Gameology Blog - Gamer's Hub Online
𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻! 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝟱 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀🎉
After what feels like years holed up in a cave, finally, we emerge to sunshine, socialising and, at long last, social board games. If that copy of Cards Against Humanity is getting a little tattered, here’s some new party games to ease the initial awkwardness of learning how to be around people again. 1) One Night Ultimate Werewolf If you’ve ever played Mafia in high school drama classes, you probably know the feeling of getting killed by the mafia in the first round and having to sit there, bored, watching everyone else have fun for the next twenty minutes. With its accompanying app and fast playtime, One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a modern version of the old classic that spans—as the name suggests—only one night. Everyone gets one of a dozen different secret roles—from the Seer, to the Troublemaker, to the Werewolf—each with its own unique ability. Maybe you get to peek at another player’s card. Maybe you get to switch your card with another player’s. In the morning, all players wake up and try to deduce who can be trusted. Since you cannot recheck your cards, there’s no guaranteeing you’re the same innocent villager you started as. Watch in horror as you figure out you’re actually now a Werewolf and must shift the blame away from yourself if you want to win the game. Playing anywhere from 3 to 10 people, One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fast and fresh hidden role game for parties of all sizes. If you’ve been playing lots of the videogame Among Us in lockdown, One Night Ultimate Werewolf is the party game for you. Check out One Night Ultimate Werewolf Here 2) Anomia Maybe you like party games where you get to flex your brain. You’re quick-witted, intelligent, sharp as a dagger—and you need to prove it. Like a trivia night but better, Anomia is a party game that asks to recall random mundane knowledge you have accumulated over your lifetime. A one-hit wonder. A frozen food. A brand of toothpaste. And sure, I bet you named some in your head right now. But can you do it under pressure? The game is a breeze to set up and even breezier to play. Going around the table, each person draws a card off the top of the deck and immediately places it face up in front of them. There’ll be one of those random categories—dessert, for instance—plus a weird symbol. But no time to investigate your own card—watch the cards other players flip. If any of their symbols match yours, you must shout out the answer to their card before they shout out yours! You’ll surprise yourself when even your quick wits fail to think of a dog breed (despite the fact you have three dogs) when someone else is yelling “APPLE PIE!” in your face. Check out Anomia Here! 3) Wavelength So everyone knows you love blueberries. You order a blueberry muffin on your way to work every day, you put it in pancakes, in smoothies, on ice cream. But if you had to put it on a scale, where would your love fall? With its stunning box and gameshow-esque glittering pop-up dial, Wavelength is definitely the flashiest of all the party games on this list. To play, players split into two teams. One person from one team spins a panel behind the dial and peeks at where the bullseye falls, whether it’s all the way left or two-thirds right or slightly left of centre. They need to get their team to spin their needle onto the bullseye. But the clue they give must fall within a binary. Perhaps they draw the card ‘believable vs unbelievable’ and they say the clue, ‘astrology’. Some people might fall way over to the ‘unbelievable’ side. But what about the clue-giver? What does she think about astrology? And here lies the magic of Wavelength. This rainbow box and glittery dial is a board game, yes, but it’s also a device to help you get to know people—perfect for post-lockdown catch-ups. Check out Wavelength Here! 4) A Fake Artist Goes to New York Bundled in this adorable pocket-sized pink box, A Fake Artist Goes to New York is a game where players are artists working on a collaborative picture. However, like in many of the horror games discussed in a previous post, one of you is an imposter! A fake! A fraud! The Question Master will set a category for the image—job, food, country, etc—and then write a word from that category on dry-erase cards passed out to each player. However, one player will just get a big fat ‘X’. The fake artist. Each turn, you can only draw one line on the page. The beauty of this game is figuring out how much to draw on your turn to prove to everyone else that you’re not the fake, while also not giving enough away that the actual fake artist will be able to catch onto the word. So cute and small you can literally fit it in your pocket, A Fake Artist Goes to New York is a party game you can take anywhere. Check out A Fake Artist