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De Vulgari Eloquentia & 7 Wonders

De Vulgari Eloquentia
Way back before we even went to Gen Con, we started a game of De Vulgari Eloquentia. In the game the players are creating a new language. One that will be commonly spoke in all of Italy. The aim of the game is to gain victory points (or Volgare points) by reading manuscripts, looking for important documents, and by improving their social status. Sounds exciting doesn’t it. It’s actually not too bad. During a turn you get to take a number of actions. Each of these actions cleverly move you towards victory. Whether it’s discovering the lost manuscripts in an area of Italy or gaining profit from your small business.

During our game, I found it difficult to figure out just what I should be doing. One of the plethora of actions you can take during a turn is to “buy” the support of Politicians, businessmen, and others. These are represented by cubes of various colors and are kept behind a screen. During the last part of the game, these are used for voting and can grant you a lot of VP if you play your cards right, which I didn’t. It seems that if you were taking your actions later in the turn, all the good support was already gone. That was my problem, so I majored in manuscripts, for which you get direct VPs from. It didn’t help.

It also didn’t help that we played half the game and then came back three weeks later to finish it. Although we weren’t crazy about the game, I think we’d all like to play it again now that we have an idea of how the VPs work.

Ben won our game with 42 points. Owen was a very close second with 41. I had 27 and Mike had 24. So much for our manuscript reading skills.

We got done a little early and decided to play a game of 7 Wonders. I love this game. This game does not love me. As this picture shows:
7w_Score_G5_R1_2013-09-09

Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode 7: The Tunnel of Exploding Walkers

GM: Evil Mike McNeal  Ben (Hernandez. His parents are his dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We enter a cave system hoping to cross under the Rio Grande and under the vexation of walkers. Along the way Alex, our tracker, sets off a trap that closes the tunnel behind us. (And he’s the best of the best.) We also find that the drug smugglers who used these caves in the past left behind enough explosions, rigged along the tunnels, to bring the whole thing down on our heads. With no other way to go, we continue onward.

We’re attacked by walkers. I can’t remember who, possible Alex or Ben, poked one good with a knife or shot it. The walker exploded. Something about having its DNA being saturated with the explosives we found down here in the tunnel. I watch the Sci-Fi channel, so I know exactly how this works.

I successfully escape two walkers dragging my wife, Michele, along too. I fire two shots into one of the exploding walkers behind me. The resulting chain reaction of explosions kills five walkers. Not a bad use of ammo.

We lost one of the Banal Corporation nurses in the fight. Ben immediately starts hitting on the other one. (He needs a dependent.) I think he then spends all of his bennies on his persuasion roll. We discover a cache of cash and cocaine. The cash is worthless and we burn it. The cocaine we take with us. For medicinal purposes only. Or for trading. Or for using if we beat this walker infection.

We find an underground river that exits into a wall. It appears to be our only way out. Mike finds some drift wood and we fashion a boat. Into the darkness we go…

…and over a waterfall.

Alex and mike jump off the raft before the waterfall. Ben and Owen hold on for dear life. I jump from the boat after the waterfall.

My wife dies. Ben’s newly acquired dependent, nurse #2, dies as well. Owen loses Cindy. It’s a sad day for us all.

Next week it’s payback time! And this time…it’s personal!

Chaos Steve

2013-09-04 17.47.49

 

Walkers, Episode 6: The Long Walk Home

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. His parents are his dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

(This is a placeholder. I’ve misplaced the write up from 8/7. I blame Mike.)

Tarsa: Episode 2 – Jailbreak!

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players: Lee – Logan – Kantorian master of matter manipulation.
Mike – Pythos – Former military cybernetic being with mercenary tendencies.
Shawn – Sycrom – The most intelligent dense person (like really really tough to hurt) you’ll ever meet.

Logan decides to make a quick (several hours) journey to the Pythorian to see if he can dig up any additional information, while Sy cools his heels in the local Big House. Turns out Mero 10 is not big on separating the accused from the convicted when waiting for trial!

Sy spends his time chatting up the other inmates and making notes on the warden. He finds two very interesting things. First, the warden is making money off of holding people in jail regardless of their crime. And second, Pythos was seen in this very jail AFTER he was supposedly incinerated in the Hopper House.

Logan finds nothing of value on the Pythorian that was hidden in an abandoned military complex on Drakos (Mero 9) and returns to Mero 10.

Sy was brutally tortured in some hidden facility (but of course it didn’t hurt him at all and oddly, they asked no questions). When Logan returns, Sy fills him in on what’s going on so Logan uses his matter control to enter the jail.  He did a great job on being stealthy, but the guards did a better job of looking for trouble!  Logan and Sy hatch a plan to free all the prisoners and then find the secret entrance. After the prisoners get free, Logan decides not to go hunting for the location and just opens a hole in the ground to try and find it.

