Scorpion Swamp

I thought I would do a quick review, even though I'm probably not even close to half way through a play through.

What are Fighting Fantasy game books?

I had to do some research first, as I had never seen these before. These book were originally published from the early 80's up until 1999. It appears that new editions were released and some of the them are being turned in apps now. 

It's essentially like those Choose Your Own Adventure books (which I read as soon as the library got new ones when I was kid. I now have a small collection of them on my shelf) but you have a score sheet and dice. I photocopied the score sheet (which they recommend) rather than writing in the book itself.

You start by rolling 3 stats: Skill, Stamina, and Luck. Skill is tested in fighting or for other actions. Stamina is your hit points. And Luck can be tested to do extra damage to an enemy, reduce damage you take, or at other points as the story directs.

When fighting something, you roll both sides so my frequent low rolls are more balanced here. 

How has the story proceeded so far?

I started as a fighter (no other choices but you get to use magic via gems) in a town. The story will always direct you into the Scorpion Swamp but your reason for going in will vary. I chose the neutral path (instead of Good or Evil) by agreeing to work for a merchant looking for a path through the swamp. He's willing to pay a lot for a map and he gave me a bunch of gems to help. Spell gems are broken out by type, so if I had chosen Good or Evil, I would have different spells.

I started by selecting 5 gems: Stamina, 2 Luck (since my luck skill roll was poor), Ice, and a Fire spell.

I first used the Ice spell to get across a river without having to swim and fight whatever shadowy being was in in. I then ran into some Sword Trees - yes, trees wielding swords. I tried my fire spell but that only did 2 points of damage and they had 12 health. You do 2 points for every successful strike, so I wasted my fire spell by assuming it would just burn them all down.

I got past them and decided to head west. My goal is to map a way through to the north end of the swamp (I started at the southern end) and just charging north seemed like a bad idea. I thought I was outsmarting the authors. Nope. I ran into a dead end with a Giant Scorpion. I had a bit of trouble defeating that and when I returned to the site of the sword trees, they had already regrown! 

After that fight, I had to use my Stamina spell gem to get my health back.

I'm currently at a clearing with a unicorn, who's challenging me to a fight. I have no spells other than Luck, so I can either run (and take 2 damage for running) or fight it.

Overall Impression

I'm very impressed with how it works. You get to make a ton of choices. The combat is simple the luck system let's you try to modify the outcomes. I've been collecting some items, which I can only hope will be useful later on. I'm really hoping that killing the unicorn will pay off with some more magic since I'm low already.

There's an entire character setup section as well as full instructions for combat, magic, etc. It's easy to get going, once you make your photocopy (or just draw score sheet).

The writing is okay, considering it has to be concise.

The artwork is not good but I'm not getting hung up on that. 

My map and the page with the scorpion

Black Cherry Cola

"Grey Goose Cherry Noir"

                                                      

Some months ago on a sleepless night I wandered down to my living room at 2:00 am and picked up a Forbes magazine. Too tired to actually read, but too awake to sleep I simply thumbed through the pages looking at all the nice advertisements for cars and watches I'll never own. About halfway through the magazine I turned a page and found a large ad for Grey Goose Cherry Noir Vodka. For those of you who do not appreciate, or possess a love of fine spirits it will be hard to explain how so very excited I became upon seeing this new product. I read every last word over and over along with the few recopies they added to tempt the pallet. I had been waiting for this top shelf brand to start infusing their product as I knew they would do it well. To be honest I wanted to skip work the next day and drive to New Hampshire just to see if I could get a bottle.

Well after many a month and much searching I finally got a fifth and decided that I would share with my friends one of the cocktails Grey Goose suggested in the original ad, called a Black Cherry Cola.

"Black Cherry Cola"

Black Cherry Cola

1 1/2 Parts Grey Goose Cherry Noir

3 1/2 Parts Cola

1/2 Part Grenadine

To make these is simple: Fill glass slightly above the rim with cubed ice, add in Vodka, then Cola and lastly the Grenadine in that order. Add a soda straw and garnish with a fresh cherry.