Goes To New York Here! 5) Don’t Get Got Unlike all the other games on this list—and many games not on this list—Don’t Get Got is a game played in the background of life. Imagine this: you’re talking to your friend—let’s call him Gene. He’s got a pretty cool hat. It looks like an octopus sitting on his head. A friend from the other side of the room calls him over so he takes off the hat, leaves it unattended on the table, and walks away. You stare at the hat like a ticking bomb. It’s a cool hat. It’s crocheted and looks like a freaking octopus. You have to put it on. As soon as the crocheted tentacles settle against the sides of your face, you feel something itching at the top of your head. You remove the hat and reach inside. A card—one that feels scarily similar to the six cards you currently have in your secret wallet. You turn to see Gene maniacally grinning. And you hear the dreaded words: You. Got. Got. If that little scene (inspired by the scene in Shut Up and Sit Down’s video review) made your fingers itch to play, here’s a rundown. Give each player a wallet filled with six secret missions. Be the first to complete three and you win. But beware. If, in the process of trying to complete a mission, someone asks the dreaded question, “Is this from the game?”, you immediately fail that mission. It’s soul-crushing, believe me. If you’re looking to gamify your next party and feel like an undercover spy, Don’t Get Got is your perfect post-lockdown party game. Check out Don't Get Got Here! Buying Guide In summary, if you want to... Lie to your friends? One Night Ultimate Werewolf. Yell mundane trivia? Anomia. Learn new things about your friends and family? Wavelength. Make terrible drawings together? A Fake Artist Goes to New York. Gamify your party and feel like a spy? Don’t Get Got. And there we have it! Our 5 best party games now that we’re out of lockdown! What do you think? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!
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𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗙𝘂𝗻! 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟱 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀
I don’t know about you, but I always found history classes so boring. But perhaps that was just the way they were taught. You know what makes everything more fun to learn? Board games. Take a look back at pivotal moments in human history with our top 5 historical games to bring the past into the present. 1) Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 Building off the backs of both a wildly successful legacy game and an all-round great strategy board game, Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 places players as medical graduates recruited by the CIA. Taking place in 1962—the midst of the Cold War—this legacy game tasks them with battling both the Soviets’ new bioweapon and the agents themselves. In legacy games, each play session acts as a chapter in a larger narrative. However, as you play the game, you will leave lasting changes to both the physical components of the game and the rules themselves as you play through the campaign. You’ll place stickers, open sealed-up packages, even tear up cards (?!). Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 combines the global political games of the Cold War with the legacy mechanic to give you a sense of progression and permanence fitting to the historical setting. Your choices feel like they matter. Though this title is still on preorder, it’s expected to arrive in December. If you’re looking for a rich legacy Cold War experience, Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 is one to watch. 2) Watergate Perhaps you’re interested in the Cold War, but the grand scope of Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 intimidates you. Or perhaps you only have one friend willing to play board games with you but you still want a rich historical experience. Look no further than Watergate—a tense 2-player board game based off the Nixon scandal of the same name. Highly competitive and head-to-head, one player acts as the Nixon administration, trying desperately not to resign, and the other plays as The Washington Post trying to expose the links between Nixon and his informers. Playing in just 30-60 minutes, Watergate offers historical gravity and a tense tug-of-war, without the lengthy playtime. 3) Memoir ‘44 Let’s go a little further back in time. World War II. If you want to feel like a war general, hunching over a map and plotting battle strategies, you’ve got to try Memoir ‘44—a wargame where you can reenact some of the most famous battles from WWII, from Omaha Beach to the Ardennes. Contained in the box are over 15 different scenarios, each striving for accuracy in terrain, placement of soldiers and objectives of each side, but still allowing for players to strategise. Don’t be put off by the gritty illustrations on the box—this 2-player game is relatively easy to teach and play and plays in anywhere from 30-60 minutes. 