Blog Posts

Board Game Spotlight - Fallout from Fantasy Flight Games

7/14/2020

Board Game Spotlight is where we share some of the games we have come across. We talk a bit about the game itself, what our thoughts are on it. This week war never changes as we take a look at Fallout The Board Game from Fantasy Flight Games.

Fallout The Board Game

1-4 Players | 120 - 180 Minute Playtime | Ages 14+ recommended
Designer: Andrew Fischer and Nathan I. Hajek
Artists: Andrew Fischer, Nathan I Hajek, Brian Schomburg, Evan Simonet, Ben Zweifel.

Set in the universe of the Fallout video game series Fallout the Board Game from Fantasy Flight is a scenario driven game. In the base game players are competing to push their factions to the most power. In the new california expansion it introduces one scenario that makes the game cooperative. Each player starts as a survivor on the edge of unexplored territory. Each turn players will explore the board, interact with creatures, and go on quests to unlock the stories of the wasteland.

This game is a doozy for time. With solo play i can get it done in under 2 hours. With 2 players, It averages around 3 hours. With 4 players it can take better part of an afternoon. The game also takes up a lot of space at the table. Our little table barely holds the map and two player boards. I have an organizer being 3D printed but i’m not sure how that will help with the table organization. It’s mostly for the box organization.
I really enjoy the stories in the game. Being able to play through the same scenario multiple times and get multiple elements of new stories coming through depending on what the cards give you. I played the game through 3 or 4 times before I finally hit a quest line that gave us a vault quest line where we could explore the vaults.
Another issue with the game is the rule book is complicated when you get going. It took me a lot of plays before I got the hang of the different nuances of the rules. When certain things trigger was another big thing. The game didn’t get a lot of play when it was just the base game. Folks I played with just weren’t interested in the competitive modes available.

The New California expansion gave us a single cooperative mode which helped to bring the game to the table more often.
From the Fantasy Flight website it shows that a new expansion is coming later in 2020 that gives us more cooperative game modes.
This game has it’s quirks. For myself it makes up for those with the story elements. Presenting the story to you in such a way that keeps you going forward. As I mentioned before I enjoyed getting different story elements even with the same scenario. To be honest I could see this mechanic of presenting a story being used without the game board and figures. Just telling a story. I enjoy the figures that are well crafted. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. tokens and the leveling system are fun.
For me this game is always a fun one to bring to the table. For others, it has it’s glitches that folks playing didn’t enjoy it as much.

Fantasy Flight Games - https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/fallout/
Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232918/fallout

We did a 4 part play through with 2 players on Overland Gamer The Podcast.

Board Game Spotlight Review Episode

Joseph DeMarco

Author:
Joe DeMarco a single father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available. Putting my curiosity to the app store I find random games to check out.
If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together.
Follow Joe on Twitter @shad0fx that’s S H A D ZERO F X

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Pokemon Workout

7/6/2020

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Get your workout on while playing Pokemon

Note - I am not a personal trainer. I am not an exercise expert. Consult your physician before starting any workout routine. I am not held responsible for injuries that may occur while doing these exercises. Change up the exercises as needed.

So you’re playing pokemon and needing to get some exercise on. Here’s a workout that might help you accomplish both goals.

When you start the game you have to get to the Professors lab. Count how many steps it takes you to get there.
Exercise options -

Steps in game x10 = This is how many steps you have to take in real world.
Steps in game = jumping jacks.
Steps in game = Lunges
Steps in game = Mountain climbers

Once you get through the dialogue to pick your pokemon you have 3 choices.
The choices you have determine the type of exercises you will progress through.

Fire - Strength
Water - Cardio
Grass - Endurance

The type of exercises (Strength, Cardio, Endurance) are just examples of the kinds of exercises you can do with the the chosen pokemon.
Strength -

Squats,
Lunges,
Push ups

Cardio -

Punches
Mountain Climbers
Jumping Jacks
Burpees

Endurance

Pushups
Squats
Planks
Mountain Climbers

Now it’s time to get into your first battle. With your rival.
The attacks you select determine the exercises you do. The amount you do is based on your pokemon’s level.
Pick exercises that fit your chosen pokemon. Or choose 4 exercises that you want to improve upon.
For this example we will use

A - Jumping Jacks
B - Lunges
C - Squats
D - toe touches

Example - I want to use scratch against my opponent. It is the top attack available. My bulbasaur is a level 5. So I do 5 jumping jacks then select the attack. The opponent does their movement. I select Scratch again and do 5 more jumping jacks.

