Dragonmeet 2016

Dragonmeet is tabletop convention and one of largest its kind in London. I have taken part to it once before, maybe the year was 2013 and now I got a chance to go there again. And definetely it was thrilling to be there once again. So I booked flights and bought a ticket and went for a visit.

There  were a lot of exhibitors in the huge room what was so noisy so that it took a lot of efford to hear what others were saying. At first I simply walked around and looked what the convention was to offer for a random visitor. During the convention I was able to test out a couple of board and card games + I took part into short role-playing game introduction.

First game I tried was made by Cubiko Games. The game itself was called Jamsumo and it was played with 6 sided dies. The idea of the game was simple so even the kids could play it. But still game challenges you since it isn't basing on luck. I also liked the game board very much. It was very well made. I didn't buy it just yet but been thinking if could be a nice game to buy anyways.

The other game I tried was Beastly Bust Up. The game isn't released just yet but we had a possibility to try the game. The idea of teh game was simple. You have several areas and animal fighters fought over them. Rules were simple and game was played through in 15-20 minutes. So perfect game when you need something fast to play through. The game was made by Fat Matador games and I hope they will have it as a kickstarter.

But how about rpg's? Yes... I wasn't able to resist temptation.. and bought some new games to fill my shelves. And of course some new dices! I haven't played these games before but I will tell about them a lot more when I have hosted games to my friends. But here is the short list what I found from Dragonmeet:

• Into the Odd: Steampunk dungeon crawling with magic. Game where you better avoid bad fights and use your brains to gain glory without any harms.
• Cthulhu Drak 0: The horror game where you're playing the poor people from the cities. You have no money nor chances to avoid the striking horrors so survive or face your darker destiny.
• Era Survival: The world has turned into wasteland in 100 years. No one knows where the destroying virus arrived but last survivors tries to make their living somehow. And keep up hope for better future. This game I also teste in Dragonmeet already and found it interesting. It was the main reason why I end up to buy it.
• Adventures in Middle-Earth: Middle-Earth using D&D 5th edition rules! Awesome! I have plenty of adventures to play in Middle-Earth but now system is far more playable than those old ones. I am just waiting to have a Dungeonmaster guide as well. 

My precious what I found from Dragonmeet.

Dread system: Disintegration

Once again I made a rpg with my friends. This time I decided to host another rpg using Dread system. Now we weren't in the deep space, but yet world had changed. Virus had changed people and turned them into living deads, zombies.  And players had to survive on the collapsing worlds. Sounds epic?

Disintegration is premade scenario what I changed some during the game. The orginal versio is freeware so if you want to check it out, just click here. I used premade charactersheets what meant that every character had questions written beforehand. I think premade questions worked well and that way we got rather good group to work together. This time one of the characters was even young kid what brought some difference into the group. The others were the leader, the caretaker, the loner and the sage. And it seemed that every character had different meaning how they developed the surviving. 

Dread system itself worked well for scenario with zombies. The threat was growing the more the group was separated. And some had to sacrifice themselves so that others were able to survive. But there was always a decision, who would survive and he would die for others. Also this time there were heroic dying when one wanted to give a life for others. How sad but how perfectly fitting for one-shot scenario. 

The original game was supposed to  go slower fprward than the game I hosted. But  I think it wouldn't be nice to use dread system on a minicampaign so I wanted to keep game during one evening. So there were more zombie attacks but also other survivals caused problems since everyone aren't nice for others, they only want best for themselves.  So things escalated faster and I also picked things from the backgrounds onf the characters. I think Dread is good for that. When players have thought what their characters are fearing for example, DM can push them towards chaotic moments. And that way you can build rather impulsive game. 

So once again I need to say that I like Dread. But still I will be using another system on my next one-shot rpg. For once we will be throwing dices when players will be facing the Steampunk world.  But I will post about that game on another time. But as a conclusion.. If you love pen and paper rpg's and you love zombies. Try Disintegration. It is well made scenario what is easy to modify if you feel to do so.

Trudvang chronicles

I have usually only followed kickstarter projects but havent supported them. This autumn I made my first decision to support a cool project. I bought Trudvang chronicles. Swedish game publisher Riotmind is about to publish their pen-and-paper rpg in English. How great is that?

I have always loved Finnish and Nordic mythology what is full of giants, spirits, elves, gnomes only to name few of them. And it is said that game should be more saga than pure hack-and-slash and wandering in the deep forests rather than crawling in dungeons. That sounds so... familiar! Don't take me wrong.. I am big fan of D&D but somehow for being to able to play role.playing game what is near our own mythology.. That sounds thrilling.  