4) Paths of Glory To cap off the wars of the 20th century, here’s a board game about the First World War, or as they viewed it then—the Great War. With a board spanning all of Europe and the Middle East, Paths of Glory places you as either the Allies or the Central Powers fighting the bloody battles that shaped the modern world. Will you triumph or will you fall? The power is in your hand. Quite literally actually since this game is mostly centred around card-play and making tough decisions. Like Memoir ‘44, Paths of Glory will make you feel like a war general hunched over a sprawling map. Except, in this case, perhaps more realistically, as this game can take up to 8 hours to play. Don’t expect to whip this game out for a random weekday board game night. You’ll have to set aside the majority, if not all of your day, but for the depth of strategy that feels so right for a Great War game, it’s worth it. 5) Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization Maybe you don’t want to just relive history. Maybe you’re not particularly attached to any one point of history, let alone the 20th century. Maybe you want to rewrite history from the ground up. Ranked among the top ten board games on BoardGameGeek, Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization will be familiar to anyone who has played any of Sid Meier’s Civilization videogames. Like in said games, players will each have a civilization and have to build up their resources, military, and technology from the humble beginnings of agriculture to the internet, all while balancing citizen happiness and food requirements. Though it is lighter on the historical depth than all the other games on this list, Through the Ages still manages to capture the immense scale and strategy involved in building a civilization. Sure, your civilization might have leaders that wildly conflict with your government and natural wonders, but hey--this is rewriting not reenacting. Why buy a game about one specific period of history when you can get one that spans all of it? Buying Guide In summary, if you’re looking for... A Cold War legacy game where choices feel important? Pandemic Legacy: Season 0. A 2-player tug-of-war based on the Nixon scandal? Watergate. Quick-to-play reenactments of famous WWII battles? Memoir ‘44. An 8 hour WWI experience with unparalleled depth? Paths of Glory. Scale and strategy across all of history? Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization. Now check your player count... Only got 2 players? Watergate or Memoir ‘44 for a short game. Paths of Glory for an all-day experience. Have a bigger gaming group? Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization for a regular board game experience. Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 for a multi-session legacy game. And there we have it! Our top 5 historical board games! What do you think? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below! If you are interested in more great games check out our our blog on 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑻𝒐𝒑 5 𝑩𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑶𝒖𝒕𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑨𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 here
Don't Get Got! How to Spice Up Any Games Night.
A game you set-and-forget like an easy-bake dessert, in the hopes that during play, people relax enough so you can get one over on them. What?! It’s a simple enough concept with dramatic and enjoyable consequences that’ll leave you and your friends paying out that one person in your gaming group FOR. YEARS. Played almost innocuously in the background of your small gathering (of less than 10 people, excuse us), your routine board games night or even during your family dinner, Don’t Get Got is the perfect way to quell the monotony of pandemic life. Players are given their own wallet with six of unique objectives ranging from the mundane to the ridiculous. It is then that players mission – should they choose to accept it – to be the first to complete three of their tasks and be crowned the Don’t Get Got victor, which includes exclusive bragging rights for the rest of eternity. But beware, everyone will be on high alert and suspicious of every seemingly harmless request. Any utterance of the dreaded phrase, “is this from the game?” is the only thing that can foil your plans – you then fail that task and won’t be able to try it again on anyone else. Work together at your own peril, as divulging your plans opens you up to potential treachery at the hands of whom you once called allies, friends even. A simple, yet effective and immensely satisfying game, Don’t Get Got is the perfect party and family game that’ll spice up any situation! Don’t believe us? Check out the brilliant review from the renowned team at Shut Up & Sit Down below. It’ll be in your cart faster than you can say, “Is that from the game?!”
𝟭𝟳 𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱!
