An Interview with Alan Gerding—Two Rooms and A Boom!

So a few Saturdays ago, I (Jeremiah) sat down to play games for 24 hours straight, as a part of the Extra Life charity fundraiser for the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals. Great people, great cause! We had a lot of fun, raised some money, and made new friends.

One of those friends was Alan Gerding, co-founder of Tuesday Knight Games and co-designer of Two Rooms and a Boom! Alan and his wife (Crystol) stopped by later in the evening and introduced us to Two Rooms in a Boom.

We played about 7-8 (or more) games of the title, which is currently blazing hot on Kickstarter. Then, at sometime past 1:00 AM, Alan and I sat down on camera and had a chat about 2R1B, Tuesday Knight Games, and whatever else you chat about with someone you just met at nearly 2:00 in the morning.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9p2Dw1fsZY&w=560&h=315]

Thanks for tuning in; please don't forget to check us out all over the Web, and to subscribe to the blog over on the right! We love our subscribers!!

Also check out our podcast, where we are constantly giving stuff away—this month it's a copy of Pixel Lincoln! Download episode 3 for all the details!

Riff Raff—A Review

by Firestone I wipe the sweat from my brow, and extend my hand slowly toward the swaying ship. "It's just a small, light barrel," I tell myself." I've got this." In the blink of an eye it's raining crates, sailors, and rats. My wife and children grin impishly...

I love dexterity games. They're a great diversion from the heavier games I generally play. And, of c0urse, they're usually a great choice for families and nongamers. So I always love trying a new dexterity game—and I LOVE it when one turns out to be great fun, like Riff Raff...

The Overview

Riff Raff is from Zoch Verlag, and is currently only available as an import, so expect to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $50—and that's the online price. It plays between 2 and 4 players, ages 8 and up. It plays in about 20 minutes—maybe less.

The game will end in one of two ways: Either one person will place all of his or her Cargo pieces onto the Ship, or the game will go the full 10 rounds, in which case the person with the fewest Cargo pieces left wins.

The Components

40 Cards, numbered 1 through 10, in four player colors.

32 wooden Cargo pieces—4 identical sets of 8 different pieces

1 wooden Ship, consisting of 10 different parts.

The Setup

First you'll need to assemble the Ship. This is no small task, as the Ship is a marvel of engineering. You're building a Ship, with a deck, and three yardarms, and the whole thing is connected to a cool sort of universal joint that allows the Ship to sway and pitch, as though it's really on an ocean. It's seriously cool.

Each player takes one set of Cards, and a set of 8 Cargo pieces. (If you're only playing with two players, each person gets two complete sets of pieces.)

The Gameplay

Randomly choose someone to be Captain. (The rules say the oldest player, but this is where we employ the Firestone Common Sense Rule that arbitrary first-player determinations such as "oldest" or "hairiest" or "the last person to have their ship boarded by pirates" are dumb.)

At the beginning of the round each player secretly chooses on card from his or her hand and places it facedown on the table. Once everyone has picked a card, everyone reveals their chosen card. The player who played the highest card immediately becomes the new Captain, and if there's a tie for highest card, the Captain of the last round determines who is the new Captain. The Captain takes his turn, followed by the person who played the next highest card, and so on. Again, ties are broken by the current Captain.

The sections of the Ship have numbers on them. Starting on the top yardarms with 10 and 9, the next one is 8 and 7, and the lowest yardarm is 6 and 5. Then the Ship's deck has sections 4 through 1.

The number on the card you've chosen is where you now have to place a piece. You have free choice of any of your available pieces. They range from (relatively) heavy to light. You can use one or two hands to load, and the piece can hang off of a section, but can't protrude into any other section. You can move already present pieces with the piece you're placing, but not with your hand.

If you're placing a piece onto a yardarm, and it already has a piece on it from a previous turn, you can choose to place two pieces instead of one. You have to announce this at the beginning of the turn, and you can't later change your mind.

Because of that clever and insidious universal joint I mentioned, the ship is going to move and sway based on which pieces have been placed on which section. If any pieces fall as you're placing your own pieces, then one of two things can happen:

If you catch any of those falling pieces, then they go out of the game.

