Harrowed Halls

Through the Ages

We recently played an epic game of Through the Ages. It took three nights, spread over 6+ weeks to complete. (We were playing the â€œAdvancedâ€ gameâ€”not the â€œfullâ€ game.) During the game there were many shouts of victory and screams of pain. I did pretty well during the early parts of the game. That soon ended though. Owen was a slow starter which is kind of normal for Owen. He then ends strongly, when it counts. His use of colonies was fantastic. Ben was unpredictable and had to be watched carefully. Mike had highs and lows throughout the game.

During the final game session, I know I was in trouble. You need science to play technologies and I had very little of it. My military was weak also. Mikeâ€™s military was week as well and thankfully Ben attacked him. Owen continued to methodically gain ground. Ben too. Ben and Mike were the leaders with Ben having a pretty good lead. Owen and I were fighting to not be last. Then the game ended. When the game ends you go through the remaining events and play them out. This changed everything. Ben still won with 192 points. But it was Owen, not mike, who came in second with 173 points. Mike and I were suddenly locked in a battle to not be last. In the end, Mike got 167 points which put him just ahead of my 164 points.

Three days and hundreds (yes, hundreds) of hours later, I came in last. We should have played Sentinels of the Multiverse.

Chaos Steve

JimCon Report Available

For all you long suffering readers waiting for the Spring JimCon Report, it is now available!Â Enjoy.

JimConSpring2013ConventionReport

History of the World

This week we met at my house for game night. This is because I was babysitting my 6-week old grandson. I was cautiously optimistic about how this would go. The little guy gets fussy in the evenings. It turns out he was very good and the guys were very understanding of the whining and crying. Of course they are used to that already. (We whine and cry a lot at our games.)

We played History of the World. Mike Byrd also joined us, so we had 5 players. Evil Mike wasnâ€™t supposed to be there, but apparently he left one of his evil minions in charge and came over anyway.

Iâ€™ve lost count of the number of times weâ€™ve played this game. Itâ€™s a crowd favorite. Everyone else will have to add comments once this is posted to spell out any in-game fun. All I remember is the end.

The End Mike was so far ahead of us on the victory point track, that we lost sight of his tail lights. Ben, who lagged behind during the first half of the game, had become a solid contender. So had Owenâ€¦but Owen always finishes strong. It came down to a contest between Evil Mike and I over who would be last. I thought I might take him because I still had armies on most of the continents. Unfortunately it was too little too late. When the scoring was over, I was 4th runner up.

Mike Byrd won with an amazing 212 points. (We wonâ€™t be inviting him back anytime soon.) Owen was next with 190. Ben and Evil Mike followed with 185 each. I had 180. (So since Evil Mike and Ben tied, was I 3rd runner up? Letâ€™s hope so.)

Chaos Steve

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

Ben is off traveling the country for work, but that didnâ€™t deter us from gaming without him. We played Owenâ€™s copy of Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization. A game I have called the most complicated card game I have ever played. Thankfully of the three variations of the game you can play (Simple, Advance, and Insane), we played a couple of simple games.

Our first game ended too quickly. All of us were expecting a much longer game, so many of our plans went unfulfilled. You win by having the most culture points. Both Mike and Owen scored a lot of end-of-game points. Me, not so much. Owen and Mike ended up tying for first place. I guess that makes me second. (Certainly not last.)

We played the next game knowing full well how quickly it could end. Mike shot out of the gate and never looked back. He quickly dominated the culture and the military tracks by skillfully snatching up a great combination of cards. Owen and I languished way behind him. On the last turn of the game, I was able to play a leader that would have gained me much culture in the futureâ€¦if there was a future. As it was, Mike ended the game. After scoring, Mike won, but only by a single point! It turns out Owen had A LOT of end of game points and an action card that instantly gave him 6 culture points. I was thirdâ€”not last.

Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode Two: Out of the Frying Panâ€¦

[I had thought I posted this a couple of weeks ago. Uh, I was wrong.]

Walkers GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Unknown name. Unknown 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.)

Those no longer with usâ€¦
Mike Brady (Ben) Turned.
Carol Brady (Ben) DOA.
Mike McNeal and his kids (Steve) Turned. Killed by Mark Kale (Mike),

This was a particularly brutal session with three player characters either dying or turning into walkers. Evil Mike couldnâ€™t be happier.