You can add weights as necessary. You can change up the exercises as necessary. After the battle, the player ventures out into the world. In pokemon blue/red you travel north towards the next town. Count how many steps it takes you to get from a location to a random encounter or another building. That’s how many steps you have to do. When you leave town and get into grass where random encounters occur you simply walk the number of steps it takes between random encounters. You can multiply this by your main pokemon’s level, or by the number of badges you have, etc.

Progress through the game, change exercises up as desired. Battle, exercise, and change your life.

Note - I am not a personal trainer. I am not an exercise expert. Consult your physician before starting any workout routine. I am not held responsible for injuries that may occur while doing these exercises. Change up the exercises as needed.

Joe DeMarco

Joe is a father, writer, game developer, quality assurance analyst. Joe is trying to get healthy and better his life. Finding fun and creative ways to get healthy Joe shares his experiences with you.

Shad0fx

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Board Game Spotlight - Tides of Madness from Portal Games

6/29/2020

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Board Game Spotlight is where we take a look at games that we have come across. We share a bit about the game and our thoughts are on it. This week we are looking at

Tides of Madness from Portal Games

Players: 2 players | Playing Time: 20 min | Age: 10+
Designer: Kristian Curla | Publisher:Portal Games

Players will be playing cards in order to score points against their opponents. The player at the end of the game with the highest score wins. Players will have to watch that they don’t gain too much madness and go insane causing them to lose the game.
The game has a draft mechanic where players play a card, pass the cards to the next player. Once each player has 5 cards revealed the end of the round begins. Players gain madness tokens for each card with tentacles on them. The player with majority of madness tokens from the round may gain 4 points or discard 1 madness token back to the supply. Each card has a scoring ability across the top. For each card that has it’s scoring satisfied players gain points listed on the card. Typically these cards deal with the suits that the cards have. After scoring if anyone has 9 or more madness tokens they lose the game. It is possible for both players to lose the game. Play continues through two more rounds as long as a player doesn’t go insane with madness tokens.

This is a quick fun little game. If you have about 30 minutes this is a fun one to pick up. The artwork is very much lovecraft. It is well designed and easy to read. The symbols for scoring could have been made just a bit bigger for ease of seeing. The cards are tarot sized so there is a lot of room for play. Gameplay wise the game is very simple. It can be difficult to know what scoring method to go after as your cards will change through each draft phase. If an opponent gets wind of what you are looking for and are ignoring their own scoring they might try to thwart your gameplay.

Game or Developer Games - https://portalgamesus.com/
Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/195544/tides-madness

Overland Gamer The Podcast: Episode 15

Shad0fx

Joseph William DeMarco

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Board Game Spotlight - Wingspan from Stonemaier Games

6/15/2020

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Board Game Spotlight is where we take a look at games that we have come across. Today we're looking at Wingspan from Stonemaier Games.

Players: 1-5 | Playing Time: 40-70 min | Age: 10+
Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave
Artist: Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, Natalia Rojas, Beth Sobel

Wingspan is a beautiful game where players will acquire resources and bird cards to play into their habitat preserve. It is an engine building hand management game. The goal of the game is to have the most points at the end. Players gain points through the game by playing birds down, activating different abilities of birds, collecting eggs, and points gained from end of the round effects.
In wingspan players begin with a number of cards in their hands and some resources used to play the birds through the game. Three of the four player actions are divided into habitats. The Forest habitat is where players can choose the gather food action. This allows players to gain food resources that come into play when playing birds. The prairie habitat is where players can play eggs on their birds. Eggs are worth points at the end of the game, and are also used to play birds. The water habitat is where players draws new bird cards. The fourth action is playing a bird into one of 3 habitats. The cost to play a bird is the food they need and may include an egg cost. When a player plays a bird in one of the 3 habitat areas the next time the player uses the action in that habitat it changes based on what is printed on the game board, and what abilities the birds played down have.
Besides the point value each bird has it’s own abilities. Some abilities trigger when you choose the action in their habitat. Some abilities may trigger when other players choose an action. Some abilities may trigger at the end of the round. Some abilities may trigger at the end of the game.
A round of Wingspan ends when all players have used their action cubes. Players see if there are any end of round actions on birds they have played. They will then consult the end of round board to see how many points they gain. Losing one of their cubes to the end of round board.
Play continues across 4 rounds.