If any of the pieces hit the table, they go in front of you and become pieces you now have to get rid of—even if they were originally other people's pieces.

We have a house rule where you can't catch the piece you just placed. This keeps people from just poorly placing a piece, knowing it will drop, and then catching it to get it out of the game.

After every player has had a turn, everyone picks a new card, and you repeat the round. The winner is either the first person to get rid of all of his or her pieces, or the person with the fewest pieces left after 10 rounds.

The Verdict

First, the game has huge drive-by appeal. Every time we play this we get a crowd of people watching. The Ship is unique and eye-catching and people just love to watch you play this game.

The cards add some strategic depth to this, as you're trying to figure out where to place pieces, when to place pieces, and which piece to place. You might play a 6, and still end up going last—and the Ship might look VERY different by the time your turn rolls around...

It's fun for families and nongamers. You will marvel as your weaselly children plunk down a piece with complete aplomb—and defy logic and the laws of physics as their piece sticks. Meanwhile, you blink too hard an every piece comes raining down. It's fun and frustrating.

My only concerns with the game are that something will break. The Ship is exceedingly clever, but also feels one tweak away from breaking whenever I put it together or take it apart. I also make sure I'm playing on a surface with a tablecloth, or some kind of covering. If one of those pieces breaks, I can glue it, but...I just don't want anything to break. So I go into Anal Gamer Firestone Freakout mode—the same one I use when someone eats dinner right before playing one of my games. "Hey, would you mind washing your hands before we start...?"

The Final Verdict

One of my friends brought this back from Origins, and we gave it a go one game night. The three other players in the game (myself included) immediately went out and bought the last three copies from TimeWellSpent.org. I can't give this game a better endorsement than that. It might take some searching (and honestly...it's pretty darn expensive), but if you like dexterity games, this is well-worth the search...

Thanks for reading! And make sure you check out our YouTube channel for our video reviews! Thanks!

IOS Sale: Board Games for $.99!

iOS game publisher Codito is having a sale on their games right now. Not sure how long it'll last.

The list includes:

• Tigris & Euphrates
• Tikal
• Ra
• Le Havre
• Brief History of the World
• Medici

Remember, even if you don't have an iOS device now, you can still buy these, and then when you do get one in the future...BAM! They're ready to download.

Plaid Hat Games Announces Dead Of Winter: A Crossroads Game

Plaid Hat Games, makers of the hit games Summoner Wars and Mice & Mystics have announced Dead Of Winter: A Crossroads Game. According to the Plaid Hat Web site, the Crossroads games are a new series of games "that tests a group of survivors' ability to work together and stay alive while facing crises and challenges from both outside and inside."

Dead Of Winter is the first game in the new series, and it finds 3-5 players trying to survive in a world full of zombies. Dead Of Winter is a "meta-cooperative psychological survival game. This means players are working together toward one common victory condition--but for each individual player to achieve victory, they must also complete their personal secret objective. This secret objective could relate to a psychological tick that's fairly harmless to most others in the colony, a dangerous obsession that could put the main objective at risk, a desire for sabotage of the main mission, or worst of all: vengeance against the colony! Certain games could end with all players winning, some winning and some losing, or all players losing."

Sounds cool. I love that people are playing with the boundaries of social games, such as The Resistance, and Two Rooms and a Boom. This sentence from the description has me very excited about it:

"Dead of Winter has players making frequent, difficult, heavily- thematic, wildly-varying decisions, that often have them deciding between what is best for the colony and what is best for themselves."

Sign me up. What are your thoughts? Does it sound cool? Are zombie-themed games played out?

Thanks for reading! And don't forget: You still have a chance to win a copy of Pixel Lincoln. Just listen to our third podcast to find out how. It's easy!

Kickstarter Digital: The Manhattan Project

Minion Games, makers of the new 4x game Hegemonic, and Kingdom Of Solomon, have launched a Kickstarter for a digital version of their game The Manhattan Project.