Stir the drink slightly with straw to mix ingredients, just a light spin should do it. If you over stir (which we all do) the carbonation tends to dissipate leaving you with a flat beverage.

As we live in the frozen northeast fresh cherries are hard to come by so when we got together on the 21st I had no garnish. However, the group seemed to approve, well, all except Brian who somehow has developed a "Moral Objection" (his words) to the spirit Vodka in any and all of its forms.

The flavor of this cocktail is rather sweet, with a slight herbal twist. Valerie said it tasted like a cherry cordial and most agreed. This drink will more than likely not become a standard for our game day gatherings until I can refine my portions correctly. I think I used too much grenadine in a couple and I failed to go gently on the stir. Practice makes perfect and though it will pain me greatly I will mix and consume until I have this one down to a science. A small sacrifice for my friends. Mike mentioned that the cocktail would be a great summer drink, and I agree, we'll leave it for warmer weather and sunny days to introduce once again.

"You got me straight trippin Boo"

Lastly I do not like the name of this cocktail. Black Cherry Cola is too generic to my liking, so I have decided to call these Queen Latifahs. Because they are black, sexy, and sweet just like she is. 

I am open to suggestions as to names of course so feel free to put in your two cents.

Cheers

AL

New Toys

I have a love/hate relationship with dice. So I've picked up a couple of things to change that.

First, I got a dice tower. It comes apart easily for transport, keeps dice from flying off the table, into game pieces, etc. And I'm hoping whatever voodoo dice rolling spell that was cast on me at birth is negated as the dice tumble down the tower.

Check out the cool punched out die!

But I wasn't sure that was enough to break the curse, so I picked up some new dice. These will be useful both for Zombicide and the new (old) Fighting Fantasy paperback book I snagged somewhere. 

Bones. Made of plastic. Painted to look like metal. Whoa.

I've never played one before but I photocopied the player sheet (you roll stats, collect items, etc. all while reading a choose-your-own-adventure style book) and have the new dice ready!

I'm the hero?!

Can you dual wield chainsaws?

April 21, 2013 Game Day Recap

In Soviet Russia, zombies kill you.

Zombicide was the big game of the day. It's fairly straightforward in theme and game play: You are survivors of the zombie apocalypse and try to remain so. Each scenario you set up has objectives but they all boil down to "move around the board and try not to die".

Present for the game:

• Al
• Mike
• Brian
• Tuna
• Anthony
• and the newest participant, Valerie

Setup

After not doing so well the first time we played a few weeks prior, some research showed that we had selected the most difficult scenario. So we went with one the internet dubbed "medium" difficulty, as it was marked with only 2 out of a possible 4 chainsaw rating.

Characters were randomly assigned. Weapons were randomly distributed. We learned that it is possible to drive a car down the street killing zombies while still swinging a machete out the window at any leftovers. What a game!

Early Turns

We started by marching down the street, getting in a car, killing some zombies. finding a few sweet weapons, and generally getting by just fine.

The photo above is just after we turned a corner and opened the door to one of the buildings. When you open the door, you get to find out how many zombies are inside. Turned out it was "a lot", which is almost always the number of zombies on the board at any time.

However, we made our way through the building thanks to the high-powered weaponry of Brian with the chainsaw (5 dice attacks!) and Valerie with her dual machine guns (6 dice!). I had an axe!

Later Turns and Death

After clearing the first large building, we had one more to go. But we had a more pressing issue: too many zombies. So the plan was to clear a path down the street, open a door to free up Al, and he would charge into the street to Molotov Cocktail (yes, I verbed that) a ton of zombies at once.

For once, the plan worked perfectly.