This game was a surprise to us. I first saw it pop up on the various board game facebook groups I’m in. I thought it was just a silly simple game. I got to play it and had a really good time with it. It has some educational elements to it as all the bird cards have the scientific name of the bird printed on the cards along with the region the birds are from on the very bottom of each card. The game is simple enough to pick up and has a lot of strategy depending on what direction your bonus cards give you.
The artwork on this one is fantastic. Each bird has a lifelike appearance. So far the dice tower bird feeder has withstood many games. The wooden dice are a nice change from normal dice. The eggs are a thick plastic which is nice. They have a flat spot on them so they won’t roll all over the table.
There is one expansion for this one available that brings European birds to the game.

Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266192/wingspan
Stonemaier Games - https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/

Overland Gamer: The Podcast Episode 4

Author: Joe DeMarco a father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available.
If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together.

Find out more here.

Follow Joe on Twitter https://twitter.com/Shad0fx

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Board Game Spotlight - Dark Souls: The Card Game from Steamforged Games

6/8/2020

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Board Game Spotlight where we take a brief look at games that have come across our table. Today we're taking a look at Dark Souls the Card Game from Steamforged Games.

Dark Souls: The Card Game
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 45-60 Minutes
Ages: 12+ - Dark themes
Designer: David Carl
Artist: Tom Hutchings
Publisher: Steamforged Games

Inspired by the video game from Bandai Namco and From Software, Dark Souls: The Card Game is a challenging deckbuilding card game. Choose your hero, “adapt your deck, evolve your strategy, and prepare to die!”
From the publisher “Players use unique decks of cards to fight the many enemies that lie within before ultimately confronting the powerful bosses. Using souls gathered from vanquished foes, players will expand and evolve their decks, making them more powerful. But time is of the essense; the spark dwindles. Each time a player dies you must return to the bonfire to regroup- and the bonfire won’t burn forever.”
In dark souls players will start each with a deck built for a specific type of character. The base game comes with an Assassin, A herald, A knight, and a Sorcerer. A player will choose one of these character types to adventure forth against challenging foes. Through the course of the game these decks will evolve by adding treasure cards that provide armor, weapons and abilities cards. Stamina cards may also be added to the deck to improve the abilties one does.
Combat in the game is unique in the sense that where you place your character and where enemies are placed on the battle board can determine who is attacked when. This strategy is important when moving around the battlefield and hitting your opponents.
The bonfire is the games way of telling time and progressing forward. If a player is defeated they lose the souls and treasures gained in the fights. If players choose to rest at the bonfire players may acquire the treasure and souls they earned in previous fights.
Overal the game is very challenging and fun. There’s a lot of strategy in building your deck. The game plays very well in solo mode or in cooperative mode. It is very important that players work together on acquiring cards, combat, and resting in order to progress the story forward fast enough before the bonfire goes out. The game is very thematic. I have not played too much of the Dark Souls video game but the videos I have watched of it makes this card game seem to have a lot of connection to the difficulty of that version of the game.
The artwork is very dark and grim. Something that drew me into the game right away. It has a lot of story potential hidden with it. While the story isn’t narrative driven it can come from the cards encountered throughout gameplay.
This is definitely a unique game to bring to the table.
More information can be found at
Game or Developer Games - https://steamforged.com/dark-souls-the-card-game
Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/242667/dark-souls-card-game

Overland Gamer: The Podcast Episode 12

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Board Game Spotlight - Before There Were Stars from Smirk and Laughter Games

6/1/2020

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Before There Were Stars
Smirk and Laughter Games

Players: 3-6
Playing Time: 40-60 minutes
Age: 10+
Designer: Alex Cutler, Matt Fantastic, Alexander Wilkinson
Artist: Marthy Angue, Lisa Falzon
Publisher: Smirk and Laughter Games.

This game is all about playing cards, telling stories, and sharing in the experience. Players will roll dice, draft star constellation cards. Then players will go around telling stories that go with the constellations that they have collected. After all stories have been told players get to secretly place scoring stones into the other players scoring bags. Play goes through several rounds building constellations into your story library. Once 4 rounds have passed final scoring takes place. The player who earns the most points wins. Though the game is more about enjoying the stories told amongst each other.