Sure enough they find a maze of tunnels under the jail and Logan quickly leaves Sy in the dark only to stumble across a hive of spiders that quickly web him up! Sy goes as fast as he can to find him and does just in time for Logan to break free. Meanwhile the jail guards have come down to the caverns looking for the escapees. Sy heroically kills two of the spiders before getting wrapped up himself – at which point Sy has a sudden realization that the glue guns and the no-question torture really indicate that his arch enemies the Overminds may be behind this whole set of circumstances and Py was only bait!  Logan who is now facing four guards, emulates a godlike posture and causes everyone around him to be shaken!

Just then, three meganauts and an Overmind enter the room where Sy is held by webs and Sy suddenly realizes his worst fears are true! Logan, thinking quickly fires his blaster full blast at Sy, shredding the webbing in time for Sy to get a shot at the Overmind causing three wounds! He quickly ducks back into the room with the well, and jumps in telling Logan to run for it!  Logan gets shot for two wounds but quickly follows Sy using his matter control to make a bubble of air as they narrowly escape the trap!

They wash up some ways down the underground river into another set of caverns where Sy and Logan heal Logan’s wounds and they begin to plan how they can save their friend from Sy’s worst enemies!

 

Tarsa: Episode 1 – Py’s in trouble – again!

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players:
Lee – Logan – Kantorian master of matter manipulation.
Mike – Pythos – Former military cybernetic being with mercenary tendencies.
Shawn – Sycrom – The most intelligent dense person (like really really tough to hurt) you’ll ever meet.

Logan gets a generic distress communication from Py stating that he’s in deep shit.  So of course, Logan reaches out to Sy and they high tail it to Mero 10 where the Pyro (Py’s shuttle) is located and where the distress call came from.  Mero 10 is a backwater scum and villainy planet with the kind of clientele only desperados, hard luck cases, and Py would hang out with.

When they get there, they find that the Pyro is nearly ready for demolition by the local salvage operation. They salvagers want a ridiculous amount of credits for Sy and Logan to buy the ship back so they pay them to hold off on demo for a few days. They also board the Pyro and Logan is able to decrypt Py’s appointment calendar to find he had a meeting scheduled with somebody at a bar called the “Hopper House” and so they go to investigate that.

At the Hopper House they find that Py was shot by a blaster and was vaporized. Something that doesn’t usually happen, but several parties are in agreement did happen.  Sy was not able to confirm or deny it with his readings of the DNA splattered on the floor.  The story is a couple of Meganauts came in and Py just beat the crap out of them then some bald dude came in and blasted him.

Logan and Sy then go to the nearest medical facility (at the nearby spaceport) to see if they can find out more about these Meganauts. The medical crew seem to be oddly morel as they refuse to disclose any information, so Sy causes a distraction by jumping in front of a commuter tram!  In the confusion, Logan hacks into the computer and determines that they Meganauts were not part of the local military and seem to be normal guns for hire.

Logan and Sy decide they need to find the Pythorian (Py’s interplanetary ship) to see what can be found there, so they decide to just steal the Pyro so it (and any evidence it may have) won’t be destroyed by the salvagers. Unfortunately, things do not go well (means Shawn was rolling more ones than a one sided die…or something like that). Logan was able to skedaddle with the Pyro but Sy got shot by the local “peace force” with glue guns!

Tarsa Background

Here’s a link to the setting information for Savage Tarsa, a space opera type setting!

The Harrowing

This is where you can find all the details on The Harrowing. Dates and Logistics are on the Facebook Page.  The schedule is below:

Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
8:00 AM Game 3
Steve Game		 Game 6
Norm Game
9:00 AM
10:00 AM Game 9
Norm Game
11:00 AM
12:00 PM
1:00 PM
2:00 PM Game 1
Norms MMG		 Game 4
Dave Game		 Game 7
Maharaja Game
3:00 PM
4:00 PM
5:00 PM
6:00 PM
7:00 PM
8:00 PM Game 2
Tom’s Game		 Game 5
Gordon Game		 Game 8
Dave Game
9:00 PM
10:00 PM
11:00 PM
12:00 AM

Walkers, Episode 5: The Vexation

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. His parents are his dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We are being chased by a vexation* of walkers. We decide to hole up in a cave until the vexation has passed. We check out the cave. Someone has holed up in here before. We hope that if they return that they are friendly and that they have missiles for a missile launcher. Night comes and we here walkers shuffling around outside the cave. We all try to be quiet, but Owen critically fails his stealth roll.