So you’ve picked up board-gaming as a new hobby. Welcome, and we sincerely apologise to your bank account. There’s a myriad of board games out there to suit every want, need and style, and as you progress in your never-ending search for the best of them all, you’ll start to notice the same descriptors come up; Abstract, Worker-Placement, Deck-Building, etc. It can be a bit of a minefield to navigate what each term means and how to work out which games are classified under each category, so we have compiled a list of the most common categories to help debunk the mystery! 1) Abstract Examples: Azul, Santorini, Hive, Chess Games that lack a thematic element and rely solely on the decisions that players make. Abstract games can incorporate themes; however, they don’t impact game-play itself so it’s as if they may as well not be there. 2) Area Control Examples: Risk, Dominant Species, Twilight Struggle, Small World As the name suggests, these games consist of controlling an area of a collective payer board often through players adding their own pieces or removing the pieces of other’s. 3) Campaign Example: LOTR: Journeys in Middle Earth, Scythe, Near and Far, Arkham Horror Mini-games – scenarios – contained within a larger game or world, where the outcome of each scenario affects elements of the next. These games rely heavily on storytelling and are designed to be played long-term, i.e. over weeks, months or even years depending on the enthusiasm of the players. Campaign games are often tied to and used interchangeably with Legacy Games and largely focus on a storytelling/journey element. 4) Cooperative/Co-Op Examples: Pandemic, Spirit Island, Mysterium, Hanabi Again, as the name suggests, this includes games where players work together against the game to achieve a common goal and win as a team. 5) Deck-Builder Examples: Star Realms, Dominion, Undaunted, Paperback Games that consist of, or incorporate cards in which the objective is to purchase and/or exchange for cards with better abilities so you have a higher chance of drawing those cards during play. You are effectively “building your hand” of cards. 6) Drafting Examples: 7-Wonders, Sushi Go!, Blood Rage, Bunny Kingdom Games that present players with options to pick, with the remaining options being left for other players to then pick, in turn order. Selections are often made from shared pools or by passing options between players. 7) Dungeon-Crawler Examples: Mansions of Madness, Mice and Mystics, Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Descent Games where players assume a character that moves through a location defeating enemies controlled by other players or the game itself. 8) Engine-Builder Examples: Century, Wingspan, Imagnarium, Terraforming Mars Games that require you to build an “engine” over a set number of rounds, often equating to more victory points gathered as play moves along. By engine, we mean setting up your own system whereby you convert your starting actions or resources to more or better actions or resources throughout the game. 9) Eurogame Examples: Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Catan, Suburbia Named for the fact that this style of game originated in Europe (Germany to be exact), Euro games are those that are strategy-focussed, competitive and involve player interaction through passive means as opposed to directed and aggressive conflict. Play depends less on luck and more on skill and often features elements of Worker-Placement and Resource Management. 10) Legacy Examples: Gloomhaven, Pandemic Legacy, Charterstone, Betrayal Legacy Akin to Campaign games where players play through a set of stories to complete a journey within the game’s world, Legacy games differ where they require players to inflict irrevocable permanent changes to the game as play progresses, based on the decisions made along the way. These changes are often physical, meaning that these mini-games along the way aren’t able to be played more than once. 11) Push-Your-Luck Examples: The Quacks of Quedlinburg, King of Tokyo, Formula D, Welcome to the Dungeon Games that encourage you to take big risks to reap better rewards but that come with a caveat of losing basic advantages if your attempts are unsuccessful. 12) Roll-And-Move Examples: Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders, Clue, Cranium Games where you roll dice and move as many spaces, triggering actions or decisions that need to be made based on where you land. 13) Roll-And-Write Examples: Welcome To…, Corinth, Harvest Dice, Qwixx Games where your roll dice and choose your outcome based on the roll. This is then written in a personal scoring sheet to keep track of during the game. Decisions made at the beginning of the game affect the options at the end, so roll and choose wisely! 14) Resource Management Examples: Everdell, Imperial Settlers, Concordia, Scythe Games that give players a limited amount of resources and require them to plan out – or strategise – how they will spend those resources through to game end. 15) RPG – Role-Playing Game Examples: Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Arcadia Quest, Gloomhaven Games that often require one player to take on a storyteller role and dictate the terms of the world set around the other players. Other players must now assume other character roles within this world and make decisions to navigate it based on the terms developed. 16) War Game Examples: Axis and Allies, Twilight Imperium, Warhammer, Inis Games that pit players against each other through armies (often represented by a variety of miniatures) to the death, by encouraging large-scale combat determined via dice rolls or deck building. 17) Worker-Placement Examples: Tokaido, Caverna, Agricola, Stone Age Games that require players to choose actions or gather resources labelled on the game board by placing their workers on those spots. This allows these workers to complete tasks or build items that will help players simultaneously achieve certain goals to win. Of course, there are many other categories out there and oftentimes, games can be classified in more than one category! Did we miss any important categories? What’s your favourite tabletop game style? Let us know in the comments!
𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟱 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀
So you’ve bought a new game and played it to death already. You’re love it, but you’re looking for that new spark just to re-ignite the same old mechanics. Well, look no further as we’ve compiled a list of the best board game expansions that are definitely worth adding to some already excellent base games. Check them out below! 1) Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Widow’s Walk The first expansion for the acclaimed Betrayal at the House on the Hill base game, Widow’s Walk expands the capabilities of the ominous House by including 20 new rooms to explore – and an entirely new floor. Additionally, the expansion comes with new monsters, omens and events to tackle and critically, 50 new haunts! Absolutely one to add to the shelf as the value is insane! 2) Everdell: Pearlbrook So you’ve done it. You forked out for Everdell and you’ve been furiously playing through it with anyone that blinks in your direction. Don’t worry, we get it. It’s an amazing game and a side-effect of owning such a beautiful work of art. However, with each play the initial sheen of joy is chipped away as you delve deeper into the strategy and decipher the game’s idiosyncrasies. Well that’s where Everdell: Pearlbrook comes in. The first expansion it adds a ridiculous amount of extra play to the base game and is well worth your money. In addition to a new resource (pearls), Pearlbrook adds a new part of the game board, new deck cards for each category, new destinations, new abilities, new overlays for constructions during the game that will earn you extra VPs and some suuuuper useful Open/Close signs for spots in your cities, reminding players of the often forgotten base game rule that you may play into an opponent’s city if there is an open destination. 3) Dominion: Seaside Building on the eternally popular card game where players are required to build their own civilisations from the ground up – no matter the cost, Dominion: Seaside adds in an entire extra fundamental element that changes everything. Water. This expansion requires players to account for rivers, ports and pirates as they expand their territory and attempt to dominate their opponents. By far the most popular of all the Dominion expansions, it’s a great addition to the base game that’ll keep you occupied for hours. 4) Wingspan: The European Expansion Like birds? Well how would you feel about European ones? That’s exactly what the new Wingspan: European Expansion offers. The primary addition is of course more bird cards with differing abilities that keep the game varied and interesting while building your engine. The prime mechanic these cards increase is player interaction, making play a lot more involved and shall we say, higher-stakes among a group? [read: people will scoff at and yell at you over the advantages you pull]. The expansion also includes an extra scorecard, storage (you’ll need it), another egg colour and extra food tokens to keep everyone well-stocked and ready to compete for the title of best wildlife reserve. 5) 7-Wonders: Cities & Leaders Okay so this is technically two expansions but we would argue that once you out-play the base game, you’ll want both. 7-Wonders: Leaders is the first expansion for the 7-Wonders base game, and introduces 42 new cards to the deck, a new wonder and Leader cards. These cards cost money – not resources – and are played at the start of each Age to gain special abilities for that round. 7-Wonders: Cities is the game’s second expansion, and critically adds an 8th player – perfect for this style of game that really shines when you hit those bigger group numbers. In addition, the expansion also includes optional team rules, new Wonder, Guild and Leader cards and a new type of card – City Remains – that give you even more advantages with each passing Age. This expansion adds a more aggressive play-style to the game as it increases player interaction. So here are our Top 5 Board Game Expansions. What do you think? Were we right on the money? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!
𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑻𝒐𝒑 5 𝑩𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑶𝒖𝒕𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑨𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌
One of the most important aspects of board games is arguably its theming. The artwork plays a huge role in immersing and intriguing players and we think that should be celebrated! So without further ado, here are our Top 5 board games with the best artwork: 1) Everdell This goes without saying, which is why it’s in our top spot. A truly fantastic worker-placement, resource-management, strategy game in and of itself, Everdell is compounded by beautiful artwork and componentry. The Ever Tree sits tall above the game board, nestling the draw deck exactly in it’s trunk. The cards are linen-finish and depict intricate and detailed illustrations of the woodland creatures that occupy the forest. Your resource tokens are a satisfying acrylic and made in the likeness of each resource you are vying for. What’s not to love?! 2) Tokaido You’ve probably seen it on every other list of “the prettiest board games ever” but look, it makes these lists for a reason! A relatively quick-play, Tokaido follows the journey of travellers along the Japanese “East Sea Road” where they use their unique powers and selected placement on the track to work towards achieving various end of game bonuses. The game board is a minimalist’s dream in technicolour and the artwork to accompany – just wow. Generally, board games of Japanese theming have stellar artwork but this is next level gorgeous. 3) Petrichor A lesser-known board game but definitely not one to pass over, Petrichor by definition, is the pleasant Earthly smell produced when rain hits dry soil. In the case of the beautiful board game however, you are a cloud seeking to expand and water as many crops as possible compared to your opponents by manipulating the weather to your advantage. Truly stunning components made from high-quality punch-outs, beautiful watercolour artwork on both crop tiles and clouds and the ever-satisfying coloured glass water droplet tokens make this game an absolute pleasure to learn, play and teach! 4) Scythe A cult-classic, Scythe is not only a fantastic area control game itself, but also incorporates beautiful artwork and componentry. Set in an alternative 1920’s steampunk universe, the game board is a vivid blend of natural colours whose theme flows seamlessly into other illustrated components including individual player boards and coin tokens. In keeping with the context of the war-torn universe in which the game takes place, the detailed artwork also depicts the striking landscapes of pre-industrial Europe overlain with modern (and terrifying) human-controlled robots. A captivating and immersive campaign experience, Scythe is definitely a game worth adding to the shelf! 5) Obscurio For a game based solely on analysing illustrations, you’d better hope they’d be good! Luckily, Obscurio certainly doesn’t disappoint. A detailed and vibrant depiction of a never-ending, Harry Potter-esque library from which you must escape, this game of deception and bluffing is best played in groups of 4-8. The game board itself full of intricate detail and so too are the components –particularly the image cards and the important Grimoire. You’ll see. And that’s our list! Let us know if the comments below if we missed any games!
Dungeon Master or Player Character, which is a better fit? Chapter 2 Being a Player
If Dungeon Master is like the architect, the Player Characters are the actors. Though it may seem at first that the DM has all the creative power in D&D, don’t underestimate the little world that is your character. Your character can be exactly like you, or they can be everything you’ve ever (or never) dreamed of being. Create your little forest gnome sorcerer with a talent for circus acrobatics and cartwheel into combat casting Chaos Bolt. Make your sexy Tabaxi monk who defeats the evil harpies with equal parts partying and punching. The job of the Player Character is in the name—play. Thanks to the DM, for a few hours in your friend’s living room, with just a couple dice and some miniatures, you get to go to another world. You get to be someone else. The feeling of levelling up and accessing new abilities, specialisations or spells is just as satisfying as any RPG video game. One of the best parts about being a Player Character is the element of surprise. You get to be surprised by the DM’s plot twists or funny voices. You get to surprise the DM by doing the unexpected like hitting the puzzle with your shortsword and somehow solving it. You even get to surprise yourself with your godlike (or utterly trash) dice rolls. There’s always more than one correct answer to any social interaction, combat scenario, or puzzle and thinking up a creative solution never gets old. But what’s even better, is that you get to do all this with your friends—or soon-to-be friends! Where the DM has the powerful but solitary position of knowing and controlling everything, you and the other Player Characters (depending on their character’s alignments) are on a team. Maybe your rogue fails to be stealthy and gets one-shot trying to sneak, so the rest of you launch a rescue mission, with the wizard teleporting to the top of the tower and putting all the guards to sleep. Maybe you’re a bard and you distract the enemies with your Dancing Lights so your beefy barbarian friends can ‘sneak’ up behind the goblins and pummel them. Maybe you roll a natural 1 on your Witch Bolt and accidentally kill your friend (true story). In D&D, you can make memories together. My friends and I will still reflect on moments from old campaigns as if they were moments from real life. One of the best things about D&D, and what makes me hesitate before jumping onto any other RPG campaign tabletop games, is that, in D&D, you can basically do whatever you want. There’s a lot of rules to learn from the start, so I’ll admit, being a Player Character in D&D does have a fairly high upfront effort cost, but it is by learning these rules that you realise the true extent of your creativity. In combat, for example, you can do way more than simply smack the enemy with your scimitar. The ‘Help’ action lets you assist an ally. How? In any way you like! What does the spell Prestidigitation do? More than you’d think (including making a fake bag of gold to trick the greedy gnome selling you potions). As an English tutor, I often say that in writing, you learn the rules just so you know how to break them. It’s