This game has been a great addition to my library. It says it plays 3-6 but the story building concepts can be played with 1 or 2 players. Just eliminating the score keeping aspect and have fun telling the story.
The artwork on the cards is well crafted. Each constellation is thematic and imaginative. With 80 constellation cards and 2 versions of stories to be told the game has a wide range of possibility. My 9 year old was even able to craft an interesting and funny story with the game.

More information can be found at Smirk and Laughter Games’ website at https://www.smirkandlaughter.com/
And board game geek’s site https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/243780/there-were-stars

Overland Gamer: The Podcast Episode 9 - Before There Were Stars

Joe DeMarco a single father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available.
If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together.

Find out more here.

Follow Joe on Twitter https://twitter.com/Shad0fx

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Mint Works from Five 24 Labs

5/6/2020

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Board Game Spotlight -Mint Works from Five24 Labs
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 10-20 min
Age: 13+
Designer: Justin Blaske
Artist: Felix Janson, Thomas Tamblyn
Publisher: Five24 Labs

Mint Works is a super fun worker placement game. Players place mint tokens on different cards and trigger the abilities. The players will gather plans and build buildings in order to generate more mint tokens, gain abilities, and earn stars. The first person to score 7 stars from gathering plans and building them into their area. This triggers the end game. The person with the most stars at the end wins.

Mint works also has a solo variant where players will compete against a chosen NPC player with different play styles. Each NPC has different strengths and challenges to face.

Overall the game is super quick and fun to play. I have several copies that I have in various places for quick pick up games. The footprint doesn’t take up a lot of space which makes for a nice take along game. The small package helps this as well. The game box is about the size of a small altoids mint box.

Other games from Five24 Labs includes Mint Works, Mint Delivery, Mint Cooperative, and coming soon Mint Control. All these games we will review in future posts.

Mint works was featured on an episode of Overland Gamer The Podcast. Link to that episode through Anchor.FM can be found https://anchor.fm/overlandgamer/episodes/Game-Review-Mint-works-and-Mint-Delivery-from-Five-24-Labs-ebeh0e . It can also be found on spotify, apple podcast and other podcast platforms.

More information can be found here.
Board Game Geek -https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/200077/mint-works
Game or Developer Games - https://five24labs.com/

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Board Game Spotlight: Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis

3/11/2020

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Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis
Publisher: Japanime Games

Players: 2-4 | Play Time: 60-90 Minutes | Ages 12+

Overview

Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis is a deck building game where the players are fighting against an enemy deck in order to gain 20 energy. Players begin play with a prototype mech and “Mysterious figure” pilot. Each mech and pilot have a melee attack stat, ranged attack stat, and durability stat. For convenience the game comes with a nice player board, dice, and an energy tracker.

Players start off with the same cards in their deck. Players can generate resources by placing cards face down. Using these resources to purchase cards, upgrade your mech, and play tactic cards. Buying new cards gives you access to new abilities. Upgrading your mech may change your melee, ranged, or durability stats. Unlike other deck builder's you don’t spend the resources you gain, you simply have to have enough to use the cards.

Players can then choose to face the enemy deck. The player chooses an attack stat in order to face the challenge. They draw the top card of the enemy deck reveals your challenge. Encounter events that come up which may affect you or your opponents. The enemy deck may reveal an enemy. Each enemy has a melee attack stat, ranged attack stat, and durability stat similar to the mechs. If a player has more attack value than the defense value of the enemy revealed. The enemy attacks back using the same stat that the player chose. If you deal more damage to the enemy creature than it’s durability you defeat the enemy and it goes into your play area for the enemy. If an enemy has an energy value then you move your energy tracker up by the value. If you fail to defeat the enemy it gets slid under the enemy deck to be encountered later.
If the enemy hits you with more damage than your mech has in durability then your mech becomes disabled. Depending on the type of mech you have will determine how to repair it at the start of your next turn.

During the final phase of a players turn they will discard resources and cards in hands. They will draw a new hand of 5 cards or more depending on the tactics or upgrades you have. If you have 4 or more energy you can upgrade your mysterious figure pilot into a named pilot. If you have 8 or more energy you can upgrade your mech into a named mech.

