Zup!

Do you wish to play a game without thinking too hard? Try Zup! It is a little game what is made from blocks. You simply blow up red blocks so that blue one ends up on the green flat. Sounds simple? Well it is as simple as it sounds. When the blue block end up in the green flat gate will be opened and you can go to try next level. 

These are the rules.

First round is simple.

Gate opens, when blu block remains on the green flat.

I was a bit stressed before christmas and I needed a game what I can play without thinking. Zup! is a short game but I liked the idea. Minipuzzles what are based on physics. So blocks won't fly randomly. Usually right timing helped to go through. The whole game was short, it took me less than hour to play it through, but luckily the price wasn't very high either. 

Kaboom! Blocks flies.

Each from the red blocks will explode if you click them.

The more the merrier.

If you like Indie games and little puzzles, check this game. It is nice for those evenings when you are so tired that you can't focus  to follow any longer stories.

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.