still. In fact, if you looked around the main room, there were a lot of places where people had their games so people could use them. Trusting and friendly are two words to describe the bulk of the people at this Con.

Anyway, I got in three games later with the game and enjoyed it. The next day, Steve and I had the chance to play and we did the tag-team setup, on opposite sides. The game is quick, easy to learn and a lot of fun to play. In fact, it’s now in my collection as I ordered it via Amazon a few days later.

Allow me to also point you to Steve’s blog where he talks about gaming and games. He also has a solid podcast that is in its infancy and worth giving a listen to.

***

My Saturday late-game slot was taken up by a game I had purchased via an auction – Dice Brewing.

Playing Dice Brewing!

Playing Dice Brewing!

As a home brewer, I’ve decided I want to get as many brewing games as I can, so this fit the bill. In the end, it was one of my favorite games I played all weekend.

I had purchased the game through an auction of Maciek – and it turns out he taught the session we played. And what fun. He taught the game and we had a good time with it. He even cracked out a Polish beer for us to have while we played. The beer, too, was very solid.

I am glad I added this one to my collection though as I think it was a lot of fun. I like the mechnisms, and how dice is used in the game. It’s different enough from Brew Crafters to make it a definite keeper. Plus, the session we had at ConnCon was awesome.

I also added another beer game to my collection — Goldbräu. This also will show you how great gamers are. I had been playing games with a few gentlemen and we talked about beer games. Being a home brewer and such, I want to have as many decent beer games in my collection as I can. One of them had won this game in an auction but thought I would get greater joy out of it and offered it to me. I ended up giving him what he paid for it — plus a buck (need a profit!), even thought he had only wanted to gift it to me. That’s good people right there.

***

I also had the chance to test a few games out, which was a lot of fun. A few of the games were still on Kickstarter (Between Two Cities, Bad Medicine, Bottom of the 9th), which was cool. Two of them I had already been backing, the other one I opted to back. There were a few games, too, that weren’t yet to Kickstarter (Puppy Dogs from Space and The Networks) that aren’t quite on Kickstarter yet, but are ones I’ll likely back once they reach there.

I look forward to The Networks going on Kickstarter as it's one I will definitely back.

I look forward to The Networks going on Kickstarter as it’s one I will definitely back.

The fun of Bad Medicine and The Networks, as well as Puppy Dogs from Space, was playing with the designers. Gil Hova designed the first two and it was a pleasure and a lot of fun to play those games with him there (he played Bad Medicine with us, and taught The Networks).

John Dermody is the creator of Puppy Dogs and he was there playing along with his crew. They were a hoot to play with and his game was a lot of fun, especially when I found a way to pull out the win. What was nice was being able to give a few thoughts about the games etc. As somebody who writes and works with photography, I can understand it might not always be easy to hear what people think about your “baby,” but at the same time it allows you to grow. Anything said was taken well and it was fun to see how the designers think about games. What a process!

***

I can’t say enough about the organizers, designers who were there, and the gamers at this convention.

The organizers I spoke with were friendly and helpful. The designers were awesome to deal with and they gave you insight into their games and the process. The people were just incredible. I met a lot of people and look forward to seeing them at future events.

This is one convention I plan on attending each year. I think the only thing I’ll change is to actually bring my actual camera out to take photos. There’s a lot to capture and I’d like to do that instead of relying completely on my phone. There is also a fall convention held by the same people, and I am going to plan that one, as long as it’s on a weekend where I don’t have any work I need to do. Kudos to everybody at ConnCon and I look forward to the next one.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

A “dorky” night of gaming is a great way to spend a Saturday

A month or so ago, I was chatting with a fellow softball player about an upcoming wrestling event.

Both being fans, I asked him if he was interested in going.

He said he was, but had to check things out because he did something pretty much every Saturday night. With that he noted, “it may sound dorky, but we play board games.”

That doesn’t sound dorky to me, I said. And after more prodding, I found out more about some of the games etc. It actually sounded pretty cool.

Already knowing the others (more softball players), I got an invite to go this past weekend and I wasn’t disappointed. Talk about a cheap and entertaining way to spend a Saturday night — as well as play a bunch of different games.

Hosted by George (who, interestingly enough, is a player on our biggest rivals in the local softball league), there were five of us in total for this night.

Now, when I say board games, don’t think the normal standby classics like Monopoly, Life etc. Though I personally like those games, these are newer and more interesting ones. These take some in-depth thinking, or backstabbing actions.

In short, this isn’t Parker Brothers.