As a supporter I took adventurer level. It means I will recieve boks in May 2017 when they are done. Somehow I have always approved more real books than reading PDF-files especially when it comes to games. So this decision wasn't difficult to make. But watch the trailer and enjoy the first view about the game itself. I can't wait to have the books and read them through. When I recieve them I will post more about the game itself.. but  for now their description is enough. You can read it from Kickstarter web page by clicking here. And as you  can see the game was a huge success.

Guild of Dungeoneering

This is a guild of dungeoneering.. Says the song when the game begins. You're a guildmaster who will guide adventurers in to the dungeons.. what are partly build by you! It is as simple as it sounds but game is great to play when you do not want thick plots and great roleplay.

The story begins.

The first dungeon is waiting.

The guild is small in the beginning.

At first there is simple guildhouse where remains only few rooms. You begin with a basic adventurer who goes to explore dungeons. In the dungeons you're playing a dungeonmaster who adds the new rooms, monsters and treasures.  A good hint is to remember that adveturer always runs towards treasures if he has chance to do so. On every round you have five cards  and you can play up to three cards from those. Dungeoncards can be monsters to defeat, treasures or new rooms what to explore. If you defeat monsters you will gain new equipment what will help you further. Depending on a dungeon you will have special quest what has to be done before dungeon is finished. So always it isn't best option trying to build a large dungeon.

The adventurer has finished the dungeon and gains some profit.

Oops.. The poor little soul died.

The treasure will tempt the adventurer but one can always add a monster to protect the gem.

But as you can notice dungeons are dangerous place and always it isn't good for the adventurers health. So most likely the graveyard will be very massive in the guild. At least I was good to fill that place with my heros and heroines. When you explore the dungeons you gain money and with money you can buy new places into your guildhouse and also pick new eager adventurers who has special abilities to use. That also helps to survive from the dungeons. Also if your adveturer remains alive, he/she will gain some battlescars what  might benefit or give disadvantage for further adventures. The battlescars are the only thing what will follow to further adventures. All the treasure and gears what the adventurer finds from a dungeon will be sold after the adventure. So the adventurer begins with empty hands when heads into new dungeon.

Time to build dungeon with card and defeat medusa.

First dungeons are finished and new adventures awaits.

The guildhouse becomes larger when you buy new rooms.

Idea of the game is simple but it works. One aventure do not take much time so it also fits for a game when you do have that 30 minutes time to play. Especially when you have been working whole day and simply want to relax with a fun game, this can be the thing. Even I admit that sometimes it begins to take time when you keep dying and want to pass a dungeon. Then 30 minutes might not be enough but that's just me. But if you prefer light game what definetely is good old dungeon crawling, this is game to try.

Ropecon 2016

Ropecon is the largest non-commercial role-playing convention in Europe and it was held this weekend in Messukeskus, Helsinki. I took part to Ropecon once again and weekend was full of fun. There were several possibilities to play role-playing games and try various systems. This year participating to pen and paper role-playing games was way more uncertain since you were not able to sign up beforehand. Still I got lucky and was able to take part into four different games during weekend. Some of the systems were so interesting that I will tell a little about them and maybe write even more after I have tried my own role-playing games using those systems.

When one game usually lasts 3-4 hours in Ropecon, it is wise usually use some simple system. I tried game which used rules from Cyberpunk and at times it felt a bit heavy. There are so many lists and rolls than often it was only rollen all the time for being able to do something. And when the playing groupd was big (seven players + GM) you can imagine how long rolling took time. So from experience I always give a big hand simpler systems without endless rolling and giving room for storytelling.

But one of the best systems I tried this weekend was definetely Dread. It is simple role-playing system where players plays Jenga instead of rolling dices. If the tower falls, tha player will be deleted from a game. So it is a perfect way to bring some excitments to one-shots. Or you can deny to play Jenga when GM demands that and only accept that you will fail on that what you were trying to do. Sounds simple it worked well. And there wasn't either any character sheets with huge amount of numbers. There were questions what we answered from our characters and made the roles that way. Once again it sounded simple, but worked perfectly. I am so fascinated about this Dread that I will study more about it and keep at least one game using it. My plan is to write more how it worked then as a GM. 

But Ropecon was  totally worth of visiting and planning to go there next year again. If you want to read more about it, here is direct link what will tell more in English: https://2016.ropecon.fi/en/frontpage-ropecon-2016/. If you're any kind of gamer, this is a good convention to visit then!