similar in D&D. If you know the rules, you know the extent to which you can take them. But seriously, if you’re a Player Character, don’t complain about how much work you have to do. The DM has way more. All you need to do is make a character, show up, and be engaged. And sometimes, that last one is difficult. Perhaps your DM is having an off day (because we’re all human—IRL that is). Perhaps you’re just losing interest in the campaign. But if you decide to be a Player, you need to be engaged. Look for clues, use your abilities, think outside the box. It’s very easy, especially in larger groups, to simply tag along—“Uhh…I follow everyone to the blacksmith.” But the truth is, you get as much as you give to the game. If you actively look for clues, the DM will open up the story to you. If you use your abilities, you really feel like you’re playing your class. If you think creatively, you get the surprise and the satisfaction of seeing your ideas actually work. So here’s the thing—without the DM, you wouldn’t have your D&D sessions. You would just have a character, with no world to exist in, no other player’s to interact with, no monsters to beat up. If you’re only going to take one thing from this article, take this: Respect your DM. They stayed up late learning rules, devising puzzles, calculating enemy difficulties. You don’t see a lot of what they do. The least you can do is show them and their story respect by creating a character you care about (not one you’re going to throw into a 1v20 because why not), learning your rules and limits, and engaging with the story they tell you.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟰 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀.
We’ve all been there. You hype up a board game to your non-gamer friends and family, only for them to get super intrigued and relent to playing with you…and hate it, vowing to never play another. Don’t worry, it’s an often-reported bi-product of our passionate [read: obsessive] community, and we can help you combat it! As seasoned board-gamers and gamer-converts, we here at Gameology have developed an almost fool-proof formula for getting anyone interested in board games. And we mean it. Tried and tested, here are our current strategies to encourage your loved ones of any age to play your awesome board games with you! 1) Keep it simple. First up, pick your timing and eliminate any distractions – i.e., don’t beg your parents to play a game of light strategy when they’re busy cooking dinner and on the phone to your sibling with the news going in the background. You’ll need a solid 1-2 hours for our method depending on the game you’ve chosen to tackle, so best to pick a weeknight after dinner with the dishes done or a lazy afternoon on a weekend. Pick a game that is easy to digest and introduces the fundamentals of basic board game play. People are much more likely to cotton to a game that is easy to understand and master with a couple of plays, because let’s face it, we’re wired to crave a win with minimal effort, to stay interested. Aspects to consider when choosing a game include your target’s age (yes, target, because some days this sure feels like a mission), thought process (can they keep up with a bit of light strategy or will they get super bored by it?), time available (do we have 30mins to kill or do we have half an afternoon?) and interests (do they love or hate Lord of the Rings? Do they like pretty components or artwork?). You know your targets best so these answers will be subjective, but generally we’ve found that complete newbies enjoy quick-play abstract and family games such as; Kingdomino, Azul, Santorini, Love Letter or the classic, Ticket To Ride. 2) Bribe them. Look, we don’t like it either but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for the sake of the game. Tell your parents you’ll wash up after dinner tonight. Tell your friends you’ll supply the beers if they indulge you for a game. Tell your significant other – well, you know where we’re going with that one… Aaaanyway, unfortunately our community is big but not entirely mainstream, so the average person will struggle to place value on their time spent learning something new and often time-consuming and it’s your responsibility to make it worth their while. That is of course, until they realise how awesome board gaming is and slowly descend into obsessive madness like the rest of us. 3) Play it through and explain as you go. Give players a brief overview of the game background and objective and go over some basic rules. After that, you’ll essentially play the game “open-handed”. That is, take your turn first and explain your steps and thought process as you go, allowing the other players to pause and ask questions where necessary. Then, let them have their turn and coach them through the process. Continue until they are confident in progressing on their own, with play remaining “open-handed”. Games with simple, concise steps taken each turn and then repeated each turn by every player are perfect for teaching as the repetition increases familiarity and confidence as play progresses. Games such as The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Splendor and Carcassonne are the perfect examples of this. The key to this step is patience. Your sense of excited frustration is dangerously infectious in these situations and could not only lead to the abandonment of your gaming sesh, but a heated exchange if you let it bubble over. So ensure you always keep your cool, even if your parents ask the same question for the hundredth time. Remember, they hold the trump cards in this situation as they could pull the plug at any point and leave you opponent-less, so it’s best to keep calm and carry on. 4) Play it a second time. Immediately. That’s right. Even if it seems tedious. Even if they don’t want to! In fact, especially if they don’t want to! This is our single-most important step in the whole process. The first game is always an ice-breaker, a get-to-know you if you will. The second game cements all the fresh information firmly in your brain by allowing you to play “for real” and put your acquired knowledge and skills to the test. You’ll usually find that your opponent starts out begrudgingly and finishes ecstatic, having ignited their competitive streak in knowing that they were able to give you a real run for your money! So here’s our strategy, but we want to know if we missed anything! Let us know in the comments what you do or have done to entice people to play with you so we can encourage others to try it out and grow our amazing community!