I’ve always been a fan of nights like this. But, I’ve never been much of a card guy. And that usually scratches off a Saturday night as most people I know don’t want to get together and play board games. So I feel fortunate I had the chance to play with this group and look forward to more in future weeks.

Turns out George is quite the gamer with something like 150 games, some of which he’s gotten through Kickstarter campaigns and such. It’s safe to say that I hadn’t heard of any of the ones we played and probably only a handful of the others we didn’t.

All told, we played four games that night.

Wallenstein

The first, Wallenstein, had a Risk “feel” to it in that you controlled certain areas. But it wasn’t the full goal as you needed to have buildings, properties and be able to feed these places, too. It was pretty in-depth.

There were battles, too, but sometimes it’s not the smartest thing to do.

What I liked about this game is the thinking aspect. After a round or so, you could see things unfold a bit more and realize you needed to strategize. For example, you didn’t want to tax or get grain from the same spot twice during a round or they would revolt and fight.

That’s not a good thing.

So you had to think about where you were, who was around you, what could happen and a whole slew of other things.

The game took a few hours to play, but it wasn’t a boring few hours. In fact, when we were done and one of the others noted the time, I couldn’t believe we had been playing that long. But that’s OK. When it’s fun and continually moves, it’s all good.

The second game was my favorite of the night — Nothing Personal. It’s a mafia-based game where your goal is to “control” as many gangsters as you can, and also have the Capo ring. You use influence points and strategy to get as many points as you can.

Cards from “Nothing Personal.”

But the best part? Deception.

Using game cards and other things, you can actually get others to pay you to do things or place influence points etc.

And if you decide, after getting their money, that you don’t want to help them? You screw them over.

That’s a whole heap of fun.

For the most part, there was honesty in this game on this night. Though there were battles (I was basically targeting one person and, in turn, he was doing the same!), the game progressed pretty well.

This game can make you think a bit because if you are a little too deceptive, you can totally get people to gang up on you.

And that’s not something you usually want to have happen in any game.

I do like that there was strategy involved and you had to think about where and when to play your cards. But being able to auction things off or give them to somebody to hurt somebody else, it’s even better. A very cool game that didn’t take too long to play.

After that, we went on to Speculation, a fast-paced stock market game.

Stocks and a card from “Speculation.”

Basically, you watch as stocks go up fast or slow and try and buy high/sell low. The amount of stock is based on where it is among the eight on the board and what part of the board they are on. There are times where you can get a stock and actually get paid to take it. Boom!

What’s nice about this one is it’s actually a bit relaxing. Because it moves fast, you basically just have to try and think about what kind of money you have to spend or what you want to sell.

Like the regular stock market, it’s chance and luck.

One player draws how many spaces a stock will move and then each player flips a card over to show what stock they choose to use. There’s also one card per player that can stop the stocks from moving.

It’s a fast-moving game, which is nice as it can be a bridge from one game to the next. And though there’s some thought and strategy, it’s not too deep, so you can rest your melon a bit before jumping back into a bigger game.

We finished the night with a game called Lord of Waterdeep.

Lord of Waterdeep.

This game was pretty interesting. You have cards that allow you to do things and you have to finish quests. That makes things interesting when it’s your turn as you have to make sure you get everything you need. When you complete the quests, you earn points and sometimes gold or other things.

It’s very interesting.

This one required thinking, strategy and paying attention. I like games like that as it makes you consider each of your moves and what ramifications can come from said move.

The best part?

When the game ended, I held on for a stunning victory. It was nice to be able to walk away by winning a game on my first night there. Though, to be fair, winning wasn’t the most important part. It was playing and having a good time.

I’ll look forward to future game nights as it’s definitely a fun way to spend a night and it doesn’t cost anything, either, which is even better!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Munzee gives geocachers and others a different kind of fun

A couple of years ago, many geocachers heard of this new game — Munzee. It had some of the same ideas as geocaching — find something out in the wild and discover it.

Alas, it was different — one needed a smartphone. The idea was to scan a QR code and get points.

Interesting.

At the same time, I wondered if it would catch on. After all, not everybody had a smartphone, so it might not get people as involved as it might if there were other ways to play the game.

I got in on it early. I placed a couple and found a few others more. But nobody really did it in my area. To be fair, it’s still not something that has caught on. But recently, I gave it a peek again and it’s definitely something I’d like to do a little more of. What caught my eye was a post on Lone R’s blog discussing secret Munzees.

Secret Munzees?

Turns out there are Munzees you can find online. Seems like a pretty smart idea to allow people to find something on a bad weather day. I found several that night and was interested again.