Neither Jeremiah nor I have played it, so here's the description from the Kickstarter page:

"The Manhattan Project is a low-luck, mostly open information efficiency game in which players compete to build and operate the most effective atomic bomb program. Players will mine yellow cake, train workers, operate factories, use both reactors and enrichment plants, direct espionage against one another, and test The Bomb. Players do not 'nuke’ each other, but they can direct conventional air strikes against the facilities of the other players. The Manhattan Project is a game of Cold War posturing.

This game features the worker-placement mechanic with a twist; There are no rounds and no end-of-round administration. When players run out of workers, or are otherwise forced to by game situations, they skip their turn and retrieve their workers. This allows the game to continue from beginning until end in a round robin fashion. So the game continues round-robin till the end.

Build the best "engine" for creating bomb fuel on your own player board.

Espionage actions allow players to activate and block an opponent's building, representing technology theft and sabotage.

Attack actions send squadrons of planes to bomb the buildings of other players and stop their research until repairs can be made.

Attempt to build the best "engine" for creating bomb fuel on your own player board."

$10 gets you a copy of the game on iPad, Droid, or PC. you can chip in extra to be a beta tester and play the game early.

Stretch goals include Game Center support and included expansions. Check out the campaign. It looks to be the bomb!

An Interview with Lance Hill, Designer of Kings of Israel

Today we're having a chat with designer, Lance Hill, who is currently running a campaign for Kings of Israel, a co-op game set in ancient Israel.

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us!

Thank you for having me!

First, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Lance and I am a full-time stay-at-home dad for our three small children, and part-time game designer. In my previous life I was a systems analyst for small businesses (IT guy). I've been a gamer all my life, and the family game growing up was multi-player solitaire. The game misses the nuance of most euro games, but does allow for more trash talking.

You have a new game on Kickstarter called Kings Of Israel. Tell us about that game.

Kings of Israel takes place during the reign of kings in Israel, which is about 3,000 years ago. Each player takes the role of a line of prophets that, together as a team, are trying to keep evil out of Israel while building the needed altars to win the game. Every turn evil spreads and good or bad events occur, depending on whether the team is living during the reign of a good or bad king. If the players run out of sin cubes or idols, or if Israel is destroyed by Assyria before the altars are built, then the team loses.

Did you set out to make a religious game, and then add the gameplay elements? Or did you first set out to create a fun game, and then add the religious theme?

My original goal was to make a fun game that I could use to teach geography to the teen Bible study I was leading. During the summer session we didn't have a set plan to follow for our studies so I wanted to integrate a game into the studies, but I hit a wall. There are very few biblical-themed games that are actually fun to play, and with the few that are enjoyable the theme is usually light and has nothing to teach. I tried using Settlers of Canaan with pasted-on labels for important locations in roughly the right area, but it was way too abstracted and not very useful. I did have one student go out and buy Settlers of Catan right after the game was done, though! So I decided to start working on my own game to teach geography. Originally it was going to be a resource-delivery game, and I probably still have all my notes of what resources are where in Israel. But then I started to lean towards a "12 tribes of Israel" game with each player taking on a tribe or two, but it started to feel a little bit too cutthroat for a game that's to be used in a Bible study. Then I finally started to think about the spread of disease in Pandemic and started to think how that mechanic could be adapted as a way to show the spread of evil in Israel.

And so Kings of Israel was born! Eventually!

Is this a gamer’s game? A family game? A nongamers game? All of the above?

I would say a family game is the closest category, but I tried to make Kings of Israel scalable to the type of group you are playing with. Playing with teens or a family who has never played a real strategy game before? Start them off with either the Basic or Easy version, depending on time and mental constraints. Playing with a group that enjoys gateway games? Play the normal version of Kings of Israel. Group of gamers? Play the Expert mode with the false prophet to grind the team down.

One of the “accusations” leveled against you is that this is just Pandemic with a religious theme. What makes Kings Of Israel unique?

I believe the spreading mechanic in Pandemic should be put in the same category of mechanics as deck-building and worker-placement games. It is a brilliant design that lends itself to many purposes.