We were still on the cruise ship, but it was time to make a run for the lifeboat. With a few thousand walkers on board, this was not going to be easy. Mike used the Chase rules to simulate our mad dash. It lasted five rounds. We rolled Agility to get cards during the chase. Obstacles are walkers who attack us. As an extra incentive, we get to scavenge any walker we kill. Let the mayhem begin!

First round, first roll, Owen critically fails his Agility roll. Bad things happen to him. Second round Mike critically fails his Agility roll. Bad things happen to him. Third round is uneventful. On the fourth round the walkers get a joker and attack us all. Owen is surrounded by walkers and takes five wounds! He soaks them all! Ben gets bit and (because of the poor card he drew) immediately turns into a walker. He attacks Owen, but misses. I also get bit, but it will take a while for me to turn. (I hoped no one noticed.) The fifth round comes and goes and we make it to the lifeboat!

We cast off with everyone breathing a sigh of relief. Then I turn into a walker and attack my kids. Fortunately Mike saw me get bit and was waiting patiently. He puts a shotgun blast square in my chest, knocking me and the kids overboard.

The survivors spend several grueling days at sea fighting hunger and thirst. Meanwhile Ben and I quickly roll up new characters. Iâ€™m now Shane Hensley and Ben is Carol Brady (the wife of his previous character.)

The survivors find land and dock at a small town in Mexico. Right away a couple of dependents wander off into the water to clean up. Meanwhile Ben and I are holed up in a building in town. Our building and the church are surrounded by walkersâ€”they know dinner is inside. Someone comes into town to look it over, but before they can do anything, thereâ€™s shouts and screams from the water. This gets the walkerâ€™s attention and they begin heading to the beach.

One of the items Benâ€™s new character had scavenged was a dirt bike. My new character had found some gas and an empty rocket launcher. Ben takes advantage of the distraction and moves the dirt bike outside. He fights off some walkers, but eventually heads out on the bike. The walkers are drawn to the noise and start following Ben as if heâ€™s the walker pied piper.

Meanwhile Owen is busy saving his dependents that wandered out into the water. There are some tense moments, but everyone survives.

Ben makes a fatal mistake. He decides NOT to move his full Pace of 15 on the dirt bike and is caught by 3 walkers. Ben ditches the bike and RUNS! I run to the bike and rev the engine in an attempt to distract the walkers. It doesnâ€™t work. The walkers catch Ben. Carol Brady goes to meet her husband in Brady heaven.

I now have the bike and lead the zombies out of town and lose them somewhere out there. I return to town and we go to the church. Inside we find many people.

Evil mike had a detailed family tree of everyone inside the church, along with relationships and blood types.

Now we have a ton of people to keep safe. Weâ€™re doomed.

Chaos Steve as Shane Hensley

Dominion and Roll through the Ages

Evil Mike is in New Jersey for his work this week, but that didnâ€™t stop Ben, Owen, and I from doing some gaming. First up we chose to play Dominion. We played with just the core set and randomly picked our 10 stacks of kingdom cards. In the first game we had a lot of kingdom cards that generated coinage. So it was no surprise when the game ended with the last 6 point victory card being bought. Ben got the majority of those 6-pointers and won the game with 52 points. I came in second with 42 points and Owen was right behind second place with 32 points. (Notice the symmetry of our scores? Thatâ€™s the hallmark of real gamers. Or it could be just dumb luck.)

The second game we chose another random set of kingdom cards. This time we were heavy on cards that gave you extra actions and allowed you to draw more cards into your hand. I think Ben was the king of this. Heâ€™d play 4 or 5 actions, grabbing another 4 or 5 cards. Fortunately for us, all that card shuffling did him little good when it came to getting coinage to buy victory points and kingdom cards. Owen on the other hand, had a well-tuned deck and he continually garnered Victory Point cards. He didnâ€™t end up with a lot of 6-pointers, but had a slew of 3-pointers. Owen won the game with 40 points. That would have got him last place in our first game. As it was Ben only scored 28 points and I had a measly 18 points. You have to wonder if Ben and I were even playing the same game as Owen.

Then we switched games and played Roll through the Ages. Our first game was rather ordinary. I thought I could pull off a win by ending the game quickly. It turns out that Owen beat me by three points. Owen had 26 points. I had 23 and ben was dead last with 17 points.