Example Turn

Here’s an example turn.
I check the state of my mech, repair as necessary. I have a hand of 5 cards. I put 3 cards face down to generate 3 resources. I can then buy one card worth 3 or less from the general supply and put it into my hand. I can then play one upgrade onto my mech that costs 3 or less. If the upgrade affects my melee, ranged or durability stat, I change the dice facing those stats to their new count. I can then play any tactics cards that cost 3 or less to play. The tactics cards could be to gain extra purchasing power, look at the enemy cards. That’s my main phase.
I then choose to face the enemy deck with a ranged attack. My ranged ability is 7, my durability is 9 because of my base mech and upgrades. I flip the first card of the enemy deck over. It is a vril ranger. It’s ranged ability is 1 and its durability is a 4. I defeat it and it doesn’t do enough damage to me to defeat me. The enemy goes into my energy pool. I increase my energy token by 2. I discard my energy cards and any cards I have left in my hand. I draw back up to my hand limit. I don’t have enough to upgrade my pilot or mech so it goes to the next players turn.

Thoughts

I really enjoyed this game. It seems fairly balanced. The game can be difficult at first when going after the enemy deck. There are a lot of low enemies but there are some that are really high in durability value that will take a lot of combos of cards and upgrades to be able to defeat.
As far as we could tell there’s no way to actually lose the game. Which is kind of off balance to me. It’s a competitive race to the finish over a cooperative game. So I kind of get the appeal of no true defeat for players.
I really appreciated the player boards for tracking attack values, defense values, and energy count. The 3 colored D20 dice are a nice addition to it as well. It would have been nice to have a turn structure or a small area to tell how to repair your mech if it’s been defeated. We had to reference the book a few times to make sure we were doing things right.
The game doesn’t take up a lot of space on the table. We played with 2 players, I could see how 4 players might get tricky. The game limits the number of upgrades you can have on your mechs to 6. That helps to keep the table space down. Some of the enemies have abilities that trigger while in the players enemy storage space. Having those cards split up so you can see the ability is helpful.
The art style has a strong anime vibe to it. The mechs are similar to the gundam style mechs. The cards are all very thematic. Even the villain cards all have a similar feel to them.

It has one expansion that shows available for pre-order on Japanime’s site. It also has an organizational play mat that we have that gives a nice footprint to the game

Find out more

Board Game Geek -
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267036/core-connection-rise-atlantis
Japanime Games -
https://japanimegames.com/collections/core-connection

Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis
Publisher: Japanime Games
Designer: Ken Rose
Project Director: Hideshi Komatsu
Illustrators: Nanatise7, Osiori, Yumolism, Reji, KarashiCracker, Jiki, Magariya, Tachibana, Inami

Players: 2-4 | Play Time: 60-90 Minutes | Ages 12+

Overland Gamer

What are your thoughts? Is this a game that you might enjoy bringing to your table? Be sure to follow Overland Gamer on Facebook and tell us some of the games you enjoy!

The Podcast episode for this can be found over on Anchor.FM or on Spotify

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Overland Gamer The Podcast - Kickstarter Brief Podcast Notes KS003

3/1/2020

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Welcome to Overland Gamer the Podcast.

Find the episode here on Anchor.FM

Also available on Spotify

Overland Gamer is a podcast combining two of my hobbies, travel, and gaming. It is my hope to grow this podcast as I share my adventures. We'll showcase some kickstarters, share game reviews and game playthroughs. We'll have location briefs and travel blogs. We'll talk about travel destinations, game development, writer's life, interviews and much more.
So lets get going shall we?

(car Start)

We took a bit of a break to re-evaluate how we’re going to go forward. We’ll be changing things up a bit and we hope you enjoy the new format coming up. We plan on doing shorter shows with a more focused content.

Todays Kickstarter Brief we will take a look at current kickstarters that have caught our attention.
Recorded March 1, 2020

Scattered Nexus
Extortion bringing people together to argue
Hunker a game of woodland friendship under falling snow
Cheer Up! The big D expansion
Empire of the Stars
Cindr
The Ming Voyages and The March of Progress
Goetia: Nine Kings of Solomon
CardWeaver

(Anchor.FM spot)

Today’s kickstarters are inspired by the fine folks at Indie Game Alliance. Indie Game Alliance is a great resource for board game developers to get your game out there in the eyes and hands of those who want to play games.