Still, I needed to learn more about this company — one that started in July 2011 and has a staff of four, of which one is full time.

Before moving forward, though, one needs to know what Munzee is.

“A worldwide smartphone scavenger hunt with options to incorporate business partnerships and private events,” said Rob Vardeman, the Business Development and Community Manager at Munzee Inc. On Jan. 1, Vardeman became the first full-time employee at Munzee.

Of the many smartphones out there, Munzee is only on iPhone or Android devices.

The idea for Munzee came to co-founder Aaron Benzick in 2008, but he needed to wait until technology and phones were ready. An organizational meeting was held in January 2011 and everything launched in July of the same year.

Benzick co-founded the company with Scott Foster, Chris Pick and Josh Terkelsen, who has since moved on from the company.

Though geocachers seemed to jump on board with Munzee in the beginning, Vardeman said only one of the co-founders had ever found a geocache.

“Munzee was designed to be a competitive game, based on new QR technology,” Vardeman said. “We never dreamed it would take off as fast as it has, and spread to so many new markets.”

The game

The basis is simple. Find the Munzee, scan the QR code with your phone and collect points.

Munzees can be located in many places, including inside geocaches.

Players can create two types of Munzees — regular and virtual. If you are a premium member, you receive a premium gold Munzee to deploy. That special star is worth 50 points when deploying and 10 points for a user when they capture it. Several times a year, the company also sells mystery Munzees. Vardeman said the most recent release of these saw 5,000 sold in fewer than three hours. Those mystery Munzees have a random point assigned per capture. The points can range from 5-50.

The Munzees can be deployed in many places, as long as it follows the company code of conduct.

Virtual Munzees are used at places where a physical Munzee can’t be be. They can be placed anywhere, though.

As an example, I had never found a virtual. I noticed there was one in Cooperstown and I had planned to go there this past Sunday. And, as luck would have it, it’s for the Baseball Hall of Fame. You needed to be within 300 feet to be able to make the snag on this one. Even better? I was first to capture!

What a Munzee looks like (this one isn’t active).

Munzee’s slogan kind of tells the story for finders, too: Find. Capture. Reward. And taking that in mind, the game is pretty much what the user decides.

“For some it is about the competition,” Vardeman said. “For others it’s all about the points. Some deploy and capture only when it involves hiking and scenery. A Munzee is very easy to conceal in locations where a container could never be placed. … Munzee is a game for hardcore gamers or casual part-timers.”

As for those secret Munzees that grabbed my attention again?

“Secret Munzees, which don’t stay secret long if you visit the forums, are controlled and issued only through Team Munzee,” Vardeman said. “We are always looking to break through into new areas, so we test theories to see if we can make something work. The outcome has been excellent so far. The fun all comes from watching players try to solve the secret.”

One of the classic examples is the Konami code one, and it’s simple enough — visit the Munzee website and type in one of the most well-known cheat codes in the world — Contra. Check it out and see how you can snag a few Munzees in the process.

“Using the arrow keys, B, and A — you, too, can Munzee your way through Contra,” Vardeman said. “What’s next?  Just wait and see!”

Growth

Munzees are in more than 100 countries and are on all seven continents — Antarctica included. At the point I wrote this, there were 299,985 Munzees deployed and 1,884,947 captures.

The growth of the company has allowed Munzees to branch into different directions, such as businesses.

A business Munzee is designated with a purple pin on the Munzee map. A basic one doesn’t cost businesses anything and works like a digital reward card. When customers scan it, there’s an option for businesses to offer rewards. There are also additional services and packages, by contacting Munzee, available for a fee, such as corporate events, trade shows and private events.

With so many options, it seems like Munzee is moving in the right direction.

“Munzee will continue to extend the boundaries of the smartphone location-based scavenger hunt industry,” Vardeman said. “Technology will continue to evolve and Munzee will be poised to evolve with it.”

On the web:

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Fun and Games: Geocaching crossword puzzle

OK, I’m going to try and have some fun features here on occasion.

Namely games.

I’m not sure how many of you are into crossword puzzles or word searches. But I am going to have them here every once in a while. It might be every week. It might be every two. Who knows. But I will be putting them up here.

This first one is a geocaching crossword puzzle.

Enjoy!

—–

Puzzle No. 1

  • Type: Crossword Puzzle
  • Subject: Geocaching
  • Level of difficulty: Easy

Note: Because of the layout of my blog, this is a small version of the crossword puzzle. Considering you’ll have to print it out, anyway, you can get a large version by clicking here.

I hope you enjoyed the puzzle. Look for more in the future.

If you need the answers for this one, click here.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!