Projects – Page 63

Spotlight: The Dreamer

First Appearance: Sentinels of the Multiverse: Shattered Timelines
Who she is: A psychic whose dreams become reality. Unfortunately, she’s having nightmares.
Initial Side: The Dreamer Dreams
Innate Power (Initial Side): At the start of the villain turn, if there are no projection cards in play, destroy (H), where H is equal to the number of heroes, hero ongoing cards and flip the dreamer’s villain character cards. Whenever The Dreamer would be dealt damage by an environment card, the players may redirect it to the hero character card with the lowest HP.
Advanced Power (Initial Side): Reduce damage dealt to projections by 1.
Special Win Condition: If The Dreamer is reduced to 0 or fewer HP or otherwise destroyed, the heroes lose the game.
Villain Cards that Begin Game in Play: (H) projection cards.
How she flips to her other side: If there are no projection cards.
Nemesis: The Visionary
Second Side: Roused From Slumber

The Dreamer and Violent Nightmares

Innate Power (Second Side): Whenever a projection card is destroyed, put it under this card. At the start of the villain turn, if there are (H) times 2 cards under this card, the heroes win the game. Whenever The Dreamer would be dealt damage by an environment card, the players may redirect it to the hero character card with the lowest HP. If The Dreamer is reduced to 0 or fewer HP or otherwise destroyed, the heroes lose the game. At the end of the villain turn, The Dreamer deals each non-villain (H) minus 2 psychic damage. Then, play the top (H) minus 2 cards of the villain deck.
Advanced Power (Second Side): Increase damage dealt by villain targets by 1.

Macabre Specter and Treacherous Ape

Most Fiendish Ongoing Card: There aren’t any ongoing cards in The Dreamer’s villain deck because dreams are fleeting.
Most Fiendish One-Shot Card: Violent Nightmares: Reveal cards from the top of the villain deck until (H) minus 2 projection cards are revealed. Put them into play. Discard the other revealed cards. Shuffle the villain trash into the villain deck.
Most Fiendish Villain Target Card: Treacherous Ape (2HP): At the start of each hero’s turn, this card deals that hero character card 2 energy damage. When this card is destroyed, destroy 1 equipment card.

Whipacorn and Dark Hero

How to Defeat The Dreamer: The Dreamer is unlike any other villain in the multiverse. She isn’t a villain at all. She’s just a 6-year-old girl having bad dreams and those nightmares are coming to life. That being the case, you can’t wail on her. You’ll have to use her ability and redirect all damage that would be dealt to her by the environment deck to one of your heroes.

Outside of that, The Dreamer’s fairly easy to defeat—err, quell. All you’ll have to do is take out her projection cards, which causes her to flip, and then you defeat a couple more projections and you win. But that’s easier said than done.

The Dreamer gets a lot of projection cards in play each turn. You’ll need a hero or two who deals global damage to villain targets. It never a bad idea to have a hero who can manipulate the villain deck, so you know what you’re facing each turn.

And you don’t notice the effects the added damage redirecting wounds from The Dreamer to heroes does until you’ve played against The Dreamer a time or two. It’s no small thing. You may want to consider an environment (like Megalopolis) that doesn’t have a lot of environment targets that deal damage, while steering clear of environments that load up on damage.

Top 5 TV Shows for February 2015

We’re trying something new for the month of February’s Top 5 TV shows. We’re waiting until the month is over so we can get a better idea of which shows deserve the top spots. Without further ado, here’s our Top 5 TV shows for the month of February.

February was an odd month for Television because of Amazon Instant Video’s pilot season and as a result, we have a lot of usual shows that make the top 5 just missing the cut. Arrow and Constantine didn’t quite make it. Agent Carter fell shorter than them but enough about the shows that didn’t make the list, let’s get to the ones that did.

5) Grimm

Grimm squeaks in at number five. Oddly enough, this season of Grimm has suffered from a lot of the same issues as the show it beats out for the number five-spot, Arrow, but Grimm has done a better job recovering. It started the season with more story arcs than a rainbow and started whittling down the arcs, leading to a more cohesive month of television. The Juliette as a Hexenbeist arc works and I’m gaining interest with Adalind’s return to Portland and the magic baby, but I’m not sure if Grimm has or hasn’t peaked too soon. Time will tell, but I could see Arrow switching places with Grimm in the not so distant future. Then again, I waited for Arrow to overtake Grimm the entire month of February and it didn’t.

4) Mad Dogs

Our first of two Amazon pilots, Mad Dogs has an impeccable cast. I loved the direction and writing too as you could feel the slow boil emanating from the screen. I only place Mad Dogs this far down the list because I don’t know how to classify it. I know the show runners want to start a new television series, but this pilot felt more like a movie cut short. I felt like I would’ve gotten all the time I needed with another thirty minutes to an hour and don’t see how the creators could’ve stretched out the story for an entire season. Despite this shortcoming, Mad Dogs is excellent television and a must watch.