Stardew Valley, first impression

When I saw the trailer from this game I was just meh.. another pixel game. Then I read the praising words about the game from Pelit-lehti (Finnish magazine about computer games) and I decided to give chance to this game. At least I had played farming games before this as well. So why I wouldn't try this one out as well.  

Starting screen looks cute.

You can create your own farmer.

There are quests in the game.

When I downloaded the game from Steam and launched it, first impression was aww... Music was adorable and the game itself had relaxing atmosphere. So I would take it as a time to relax. And in a way it is that way. Farming in the game is repeating same duties day after the day so that your crops would grow. And you need to grow them to earn money and to improve your farm. When you live in the small cottage in the beginning, you can eventually sleep in a good old farmhouse.

Fishing with Willy

There are festivals for citizens on every season. 

Learning the basics is an easy thing. In the game you can explore, have mini-adventures, go to fishing, gather ingredients from nature, build your farm etc. There are many things to do and first of all you will learn fast that you can't do everything during same day. Time goes fast when there is plenty to do and often you have to think beforehand what should be done. At least first year flew fast and only calmer season was winter. Then you do not have to grow anything and you have time to socialize with citizens or explore the world. It felt really a nice little break after three seasons when your focus was on the farming.

Main quest is repair the community house.

The community house is repaired by finishing small tasks.

Even the game is mostly  simple farming, it has made rather interesting. At first I noticed that I played it for hours. Now it is nice to go to play for an half hour what would mean about two days in game time. Stardew Valley is a cool game what is perfect for the evenings when you're too tired to play longer rolegames. Just remember that days are saved during night so.. stop playing soon after waking up and you do not have to live same day again. I will probably make another posting about Stardew Valley where I will give some hints about what to do and how to finish quests. But that will be published later. 

Creating character for rolegames

When you do play rolegames, do you ever create background story to your character or is it always pure statistics? I have always loved to creat story behind my character since it truly tells what kind of character is. Statistics helps when throwing dices but deeper thoughts comes from the history.  What do I mean.. I will give you few examples. Sometimes story begins from the name and sometimes it comes from the interests.

On Scifi-rpg I played a pilot. She was short girl and total introvert. Her greatest hobby was to play video games with her handconsole whenever she wasn't flying the ship or hacking the computers. Jelena, my character, had poor social skills and she was clumsy when had to deal with other people. But she was useful to the group since she was bloody good pilot.. That's why she was tolerated even she had the third hand as well. And she had name coming from Russia  since long time ago before moving into space station her family had actually lived in Russia. 

Or.. in Forgotten Realms adventure I am playing little gnome. She is joyoys and extremely curious about everything. And the most important thing is that she has a lot of nicknames. Her name is Aliisa Lisbeth Kulta-Kurre Hölösuu Rauniolöytäjä Kylmäkahle Usvakieli Linnankaataja Dryadinauttaja Vaahtera Loruinen. What this Gibberish means then? Well I do try to explain.

Aliisa is a name what goes in the family. Her mother's name is Alisa, so Aliisa sounded nice.

Lisbeth is nickname from the name of her sister, Elisabeth. So As all good gnomes knows, carrying name of your sister, brings you some extra luck!

Kulta-Kurre (golden squirrel) was the name given by her aunt Eleonoora when she saw Aliisa having teeth for the first time. Aliisa had golden brown hair when she was born and hair even grew fast. So when she got her first teeth her aunt thought that she looks like a cute golden squirrel. And since then it was one of her nicknames.

Hölösuu (blathering mouth) was given to her by her ex teammate. He was serious dwarf who didn't always understood why someone has to keep talking and remain cheerful. 

Rauniolöytäjä (Founder of ruins) was given to her after she found old elven ruins. There were even cursed elf leading the castle and when she helped to break the curse, the name was truly earned.

Kylmäkahle (Shackle of cold) was a name given by herself when  undeads attacked to her ankle in the well. In the well she ended since she was  volunteer to study it. But touch oft he undeads were so cold that now she black ring around her ankle what reminds like a shackle. At least shackles radiates coldness whenver undeads are around her.

Usvakieli (Misty mouth) was given  to her by her father Emer. Aliisa had always been giggling and blathering little gnome even when she wasn't able to form real words. So all those cute baby words were like a mist to everyone else so her father started to call lovely little daughter with that nickname. 