Scattered Nexus -

17 days - 1-4 player game - 30-120 minutes (Board Game Geek) - ages 10+
A battle style card game based on a growing list of indie comics. Features a coop and competitive mode

Extortion, bringing people together to argue!

24 days to go - 3-8 player game - From Broken Archer game -
Convince other players that you make the best President by talking them into voting for you. Debate specific topics that come up. Example “A zombie outbreak has begun across the country. How do you respond?”
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/extortion/extortion-bringing-people-together-to-argue?ref=IndieGameAllies

http://www.brokenarcher.com/home.html

HUNKER: a game of woodland friendship under the falling snow

22 days to go - 2-4 players - 50-75 minute game (Board Game Geek) - ages 9+
from Aaron Franco
Players will optimize their actions to explore, forage for food, build shelters. Players gain points by foraging for and stashing away food, playing friendship cards, and hunkering down before weather events. Some cards provide mini objectives to pursue.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paperwilds/hunker-a-game-of-woodland-friendship-under-the-falling-snow?ref=IndieGameAllies

Cheer Up! - The Big D Pack Expansion

31 days to go - 4-8 players - 30 minute play time (Board game geek) - age 17+ - From Cheer Up Games.
Four expansions and 300 new cards for Cheer Up!
Cheer Up is a party game where players use adjective, noun, and verb cards to answer questions in the best way possible. Typical judge and vote game where the judge will turn over a question card, other players draw cards. Players use the cards drawn to answer the question the funniest, best, or worst way possible. Judge picks the best.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cheerup/cheer-up-the-big-d-pack-expansion?ref=IndieGameAllies
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256507/cheer

Empire of the Stars - 4X Board Game

12 days to go - 2-4 players - 60-90 minutes (board game geek) - age 10+ from CrossCut Games
Fast paced empire building game of exploration, conflict and struggle for dominance.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872048165/empire-of-the-stars-4x-board-game?ref=IndieGameAllies
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279581/empire-stars

(Matts Book Intro)

(Escape from the Con)

Cindr - A press your luck game about dating amazing dragons… without getting burned.

4 days left.

Publisher - Smirk and Laughter Games
Designer - Harold Mikolaitis, Benjamin Walker
2-4 players
30-40 minute
Age 14+
Cindr is a 'push your luck' dice game about dating awesome dragons without getting burned. On your turn, you will roll the dating dice up to three times, once for each stage of your date. Try to roll as many Hearts as possible, and avoid Fires to find that special dragon partner! The game ends when one player earns 21 love points, having found joy and fulfillment to win!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smirkanddagger/cindr?ref=IndieGameAllies
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295478/cindr

Goetia: Nine Kings of Solomon

17 days to go - 2-4 players - 80-160 minutes - ages 13 +
A dark euro worker placement, resource management game following some novel based mythology.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/demonicgames/goetia-re-launch-in-february?ref=IndieGameAllies
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267333/goetia-nine-kings-solomon

The Ming Voyages and The March of Progress

14 days to go -
2 games in one kickstarter
The Ming Voyages: A game of treasure and conquest for 1 or 2 players.
The March of Progress - A 2 player strategic micro wargame.
Both games have 30-45 minutes. Ages 12+

CardWeaver -

1-4 players - 30-60 minute - Ages 13+ - from ODAM publishing

One vs all deckbuilding card game based on the world of The Shared Dream
Up to 3 players team up against another player. Buying cards and competing in a 1 vs all.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/odampublishing/cardweaver?ref=IndieGameAllies
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/297530/cardweaver

Gruff: Whispers of Madness

1-4 players - 20-45 minutes - ages 11+ - from Brent Crutchfield and Studio Woe
Tactical card game where players duel to the death with custom teams of eldritch monster goats -

Again, thank you for listening.
Remember
Be kind to one another.
Always know where your towel is,
And be kind rewind.

Overland Gamer is produced by Joe DeMarco. Sounds recorded by Joe DeMarco. Escape from the Con is written by Joe DeMarco.
See you next time.

Car shutting down

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Writer Wednesday

2/19/2020

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Greetings traveler to Overland Gamer Writer Wednesdays. A branch of our regular podcast where we go on adventures in the art of writing.
On todays episode we’ll talk about the word crawl exercise using Before There Were Stars from Smirk and Laughter Games. Looks like they’re just about to get started. Lets take a seat by the fire and see what happens.