Note: Mad Dogs just got picked up for an extended series, so we’ll get more episodes toward the end of 2015 and into 2016.

3) Bob’s Burgers

Bob’s Burgers falls farther down our list mostly because there weren’t that many episodes this month, I think there were more viewable minutes for the Mad Dogs pilot than there were for Bob’s Burgers, and the episodes that did air ranged between very good and okay, a far cry from earlier in the season. Still, Bob’s Burgers holds onto its top three status by showing us just enough of why it’s the best sitcom, animated or live action.

2) The Flash

Like Bob’s Burgers, The Flash hasn’t been as good as it was earlier in the season, but The Flash was liquid magma hot earlier this year. The month of February saw the Firestorm story arc play out as much as it probably will this season and developed characters that needed it. Character development is the reason why The Flash takes our second spot. We should see the Rogues make another appearance and hopefully we’ll see full on Grodd too. I consulted my Magic Eight Ball, and it told me that we can expect another good month of Flash TV in March.

1) The Man in the High Castle

Ridley Scott bringing a Philip K. Dick novel to the screen hollers great television, and The Man in the High Castle didn’t disappoint. If you ever wondered how our world would look had the Axis powers won World War II, The Man in the High Castle will give you a glimpse. Like Mad Dogs before it, this Amazon pilot has a great cast, direction and writing, but it has more of a story to tell. We’re left with more questions than answers. As if showing us an alternate reality of a United States as the Greater Third Reich wasn’t enough, The Man in the High Castle introduces the mysterious, titular character who can see other realities, specifically ours, and creates movies showing what could be, can be or will be.

Check out this video of the contraband newsreel:

I have higher hopes for The Man in the High Castle than I do for Mad Dogs but both series—and the excellent docu-series The New Yorker Presents—got picked up for extended series and we can see them battle it out on-screen in the coming months.

Comics for the Week of 2/25/2015

Hey, ladies, gentlemen, and children of all ages. Due to a mix of bad weather, bad luck, and what I suspect is a communist conspiracy, I’ve been backed up on comics, but I’m getting caught up, and I have some thoughts to share with you now. As is often the case, it’s tough to talk about these books without revealing some plot details, so beware of spoilers. To be fair, it’s Friday, so I suspect many of you have been spoiled on these books already. Shall we proceed?

Darth Vader #2 followed the model of #1 for the most part. Where #1 gave us a look at the events of Star Wars #1 from a different perspective, #2 takes a similar approach in being separate from the main story and otherwise self-contained. Vader’s voice comes through a little better in this issue, I think. It feels less expository in the dialogue, and a little less bloated. We get a look at some of the Empire’s command apparatus, and we also see Vader dealing with an obstacle that feels pretty fresh. The art continues to impress in these books, and while I doubt this is a must-read in order to follow the main Star Wars title, I actually find that refreshing.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a big Lee Bermejo fan. For that reason, I was excited to pick up his new book, Suiciders which launched this week. Let me be clear in that Bermejo’s art is what I’m particularly fond of, and this book is stunning to look at. Suiciders is also written by Bermejo, and I will concede that his writing is the weak link. The dialogue is a little awkward in spots, and I don’t feel I came away from this issue knowing as much as I should about the world he’s building, but I feel the aesthetic of this book alone is worth the price-tag.

Lastly, let’s talk about Batman. If you haven’t heard the big spoiler, you should probably stop here. That’s why I saved it for last. Still reading? Okay, here goes… I hated this issue. It’s not, as some suggested, that The Joker went too far. The Joker can never go too far. What bothered me was the laziness of the writing here. Joker cutting off Alfred’s hand felt like pure shock value, but for the fact that it was related to the reader in a glorified flashback. This is not to mention the narrative problem of it. If this timeline is to be taken seriously, didn’t Joker just have the entire Bat-family tied up and at his mercy in Death of the Family? Why would he choose to maim Alfred now? The answer is, I believe, as I already suggested. Shock value. I’m already disturbed by the possibility of Snyder being allowed to turn Joker into an evil Wolverine rip-off, and this issue just makes me think all the more that Snyder really just wants to write horror. I’ll cut this tirade short before I start calling for anyone to be burned in effigy, but suffice it to say I’m ready for a new voice on the title. Capullo, on the other hand, should be kept indefinitely as his art has never disappointed.

I think I’ll leave it at that for this week. Happy geekings.

Arrow Secrets: February 27, 2015

Lazarus Pit
We finally caught a glimpse of one of Ra’s Al Ghul’s Lazarus Pits, the chemical baths that keeps him alive, but perhaps not. This week’s Arrow didn’t mention the pits, but it did show Ra’s chilling in a hot spring and that’s essentially what the Lazarus Pits are. Ra’s could manscape by other means. I’m not sure if Arrow can mention the pits without inadvertently breaking their no Batman code. We’ll have to see, but the above image is definitely a tip of the hat to the Lazarus Pits.