Evil spreads in a way similar to Pandemic but it varies in many ways. Instead of needing three cubes before something spreads, an idol is needed for evil to spread in Kings of Israel. Idols can be created when a third (or more) sin cube is added to a location or as the result of a bad event. This causes two issues in-game. First, two cubes in one location is a dangerous spot since it's one away from an idol, and idols are harder to remove than sin cubes. Secondly, since the idols can appear because of bad events, the players cannot depend on just certain areas being the ones to hover around. There is a lot of movement in the game.

There are also dangerous regions on the map based on their proximity to outside nations. Nation cards within the location deck can cause one card to hit multiple areas with sin cubes at once if that nation is connected to those areas. A single area can be hit multiple times in a turn if its location and an adjacent nation are drawn together.

Building altars to win the game is not their only purpose. Altars can be used to make sacrifices if you have the proper resources. A proper sacrifice can remove multiple cubes of sin in a region with one action, and the team cannot win without properly timed sacrifices. Good placement of altars is very important to win the game.

Additionally, the resources needed for altars, and other purposes, are not given to you each turn as it does in Pandemic. Instead a player must use an action to draw a resource card. This big difference alone, I believe, really adjusts the feel to the game. Instead of waiting around for the cards a player needs to win the game, they can go out there and get them! But if a player uses too many actions to acquire those resources instead of removing sin cubes and idols, then they can quickly become overwhelmed and lose. There is a bit of push-your-luck to Kings of Israel in knowing when to try to draw that card you need to do something, or when to just remove that troubled spot that might explode the next turn.

There are many other differences! There is no limit to how many cubes can be in one spot—I've seen six reached at one point. The difficulty can vary each turn depending on the king and how many good or bad events have occurred. Traveling is different, reshuffling the deck occurs but not seeded the way it is in Pandemic, and so on.

Do you think this game would still appeal to atheists? Why or why not?

I think Kings of Israel is also a fun game for atheists. One of the big concerns I imagine an atheist would have is whether Kings of Israel preaches to the player, which is common in biblical-themed games. It does not. If the player likes to sacrifice their children to Molech, then maybe it does talk down a little to the player, but that's about it. There are Bible passages used on the cards but they are flavor text that are applicable to what the card does. To try to alleviate some concern by atheists, I decided that one of my reviews should be done by an atheist, as a “neutral party,” if you will. Richard of “Rahdo Runs Through…” mentioned at one point in a Geeklist that Kings of Israel might be interesting to check out. After confirming he was an atheist I asked him to review a copy of the game, and he agreed! He ended up enjoying Kings of Israel and encouraged others to try it and not be put off by the theme. That review is available on Youtube here if interested.

How did you first get into modern Euros?

I was always interested in gaming and about 10 years ago I came across Boardgamegeek. I knew I had to try some of the highly ranked games, and I did have a roommate that was interested too, so I went to the mall and purchased the best two-player games that I could find. I believe my first Euro games were Alhambra, Attica, Lost Cities, and Settlers of Catan: The Card Game. And it just exploded from there!

What are some of your favorite board games?

I do enjoy a good worker-placement or area-control game, so my top 5 at the moment is probably:

• Agricola
• Die Macher
• Dominant Species
• Through the Ages
• Le Havre

Are there any other games you’re working on?

I do have a couple ideas going around in my head, one of which is far enough along that I am playtesting it right now. It is a little different from Kings of Israel in that it is a game about building pre-fab homes called “Prefabulous!”

Just like us, you’re involved with youth ministry. So what’s the craziest youth ministry story you can share with us?

Hmm, tough call on that one. I do remember the time another chaperone and I took our youth group camping for the first time in mid-February. I decided that, since we're from Wisconsin, we could survive the colder season in Texas just fine and that everyone would just bundle up. Well, turned out it was going to be one of the coldest days of the year, and it was going to freeze overnight! So we went out camping with all of the poor Texans bundled in layer-upon-layer of clothing. It all went fine until we had to move away from the campfire into our tents. It was around 3AM when I woke up to the sound of the guys next to me shivering. I ended up giving them my blankets while I went outside and walked around until the sun came up!

Now it’s time for the lightning round: 5 questions; 1-word (or phrase) answers.

