Cthulhu: Death May Die is a mission-based dungeon-crawl style board game designed by Rob Daviau and Eric M. Lang. Last week I got the chance to play a Tabletop Simulator version of the game someone had created within the Steam community workshop. Cthulhu: Death May Die is an adventure game that is played in missions or episodes. Each mission has the same basic formula – Disrupt the ritual and then destroy the Great Old One who emerges. I'm not going to get into the detailed description of how to play. If you'd like to read more about it on Board Game Geek, click here. I would like to focus on the Tabletop Simulator experience and share photos from the gameplay. Playing community created games from the workshop on Tabletop Simulator can be a mixed bag. Some games are just not well constructed, while others have put in a lot of time and effort to not only recreate a board game experience, but also add some simple scripts to make the game a bit quicker/easier to play. My group's experience playing Cthulhu: Death May Die was more of the latter. Our group of four had one experienced player who taught the other three of us how to play in probably about twenty minutes. We truly were able to start playing very quickly and most everything made sense. This online implementation of the game also includes the rulebook which sat on the table for easy reference. Each mission, when selected, is set up with map tiles, gates and other features in their proper locations. Each player area had a custom script which allowed players to place found items and allies on either the left or right side of their character card. This is important in the game. This script was used often and generally worked well. Instructions for using the script are written in the script rectangle just below each player area. In addition, there were clever dice scripts set up to allow players to select the number of Black and Green dice needed in any particular roll. By clicking the dice count on the circular script area, all dice of that color were rolled. There were also groupings of dice around the table for those who prefer to gather and roll in the standard way. All of the miniature models were quite nicely translated into the virtual environment as were the character standees. The one "glitch" we encountered was that the miniatures could not be laid on their side as need in the particular scenario we played. The result was having to place the miniatures upside down in a "hand stand", which looked odd, but served its purpose. All-in-all this Tabletop community created implementation was very well done. I really enjoyed playing Cthulhu: Death May Die via Tabletop Simulator. My character was The Kid and I actually had the honor of dealing the final blow to Cthulhu at the end of the game. Our party was victorious. The whole group seemed to enjoy the game and we are planning to play other missions in the future.
If this sounds interesting to you, check it out on Tabletop Simulator in the community workshop or consider purchasing the physical game by CMON from your favorite board-game source. Have fun fighting the Elder Gods and game on!
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Last Friday I had my first "at the table" gaming experience with the exception to some games played at home with family. My neighbors, Nikki and Jeff invited me to play a board game set up outdoors. This COVID-19 gaming experience worked well. The Outdoor Gaming Experience
Nikki had recently purchased Roll Player and the expansion Monsters and Minions. The combination results in a fun dice drafting and dice chucking board game. The basic concept in Roll Player is to draft dice and purchase items to create and equip a fantasy roll-playing character. Monsters and Minions adds the element of actually putting your fantasy character to the test in battles against small monsters (Minions) and eventually the big bad Monster. These battles add some action and excitement to the base game which is more focused on dice drafting and placement strategy. Nikki and Jeff set up a temporary table in their driveway for our game. We sat around the table as socially distanced as possible. The heat of the sun caused us to make some minor shifts in seating - Jeff and I ended up wearing face masks as a result of our closer proximity. After we got started, there was really no thought about the circumstance which created our outdoor gaming situation. The weather was pleasant with low humidity adding to the enjoyment. A positive experience overall. When comparing outdoor gaming to online gaming, one major difference is the clean up. Online board games have that advantage of not having to clean up everything after you’re done. Another bonus for online games is the access to numerous games you may not currently own in physical format. You can try things out to see if you might want to purchase. Other than that, you just can’t beat the experience of playing a game together with friends in person! The interaction is great. The tactile experience of placing pieces and rolling dice, etc... When the weather and conditions are nice, outdoor gaming can be a great option. I highly recommend that small groups consider setting up outdoors to play a game. Of course it’s important that the weather cooperates. Nikki, Jeff and I all enjoyed our neighborhood game session. Eventually, the hope is to get the full group back to gaming together indoors. For now we’ll stick with online and outdoor game sessions. For more information on Board Game Geek about Roll Player: Monsters and Minions click here. Game on! King's GameNight is now an affiliate for Metallic Dice Games (MDG). Specializing in metal dice sets and expanded to include gemstone, acrylic, plastic etc... MDG is among the highest quality suppliers of dice sets. They offer other great dice-related accessories as well. Dice bags, trays, towers and cases. I have seen and used the dice and trays which I can personally attest to the quality. Whether you want a full set for your RPG gaming or just want a single metal die, you need to check out Metallic Dice Games. I had the opportunity to play Teotihuacan: City of Gods on Tabletopia last week. This is my second time to play. The first was with the physical copy of the game at a local gaming convention. After having played a couple of times, I formed some initial impressions and insights on this heavy euro-style game. Comparison of Versions After having played both a virtual and physical version of Teotihuacan, I will say that the Tabletopia implementation is very well done. It is an accurate depiction of the board and all the components. Because it's virtual, the setup is much easier than with the physical game, however you will still need to give each player their starting resources as it varies depending on who is first player and so on. A downfall of the virtual version, as with many virtual games, is the lack of the tactile experience. The pyramid pieces for instance are made of a nice heavy weight plastic material similar to dominoes. There is some satisfaction that coincides with physically handling the pieces and placing them in a desired orientation on the pyramid. Though you can still place pieces in the virtual world... its really not quite the same. The overall experience and gameplay are much the same regardless of playing the physical or virtual versions. About the Game Teotihuacan is a relatively complex game with worker-placement and resource-management mechanisms at the core. This game has quite a lot of rules. So much so, that I'll concentrate on a few specific highlights of gameplay. I would suggest that you download one of many player reference sheets to use when playing. During the first few gameplay you will undoubtedly be using the references or rules often. In Teotihuacan players move workers (6-sided dice) along the perimeter action boards of the gaming area gathering resources, praying to the gods, improving stats, constructing the pyramid, etc... Each perimeter location has a specific thematic function. Most locations allow the worker to "level-up" after performing its action. Worker levels are indicated by the number of pips on the six-sided die (worker). Once workers advance to level six, they "ascend" giving the player a special action and subsequently resets that worker to the starting location at level one. One of the favorite locations is the Construction Action Board. This is where the player can select tile(s) and place on the pyramid, thus earning victory points for each matching symbol as well as movement up one of the three temple tracks if a colored emblem is matched. The game is played in three phases which each come to an end with an eclipse. A white disc moves a space on a time track each time a worker ascends and at the end of each round moving closer to a black disc placed at the end of the track. Once the two discs overlap, creating an eclipse, it indicates one more full round of play for that phase and then eclipse scoring is done. After the third eclipse phase the game ends and the player with the most points wins! Final Thoughts
This game has a lot to it. Definitely can benefit from a player reference sheet. Though I don't want to give the impression this is too complex of a game. Its really not hard to learn the concepts and the game flows nicely... there are just many different things to do and strategies to employ that create complexity. The worker/dice that level up, is probably one of my favorite aspects. Also, placing tiles on the Aztec temple is a treat. There's certainly a lot to explore here and to improve upon in future plays. I feel comfortable in recommending Teotihuacan. If you want to read more about it out on Board Game Geek click here or check it out on Tabletopia. Keep an eye out for occasional updates, information and comments on the King's GameNight Facebook page. Game on! |
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