Ben fumbles around trying to figure a way out of the caves, so I take charge and push the rock blocking the secret exit. I roll really well for my d4 Strength. The rock rolls away, crushing a few walkers. This opens the way for our escape.

The area on the other side of the rock is filled with walkers, but beyond them is a sink hole in the ground. Ben rushes out of our cave and jumps into the hole—leaving the rest of us to our fate. Alas, it is not the bottomless pit we were hoping for and we hear a “splash”.

The rest of us follow…or try to. I make an opening so Michelle (my wife) and I can run through. We both jump into the hole. The walkers quickly form a vexation formation and surround the remaining group. Alex and Mike decide this is a good time to use the last two grenades that Alex has. Many walkers were stunned by the twin blasts.

The river at the bottom of the hole leads us back to the bridge where we first spotted a gaggle of vehicles. Our truck and trailer is there too.

Ben begins repairing a couple of cars while the rest of us do the heavy lifting. I notice movement in one of the cars besides Mike. He see it’s the bandit that escaped earlier. The man holds up his hand in a sign of peace. Mike blows him away with his shotgun. Just as Mike did to my character in a previous game session. I think Mike’s mentally unstable and should be watched. Maybe his character too.

Evil mike tells us the bandit knew where there were guns, ammo, tools, women, planes, & working cable television. We shun Mike for a while.

Ben gets a couple of cars running and we head out. If you remember—I sure didn’t—our plan is to head to the corporate headquarters of Banal, which is in Dallas Texas.

I fall asleep. (Me, not my character. I haven’t been sleeping well.) Because of this the rest of the write-up will be a little sketchy.

Owen wakes me up to make a survival roll. I get a raise. I still don’t know why I was rolling.

We trade some food for gas to someone in some town.

Ben spends 30 minutes (real time) negotiating with some guy for an unknown car part.

The guy decides to join us…for some reason.

We head out for Dallas. We’re somewhere in Mexico.

Chaos Steve

*vex·a·tion (noun) Group; especially : a group of zombies or walkers when they are chasing you

 

 

Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery

(Wow, I’m current again!)

(It won’t last.)

This week we played Spartacus, a board game based on the first season of the  STARZ TV show. We have it on good authority that this is a fun game. In the game each player is a dominus over a house in ancient Rome. In the game, each player has assets (gladiators, slaves, and guards) that they purchase and manage with the gold they accumulate. We discovered early on that gold is very important to your success…just like in the real Rome of the past. Players also have intrigue cards that can hurt your enemies and help you. One of the most important part of the game is hosting a gladiator tournament. The host earns influence and gets to invite the participants. Declining an invitation is bad for your influence, so when invited, you go. You win the game by reaching 12 influence.

Mike hosted the first tournament and invited himself and Ben to participate. Ben made a horrific decision during the combat that gave Mike the fight winning advantage. Mike’s gladiator did win, garnishing even more influence for Mike. The game pretty much continued on this way with Mike gaining influence while the rest of us plotted to bring him down—behind his back of course. Mike won. (Although I see a slave revolt in his future.)

We all liked the game. We played the short version so it only took about 2 hours to play and that’s with reading the rules and setting the game up. Next time we’ll have to play a full game. Maybe one of my gladiators will get invited to a tournament.

Chaos Steve

Rolling Freight

rolling freight
We met at Ben’s to play another new train game called Rolling Freight. We replace Evil Mike (who was on vacation) with Mike Byrd. A good trade in any dimension.

The board to this game just looks weird…and maybe complicated. Thankfully, once you understand the rules, it all becomes clear. (Ok, so maybe that’s true with all games, but just look at the board!) One cool thing is the game has its own colorful dice and lots of them. Gamers like dice and bright, flashy objects…er, colors.

We played two games, sort of. I’m going to capitalize this next sentence because I’ll never get to write it again. WE STOPPED THE FIRST GAME OF ROLLING FREIGHT BECAUSE I WAS SO FAR AHEAD. Yes, you read that right. I was so far ahead that it completely demoralized the other guys. (They hate losing to me.) Apparently I picked up on how to score points—and lots of them—pretty quickly. Or I was incredibly lucky. You decide.

So we started again. The game has three phases. After the third phase the game ends. Due to time constraints on my part, we had to stop after phase two. Just as phase two was ending I managed to get a bunch of points by building new track. This is how the game differs from the other train game we play. In this game there are a lot of points to be had just by building track. After scoring, I had a substantial lead. I left and then Ben and Owen finished their final turns. Ben said he’d tell me how the game ended. His email stated “Steve won.” That’s it. No embellishment. No scores. In the end, that’s all I needed to hear anyway. :)

Chaos Steve