A big shout out to all our listeners. Without you this podcast would not be able to continue. Thank you for your support.

Before there were stars from Smirk and Laughter games is a dice rolling storytelling game where players will craft stories inspired by the constellations that appear before them on cards.
Players: 3-6 Players
Play time: 40-60 minutes
Age: 10+
Designed by Alex Cutler, Matt Fantastic, Alexander Wilkinson

From Board Game Geek website?
Since ancient times, the twinkling of the heavens inspired people across the globe to create stories that answered the most important of questions: "Who are we… and how did it all begin?"
Open this box, and join the storytellers of old. Before There Were Stars... is a storytelling game in which each player tells the mythic creation story of "their people". Inspired by constellation cards, players craft tales about the creation of the world, the origins of civilization, the rise of a great hero, and the end of days.
Main game has 3 phases:
Stargazing phase -
Storytelling Phase
Appreciation phase.
This is Before There Were Stars from Smirk and Laughter Games.
For 3-6 Players
Play time: 40-60 minutes
Age: 10+
Designed by Alex Cutler, Matt Fantastic, Alexander Wilkinson

Word Crawl

A word crawl is a word sprint. A word crawl uses a format similar to a choose your own adventure story. Participants write for the time given or until the word count is met. These brief exercises help to keep the participant focused on the story. Participants can use the theme of the word crawl to write their own story, or they can continue on a story of their own creation.

This word crawl will show how you can use a story-driven board game to tell a creative story. The game we chose for this event is Before There Were Stars from Smirk and Laughter Games. Another game that this works great for is Call to Adventure from Brotherwise Games.
It will also work with random word generators online.

5 Minute introduction Word War - In the beginning -

3 constellations chosen.
Example - (Cards Drawn Randomly from the Game) - Choose 1
The Moon - The Anvil - The Chest

15 Minute Word War -

6 constellations chosen
Example - Choose 2
The Judge - The Cave - The Shark - The Dragon - The Shield - The Whale

3 Minute Sprint -

3 constellations chosen
Example - Choose 1
The Fox - The Demon - The Skull

500-word sprint or 5-minute sprint

5 constellations chosen
Example - Choose 2
The Elephant - Wine - The Cloak - The Tree - Ghost

15-minute word war -

4 constellations chosen
Example - Choose 2
The Desert - The Hammer - The Mother - The Wind

Another type of word crawl or word sprint
50 Headed Hydra - A type of sprint where you have 5 minutes trying to write 500 words in that time limit.

The Heroes Journey| Word Crawl
In the Beginning - The heroes’ normal life or the ordinary world.
5-minute word war - Your main character or main characters are living their normal life.

Departure - The Heroes Call to Adventure
15-minute word war - Your character is being called away from their normal life.
Mentors - Help me, help me, give me the news.
15-minute word war - Your character comes across someone to offer them advice about the challenges they face.

Initiation - Crossing the threshold.
10-minute word war - The point of no return. Your characters are looking ahead.
Challenge - Trials, Friends, and Foes
500-word sprint - Many obstacles your character will face.
Approach - The greatest challenge approaches
30-minute word war -

Ordeal - The moment of despair -
1000 word sprint - Your characters face a great challenge everything looks grim.
Reward - They come in many shapes and sizes.
10-minute word war - Your characters achieve something great.
The road back - Headed back home
250-word sprint
Resurrection - An unforeseen challenge
5-minute word war-
Return - The ordinary world, yet different.
1000 word sprint.

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We did a 4 part play through with 2 players on Overland Gamer The Podcast.

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Note - I am not a personal trainer. I am not an exercise expert. Consult your physician before starting any workout routine. I am not held responsible for injuries that may occur while doing these exercises. Change up the exercises as needed.

Progress through the game, change exercises up as desired. Battle, exercise, and change your life. ​

Note - I am not a personal trainer. I am not an exercise expert. Consult your physician before starting any workout routine. I am not held responsible for injuries that may occur while doing these exercises. Change up the exercises as needed.

Joe DeMarco

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Project Director: Hideshi Komatsu
Illustrators: Nanatise7, Osiori, Yumolism, Reji, KarashiCracker, Jiki, Magariya, Tachibana, Inami

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