Linnankaataja was giveb to her when she helped with her friends to drop one castle up from teh sky. The Castle was full of bad giants and even white dragon lived there so ruining it wasn't that bad idea. 

Dryadinauttaja (Helper of the Dryad). Little Aliisa follows Fairy Queen Titania so everyone who loves Titania is on her favourite list. So when she met a dryad in the forest, she wanted to help her even she was on a disguise. After helping the dryad she was given a magical lei what she has been wearing around her neck since then. 

Vaahtera (Maple) is surname what goes in the family since every member of the family has always loved maples. When Aliisa was barely able to walk, she always found her way to sleep under tha maple since she loved those leaves especially in autumn.

Loruinen is another family name what could be surname. Her greatgreatfather Raihka was always speaking all kind of little stories no matter if they were true or not. So since then he was called Loruinen because he made up little stories. 

These are only few examples about my character and as you can see.. names are usually important. Name of the character is telling on its own story and as we all know.. Nomen est omen. At least in rpg!

Who has the biggest snake?

Sometimes a simple idea can creat an addictive game. In a webpage called slither.io you are playing snake. You grow bigger and try to avoid to be  killed. Just like worm games in in the firts mobile phones. Except now there are other players who you try to lure into your trap so that you can eat the glowing dust what has been left behind from a dead snake. Game is as simple as that but still it is nice to play it every now and then.

You begin as a small snake.

Only the final text reminds your length when you die.

Making knots helps to avoid other snakes.

If you share your result on Twitter or on Facebook you get and option to choose the skincolour to your snake. But other than that it is simple survival game. You do try to eat essence to become larger snake and one of your goals can be try to be in top ten.  It really depends on the day and time how easy it is to get on top ten list. 

The glowing snakes are speeding up.

Once I was lucky to recieved 1st place.. and then I just died.

But simple game and yet I have played it many hours when I do not have much time to play. One game lasts from few minutes for as long as you can survive so the best of snakeplayers most likely roams around rather long time. When I have reached over 10 000 points it has taken about 20 minutes usually. So you can count from it. If you wanna try this game out, you just need fast enough internet connection and browser. Then just go to page slither.io and try to speed up your snake to be a number one using your mouse. Nothing else is needed to be the best snake in the realm.

Back to Dragon Age Inquisition

About a year ago I started to play Dragon Age Inquisition but I was too stressed and didn't have enough focus to keep playing that. I was thinking the game during summer, autumn and winter until started to play it again about month ago. Now I decided to focus on the story and texts what I will be hearing and now even the different kind of playing system didn't bother anymore. How the game felt then? Totally good and still  wanting to play story through.

The characters can jump, climb and so on.

My character Evelyn is focusing.

I am still loving the views.

Last time I tried to play as a rogue and first I planned to make a warrior this time. I even tried the warriorclass but decided to have third beginning as a mage. And it feels that solution was right one. Magic system in DAI is a good one and you can surviva alive as a mage. I can't say how difficult it would be on more difficult levels but the easiest ones are at least enough easy to play without frustration. 

It rains a lot in Storm Coast.

A moment of loneliness in Wilderness.

Redcliff looks diffeny comparing to DAO.

The world is as beautiful as I remembered it to be. The views are stunning and very detailed so it is pelasure for the eye. But only lovely-looking game wouldn't make me to return. Now I have realised that storyline is interesting and your choices affects the game. I have played a lot of game what goes to same solution no matter what you do during game. Now I have a feeling that my decisions matters. Like some storylines opens when I do certain decisions and some others will be sealed for the rest of the game.

The game includes a lot of detailed info.

The oasis is breathtaking.

And I begin to enjoy more about the difference of my companions. Since I can only choose to accompany me during adventuring I try to switch the party every now and then even I do have my favourites among the characters. But this way I can learn more about their nature and listen the conversations what they have. But once again I have a good feeling about playing a role game. Even though I am missing to play more pen and paper rpgs as well. But as long as I do not have a chance to play that often those, I can spend my time with DAI. Time well spend. 

The house in Minecraft

I have been lately played more Minecraft again since somehow it is easy to return anytime I want to do so. Instead of playing servers hosted by someone else I have played on my own. Main reason is that usually servers simply vanishes or aren't online all the time if owner can't keep them  up. So even building alone is lonely, I do not have to get frustrated.

Made some decorations to the bedroom.

Dining room and kitchen behind it.

Living room and stairs to second floor.