Favorite Muppet?

Beaker

Favorite Old Testament Prophet?

Elisha

Last great book you read?

In Cold Blood

Name you would have given your son Isaac if he’d been a girl instead?

Johanna

Favorite sports team?

Packers

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us, Lance!

And thank you!

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoyed this interview with Lance Hill! Please check out Kings of Israel on Kickstarter, RIGHT HERE! And don't forget to subscribe to the blog over on the right!

Oh, and did we mention there is still time to get in on the Pixel Lincoln Contest? There is! Just click HERE!

The Dungeon Roll Winter Promo—Live and Cheap, For a Limited Time

Last year Tasty Minstrel Games and Michal Mindes started a little Kickstarter campaign for a press-your-luck dice game called Dungeon Roll. It proceeded to fund, to the tune of $250,000. Well he's just launched a mini Kickstarter campaign for some winter-themed promos—and the window of opportunity is small. It's a pay-what-you-want model; you can join for as little as $2, but they suggest you pay $5. I would be very interested to see the breakdown on what people actually paid.

The pack will contain:

• Klaus, Saint of the North (Legendary Hero)
• Jack Frost (Legendary Hero)
• Sugar Plum Faerie (Legendary Hero)
• Ebenezer (Legendary Hero)
• 12 Treasures (Snowball, Cake, Coal, Present)
• Winter promo book of heroes

The campaign only runs for two weeks, so check it out now if you're interested.

Thanks for reading! And don't forget to checkout our third podcast for your chance to win a copy of Pixel Lincoln!

A Kickstarter Feature: Two Rooms and a Boom!

It's not a secret that we here at TOG we are HUGE fans of The Resistance, and every once in a while there is a game that comes along claiming to be able to topple The Resistance from its pedestal. In recent months Two Rooms and a Boom has been getting a ton of social media, podcast, and bloggy love, and while it has many similarities to games like Mafia, Werewolf, and The Resistance, there are some very intriguing differences that could make this one stand out from the crowd! Keep in mind that I have yet to play 2R1B yet, which hopefully won't be the case for long. But here's the info I've gathered from around the interwebs and various podcasts.

Much like games of this type, each player is randomly given a secret role, which determines which team they are on; the blue will have the president, and the other team has the bomber. Players are divided into two groups (or rooms) and the game consists of 5 timed rounds. At the end of each round the two rooms exchange people. The goal of the red team is to get the bomber in with the president at the end of round 5, thus blowing up the president. The blue team's goal is to save the president.

Unlike games of this type, players are allowed to ask other players to see their identity card, so more information becomes available as the game moves along. And because the rounds are timed, there is a finite play time for each game.  And what secret identity game would be complete without special role cards? Well 2R1B boasts over 150 special roles! That's not a typo! 150! Needless to say the replay value of this one should be sky high.

Despite being a Print and Play favorite for some time, the Kickstarter campaign funded within the first 6 hours, and is currently barreling down on the 300% funded mark, and they have unlocked 8 stretch goals, with more to come.

You can check out the campaign, which ends Nov. 29, and download the print and play files RIGHT HERE! If you want to back the project, it's only $20 to jump on board!

So are you backing this? Have you played it? Will it end the reign of The Resistance? Let us know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading; please take a second and subscribe to the blog over there on the right ---->

And don't forget to look for us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Oh, and check out our Podcast for a chance to win a copy of Pixel Lincoln!

Come Play with Us... Or Me, I guess...

Hey gang, we shared a few weeks ago that I (Jeremiah) will be hosting a 24-hour game marathon to support the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals. I'd like to invite you once more, if you are local to the Northeast Ohio area (or feel like making a road trip) I'll be playing games from 8:00 AM this Saturday (Nov. 2) until 8:00 AM Sunday (Nov. 3)! I'm working on a few surprises and maybe a give away or two for the day as well! I'll keep filtering info to you as the week goes on so be sure to check back!

I'll be playing games at the illustrious Root Cafe, at 852 W. Bath Rd. in Cuyahoga Falls. A great coffee shop, run by even greater folks who love and serve the community. They've graciously cleared the calendar to make a way for us to be there the whole 24-hours and host this great event for a great cause!