Our last game of Roll through the Ages was by far the most excitingâ€¦at least at the end. Ben had rolled two Skulls on the dice. (This would normally mean Drought for him, -2 points, but he had the Development so he could ignore this.) Ben had three more dice available. If he could roll one more skull, it would mean -3 points to both Owen and I. This would probably win him the game. He rolledâ€¦and got TWO more skulls for a total of FOUR! This was Invasion or -4 points for him. Poor Ben. Owen ended the game on the next turn, but I still had one more roll of the dice. Although I didnâ€™t have many points, with a lucky roll I could grab the Empire Development and game 13 points from it. I had six dice to roll. I immediacy rolled two skulls just like Ben. Ben and Owen both thought I should roll all of the remaining dice to try for one more skull. A -3 to both of them could win me the game. I didnâ€™t listen to them and wasted my second roll. Now I was down to my last roll. I decided to follow their suggestion and I rolled all of the remaining diceâ€¦and got TWO more skulls just like Ben! That was -4 points to me! Oh the injustice of it all! (It was just funny when it happened to Ben.) Owen won the game with 17 points. Ben was right behind him with 16. I had a whopping 13 points thanks to that -4.

All-in-all we had a great time. We hardly missedâ€¦uh, whatâ€™s his name.

Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode One: It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Bit

Walkers Gm: Evil Mike McNeal

Ben (Mike Bradley. Has four kids as dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Mike McNeal. Has twin kids as dependents.)

This week (uh, last week really) we started a Savage Worlds campaign in a new setting Evil Mike developed called, Walkers. Itâ€™s a zombie apocalypse setting with a twistâ€”you must have dependents. The setting has various rules for these dependents, plus a few new edges and hindrances. We all start the game with five draws from the Hell on Earth scavenging table. The end result is that we find lots of various ammo, but only a few firearms and none of them use the ammo that we scrounged. Evil Mike makes a rule that you can spend a Benny to change one type of ammo to another type of ammo. Maybe now weâ€™ll have a fighting chance? (I doubt it.)

Our adventure starts with us and our families having a great time on a Carnival line cruise ship. (Right there we should have known we were in trouble.) While on the ship we began hearing news about a virus ravaging the land around us. We were not too concerned. Weâ€™re on a ship with tons of food and fun. Weâ€™ll wait out the breakout until the authorities get it taken care of.

Six months laterâ€¦

It turns out that one of the passengers was infected with the virus. We are the last survivors on the ship. Now the entire ship is filled with the walking dead or â€œwalkersâ€. Many of our family members have died or have turned. For the last few daysâ€¦weeks, itâ€™s hard to tell which, weâ€™ve been barricaded in the shipâ€™s ballroom.

Our food is running low. Itâ€™s time to make a break for the lifeboats. But first we decide to head up to the bridge to see if we can get anything useful like maps or navigation equipment. We quietly remove the barricade from the window of the ball room and sneak out. I fail my Stealth roll. Owen fails his Stealth roll. Mike critically fails his Stealth roll and falls flat on his face in the hallway. The heck with sneaking. Next round we open fire.

Mike takes the brunt of the walkersâ€™ attack. He uses up all of his bennies to soak his wounds. We fight to staircase which is bi-step-ualâ€”meaning the stairs go up and down. (Evil Mikeâ€™s joke, not mine.)

I and my dependents make it to the bridge level. The walkers catch the rest of the group on the stairs. We can hear their near-hysterical screams. We quietly move down the empty hall towards the door to the bridgeâ€”away from our noisy ex-companions. The rest of the group make it to the top of the stairs. There are more screams and gunfire. Oh wellâ€¦might as well let them come along.

The door to the bridge is locked. I use my lock picking skill to open it. I fail on my first attempt. I try it again and get it open. We all rush inside and close the door. Inside we find a thin, foul-smelling crew member. For a ride on our life boat, heâ€™ll show us where all the things weâ€™re interested in are. We agree.

Next time: Man the Life Boat!

Chaos Steve

JimCon Spring 2013 Schedule

Spring 2013 JimCon Schedule

NormCon Update

Well, just to keep all of our faithful followers up to date, Steve and I are at Norm’s house this weekend, with Dave, Norm, Al, Tom and Gordon. We started off with Norm’s prequel to the game he’ll be running tonight where we are the counselors at kid’s camp that is taken over by zombies.

Then I ran my Deadlands Noir game where they had to find out the mystery behind a dead woman found in a boxer’s dressing room. This morning we started with Steve’s Olympian Breed game where we all played Demi-Gods in Ancient Greece.

Dave then ran his post-apocalyptic cyberpunk world game. Norm finishes up his zombie camp game tonight and Gordon will run his Fallout game tomorrow morning before we head home in the snowstorm expected on Sunday!

Here are some pics.