𝗗𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝘁? 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗗𝗠
For D&D and its players, there always lives a Dungeon Master (DM), hunched over a table late at night with only a dim desk lamp to illuminate their works. On pen, on paper, with rulers and grids, the DM stays awake. They place enemies in arenas, traps in the floors, and treasure in secret rooms no one will ever find. They tell their tales and craft their characters, making sure each has a different personality, trait and opinion. So the next day their players will fall down the rabbit hole of adventure. One that begins with meeting a mysterious strider in a tavern and somehow eventually leads into a final confrontation with Grolantor, The Hill Giant God of War. The stories DMs create are fascinating. Running your own homebrew story is an adventure that is purely yours, where you can showcase aspects of your personality and wit. Or if you’re running an official campaign, you can take the moment to surprise your party with your showmanship. Maybe captivate them with twists and turns in the narrative that you learned the night before. Even if the twist is the death of a beloved character. It is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. These twists won't be just new and exciting for your players but also for you, you will see how players react and what their characters do in the game. Sometimes they will do what is expected but sometimes it will be unpredictable and the room will roar with awe or anger. If this sounds fun, if being a god of an imaginary world appeals to you, if being able to equally raise or ruin your players, or if you just like being the showman who brings characters and worlds alive, maybe try to be a DM. Being the DM of your party is a lot of effort, there is plenty of work but an equal amount of reward. You do have to spend the day or night before knowing the story and the Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) in it. You will have to know how to properly provide them with a voice that suits their personality and traits. And know how they would make decisions in response to your players. For the story aspects, you will need to know it all very well, as you will need to keep the story flowing based on your players unpredictable actions. Finally DMs work as mediators and judges, so you must know the rules and when to bend or break them. Unlike Players who need no preparation before a session (aside from levelling up their characters), some DMs do not have the luxury of being able to “wing it” and improvise story arcs without preparation. T here is work in being a DM, but with the right players it will not go unappreciated. The stories you weave and the world you build will leave your players, even the most passive player, engaged. Tell us about your best Dungeon Master Stories below we always love to hear your tales of wonder!
𝘼𝙣 𝙐𝙥𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝘼𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝘼𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙖 𝙋𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝘿𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝘿𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙨
While items are continuing to leave the Gameology warehouse on time we want to inform our customers of some updates to delivery delays affecting Australia Post that they have advised us of. Over the last three weeks, Australia Post has experienced a significant increase in demand as Victorians have increased their online buying due to stage 4 lockdowns. At the same time, our business has been required to make additional adjustments in our processing and deliveries workforce to comply with the State Government's COVID safe restrictions. With the massive demand and workforce capacity constraints, Australia Post has advised there may be an additional 3 day delay for deliveries in Victoria. What we have observed is that due to the backlog of Victorian deliveries some parcels bound for a Victoria address are being re-routed for processing to a NSW depot. Australia Post has advised us that this is to assist backlogged Victorian processing centers and has been done in the aims of delivering your package in the shortest time possible given the current restrictions and circumstances.We appreciate the implications of these decisions and want to assure you we are doing our very best within these extremely challenging times to bring your orders to you as soon as possible.