Here are some more details if you'd like to be involved!

1 - You can join the team by clicking this link. Please know that by joining the team it doesn't mean you're signing up to do the whole 24-hours, you can come out for as little or as long as you like!

2 - If you can't make it but would like to contribute, you can make a donation of ANY amount by following this link. All of the proceeds go to the Akron Children's Hospital, an amazing medical facility that has cared for my children, and my extended family's and friends' children for years. The staff there are second to none!

3 - If you unable to do either 1 or 2, would you please consider sharing the event on your Facebook wall, or giving us some Twitter love? Or even sharing this post through the social media outlet of your liking (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.)?

4 - Lastly, and most importantly - If you are the praying type. Would you say a prayer for the folks who's children are being treated by the wonderful people at Akron Children's Hospital? As a parent there is nothing scarier than having a hospitalized child. I hope that our prayer support can bring them comfort in their situations.

Thanks for reading our blog, and thank you in advance for any and all support, I sincerely hope I get to meet you, our readers (at least some of you!) this weekend as we play games for a greater cause!

If you have any further questions please leave them in the comments and I'll answer them right away!

Kickstarter Weekly, Oct. 21, 2013

Last week was a busy one here at TOG! Essen was in full swing (and we weren't there), but there have been lots of goings-on over on Kickstarter, and we're here to highlight a few campaigns this week, and also hear from you about the games you're backing! So let's get started!

Featured Campaign!

Brew Crafters: A Board Game About Making Beer - Dice Hate Me Games

There are some games that thematically aren't what you'd call my (Jeremiah's) cup of tea... or beer, wait, how does that work? Anyway, we've been blown away by some great games that didn't necessarily have a theme that we fell in love with. (Heartland Hauling, and Viticulture come to mind) But at the end of the day, superb gameplay won us over. The buzz around Brew Crafters has been solid and positive for months now, and it's finally on Kickstarter. This Euro style board game packs an American theme, and the classic Dice Hate Me Games visual design that we've grown to love.

They should hit their funding goal TODAY they're so close!

A $60 pledge get's you a copy of the game sent to your door and the campaign closes on Nov. 24. You can get more details about the game, and upcoming stretch goals, right here!

The Great Snowball Battle - Game Salute

This fast playing card game for players ages 8 and up, is the age old classic battle of every winter, a snowball battle! The game looks simple but fun, and thematically it's something I (still Jeremiah) love! Winter! I know, I'm weird. The funding level was super low, so they've already pushed past it, and are looking to add some interesting stretch goals!

You can grab a copy of this game with a $15 pledge, and the campaign ends on Nov. 22, get the full details on the campaign page!

Get Lucky - Cheapass Games

To win this game you're going to have to get Lucky, Doctor Lucky that is. This new card game is based on the original board game Kill Doctor Lucky, which won the Origins award for best board game in 1996. Players take on the roles of folks who -for whatever reason- want to kill Doctor Lucky.  The card game boasts, faster, more streamlined play, and better, more character driven mechanics.  Three stretch goals have already been achieved and there's still plenty of time for more to be unlocked!

You can get in on this one for $20 and the campaign ends Nov. 17. You can find the campaign here!

Kings of Israel - Funhill Games

Players are working cooperatively as prophets in ancient Israel, trying to lead God's people through turbulent times, removing sin and false idols and such. At first look, the game play looks a little Pandemic-ish, but I will say the cards, and artwork look awesome, and everything seems to be historically accurate, there are even companion bible studies available for the game. We're really intrigued by this one!

A pledge of $45 scores you a copy of the game and the campaign ends on Nov. 26. Check out full details right here!

Thanks again for checking in with us here at TOG! We know there are plenty of awesome games being funded on Kickstarter, and we only have room/time to write about 4 of them. Let us know what you're excited about and backing in the comments below!

And we'd love it if you subscribed to the blog via email over on the right!

AND! Don't forget about our contest! We're giving away a copy of Pixel Lincoln: The Deck Building Game, for details tune into our latest podcast episode!