So lately I finished one house project in my server. I am not get used to build anything medium sized house even so this is one of the first tryings what I actually finished. Of course everything would be easier if I would be building on creative mode but somehow I like the idea that I need to gather every ingredient on survival mode. It makes building more meaningful yet slow as well. Maybe simple mining and crafting is good when you're simply exhausted from the work. As you can see from pictures the house is rather simple but I am happy that finally the ceiling looks fine. At least I am satisfied with it.

House from distance.

There is secret field of wheat in upstairs.

Skeleton horses fell in love with my house.

The view is nice.

I have found modpacks lately again in Minceraft so most likely next posting about Minecraft will be about them. As a Middle-Earth fan I found modpack including Middle-Earth in Minecraft so I am thrilled to play more of it! Wohoo!  

Draw a Stickman

I started a different kind of game after seeing some videos about it on Youtube. The game is called Draw a Stickman where you play a selfmade character. Sounds funny? Well at least it is interesting game for sure. And not that easy unless you have get used to play puzzle games which I have not. 

Making first versio of my character. 

Also made my friend Tina, who suddenly left from canvas!

So in the beginning of the game you can make you character and actually draw it. But amount of colours is limited. You will gain more of them during the game so then you can make your character to look better later or as good as your drawing skills allows it to be. But it is good to know that when you choose to use remake option you can't return to play old character anymore. After making your character you have to draw your friend and name it. When your friend is ready story will begin.

The exploring begins.

One by one more minimaps are opened for to play.

Time to use magic pen what creates fire.

And after clicking agreed flames will burn. 

Whole game is full of  minimaps and each of them you can find pathes to new maps, pieces of puzzle, new colours and pages what well explain what actually happens in game. So even you would  find entrance to another map it is usefull to explore each minimap more. There is also magic pens in game.. on each minimap you get certain magic pens to use and survive from the challenges what maps offers. At first I thought you could have all the existing pens in further maps as well but there I went wrong. Not on this game  what is a pity since it leaves the feeling that story isn't ongoing even it is. Or maybe I have played so many rolegames that I missing improving the character.

Remade character when found more colours.

Story in the book goes forward and you can choose new maps. 

The game do not seem to be a long one but it is nice. At times I had some difficulties to figure out what to do.. but after few times of dying most of the puzzles were able to solve out. Game also gives you hints what you can read after dying in the map or skip them if you want to solve everything by yourself. But when you want a nice little game what to play  every now and then, this is worth of trying. No big plots and hours of gaming. You can solve one map and then continue another time if you're feeling too busy to play more. And besides.. good thing is that now you can make any kind of hero you wanna play!

Addictive game about geography: Geoguessr

This time I am telling about the game what you do not need to buy or download. You just go to webpage called https://geoguessr.com/ and start playing. You do not even have to sign up unless you want to. . The idea in the game is simple. Try to guess where you are! Sounds simple but still offers plenty of challenge. 

There is several options what you can play.

First landscape could be in some many places

Signs and machine could give you a hint.

Still I was totally lost.

You can play different kind of games there. The whole world can be your playground or you can stick on famous places. There is also made special games from some of the countries or famous cities. But I have mostly tried the World game and the Famous places one. They just seems the most interesting and offers enough challenge. 

One of the famous places.

Then you mark your suggestion on the map and make a guess.

Not a bad result.

There is always five places what you need to know where they are. You will get points depending how close you were. When you're playing Wolrd map you are getting still some points even you were over 2000 kilometer lost. But in Famous places over thousand kilometer won't give you any points. Maximum points from each target is 5000 so you can recieve 25000 points on each game if you get five perfect matches.

Suddenly we are in place where stone is crushed.

One good hint is the outfit of the females.

Yay, at least country was right!

This game is based on the pictures what Google has been taking around the world and unfortunately sometimes landscape might look flurry. At times pictures are very sharp ones. So this depends on your luck. And you're always sticking on road and looking surroundings from there. On some roads you can click and travel a long time to seek signs or any hints where you're, but then there are possibility that you're inside the house and can't move out of there. 

If you get lucky, you get picture from your own country.

You will be close when you have visit the place like have.

Few mistakes lowers the final result.

But this is absolutely fun game even the idea is simple! Only five rounds per games shouldn't take too long but at least I am then thinking one more game repeating the mantra. And suddenly you have spend hour with it. So this is fun to play alone, compete with friends but I also see options to use this game at school. When you have extra time with students why not to play with them this one? But I have to warn you. This is highly addictive game... at least for geographers like me.