Al got credit for 25 kills with one move and we had a fresh supply of zombies to spawn in the second building. We opened the door, the zombies were conveniently spread out amongst the rooms instead of piled up at the door (which they would be in reality, duh.), and we charged in. Anthony and I, armed with the chainsaws were ready. And then another spawn went bad and we both joined the other side. 

Well, technically that doesn't happen in the game but I like to think that my character would try to kill as many of my ex-friend survivors as possible for letting me down.

It looked bad but the rest of the group stuck it out. The very end seemed easy in comparison as Valerie jumped into the street, shot down three final zombies, and ran for her life.

So it was a victory for everyone, as it's a cooperative game (reminds the guy who didn't actually finish)! It was satisfying victory that in no way seemed easy or 'medium'.

Food

In the middle of Zombicide, we did break for food. Al grilled up burgers and dogs. I had brought deviled eggs, Anthony brought a great pasta salad, and Valerie made brownies which we almost forgot to eat. Brian brought sour patch kids, which are among my favorites but there was a dispute later in the night about one that flew across the table during the 'closed eyes' portion of The Resistance.

The precious cargo

Drink

Al introduced us to a new drink with cherry vodka, cola, and grenadine. A bit sweet - it needs some adjustment but it was tasty. Probably will be great on a hot day. Al will hopefully do a full post on it.

Other Games

While Al was grilling, the rest of us tried the new game I picked up at Goodwill for $2: Say Anything. One player reads a question that asks about their preference, such as "In my opinion, what was the best album from the 1980's". Other players write down answers, then reveal them. The one player secretly picks their favorite answer, then everyone else bids on which answer they think will get picked. Points are scored for having your answer picked, bidding on the correct answer, and having bids on the answer you chose. Sounds more complicated that it is.

So our play through was dominated by Valerie. She scored points in every round except one. As the one person there who knew the least about everyone else, it was a truly inspiring performance. Brian scored some extra points thanks to his artwork on his answer cards (dicks were a common theme). 

But then I wasn't exactly so smart with my answers, resorting twice to "Your Mom" as an answer.

Final score board and my articulate answer card

We finished the night with several rounds of The Resistance. It was another good night for the spies, as they won all three games. Brian continued to lose. Al continued to laugh, giving himself away as a spy, and I continued to accuse everyone else as much as possible. Now that everyone has played it at least a few times, the expansion comes out next time. Maybe there are cards that will help the resistance actually win. Someone needs to take big government down!

The Dark & Stormy

Our most popular game day drink.

 

 

The Dark and Stormy.

6-8oz. Ginger Beer (we use Gosling’s brand)

 

2 oz. of Gosling’s Black Seal Rum

 

1 Lime wedge.

 

To make: Fill a glass with fresh ice. Pour in the Ginger Beer gently so as not to make it head. Top off with the Black Seal. When topping off pour slowly so the rum floats gently on the top leaving a definite line between it and the Ginger Beer. Squeeze the juice from the lime wedge in last and place the fruit in the glass. You should now have a very lovely looking drink before you, however we suggest stirring it a bit before drinking as with all the rum on top a first pull can be rather painful. Once stirred, the cocktail will become a dusky reddish orange almost the color of a sunset.

 

Gosling’s Black Seal owns a copyright to the Dark and Stormy, thus if you make it with any other dark rum it cannot officially be called a D&S. We use Gosling’s Ginger Beer because it is not too powerful nor too weak and it adds just the right offset to the smooth tasting Black Seal. You can use any you like and some actually prefer Barritt’s but for us we’ll stick with what works.

I introduced our gaming group to these delectable drinks last summer and they have become the staple of our gatherings. I was not surprised that Tuna took to them like a pirate to booty, he likes dark rum after all, as well as booty and perhaps being a bit of pirate overall. However everyone, who has joined us on a game day including Big Mike, absolutely loves them. We actually ran out of rum one fun filled afternoon so now I double up on the supplies. You and your friends will love these too I guarantee it and a good drink with good friends goes a long way to building great times.

Cheers

AL