Daddy Knows Best
Ra’s controls who his daughters date. Nyssa insists that he didn’t approve of Sarah and that might be true, but Ra’s has tried for years to hitch one of his other daughters, Talia, to Batman.

Meditation
This might be nothing at all, but this week’s episode of Arrow showed Nyssa Al’ Ghul in the Arrow Cave jail meditating, and she looks similar to the League of Assassin’s member you first meet in Batman: Arkham City.

The Atom
Finally, we saw Ray Palmer in full Atom gear. While it was a joy to watch him streak across the screen, it didn’t feel like Ray’s story was a part of the episode. Still, he looked great and can’t wait to see him in a Flash crossover in the coming weeks—which incidentally, adds to my confusion as to how he factors into Arrow’s storyline.

A Replacement for Ra’s
Ra’s wants Ollie to follow in his footsteps and replace him as the head of the League of Assassins. If you read the comic, you know that Ra’s does this a lot. He wanted Batman to marry Talia—unleashing assassin babies on the world—and take up the mantle of Demon’s Head and we’ve even seen Bane get a similar offer. But how far has Ra’s scraped the bottom of the barrel if he’s going from Batman (a DC Comics icon) to Green Arrow (a tertiary member of the Justice League)?

It’s one thing to not mention Batman. It’s another to tell a Batman story with the Green Arrow in Bruce’s shoes.

Head back to our Arrow review here.

Geekly TV: February 27, 2015

Marvel’s Agent Carter
Kyle’s Review
So we’ve seen Agent Carter’s first season in its entirety, and if you’ve been reading our write ups for the last couple of months, you know what our main complaints have been for the series so far and these issues continued, including the reintroduction of Cap-heavy references, with the finale. I won’t go into detail about these over-the-top allusions, but the Cap references do illustrate the Marvel TV world’s major shortcoming. Nothing gets ventured so nothing’s gained by watching.

Sure, these shows are eye-candy. If you want to see more of “Hotwell” on-screen, you can’t go wrong with Agent Carter, and I loved an actual Jarvis—he was the Avengers butler in the comics and not just Tony’s—because James D’Arcy gave us a great sidekick for Peggy, but the show didn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know. So what was the point of telling the story?

We got some minor reveals in this show, but any major ones occurred in Marvel’s cinematic universe and we saw ripple effects from the movies in Agent Carter. What more would you expect from Agent Carter? Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD can’t advance their own storyline without the movies stepping in and Agent Carter has the added handicap of being a prequel.

Prequels are usually a bad idea—just ask most Star Wars fans—but Agent Carter did garner plenty of viewers and it looks like it might get renewed. I can get on board with a second season…perhaps.

I loved the inclusion of not one but two strong female characters, but they need to let Peggy be Peggy. Marvel also needs more strong females. I just wished Agent Carter could have more of an impact on the greater Marvel universe. Maybe a second season will impact the universe, but I doubt it.

Verdict: Agent Carter’s rough around the edges but those edges might get smoothed out next season—if there is a next season—but Marvel’s TV track-record suggests that they won’t.

Arrow
Jim’s Review
Arrow headed into their brief hiatus with an episode that tried to do an awful lot. Thea’s development continued, and I think it has been long overdue, however there seems to be something manic about the pacing.

Ollie’s insistence on rescuing Malcolm felt initially believable, but actually chasing the league to Nanda Parbat stretched things too far. I enjoyed that Diggle was given a chance to be an active participant here, and we were successfully reminded of the fact that he can handle himself, but the premise felt flimsy. At what point does Oliver just embrace the concept of a plan-B?

Again, we saw Laurel cry, and almost cry. I was sick of it in season 1, and now I’m just praying she learns a third trick.

Seeing Roy open up to Thea about his traumatic experience under the influence of mirikuru was a nice touch, and it fleshed out their relationship which as mostly been on hold.

The big reveal with Ra’s was the thing that bugged me most. It’s not that it doesn’t fit, it’s that it’s another element lifted from Batman. All things considered, it’s just another reminder of the glaring absence in an otherwise solid TV universe DC is building.

Kyle’s Take
This week’s episode “Nanda Parbat” continued Arrow’s trend of fast forwarding past character development and getting to a showdown of some sort. There hasn’t been much of a build up for anything this season and I wonder why the Arrow would stick out his neck for Merlyn. I don’t buy that it’s completely for Thea, and I only half believe Ollie when he said he lost his confidence.

Ollie has lost his mojo, but it’s mostly his ability to lie and garner support. He can’t convince anyone of anything—not even Laurel. The pod person herself caught Ollie in a lie. The show didn’t put a fine point on Ollie’s lack of subterfuge. That could be because Team Arrow wanted to add a hidden layer of subtext, but I’m not convinced Arrow has the requisite subtly for that kind of subtext. If they do, good on them, but at any rate “Nanda Parbat” did manage to juggle a lot of mistrust between Ollie and his supporting cast, and this mistrust blended well with the sheer number of people who know Arrow’s secret identity.

Who doesn’t know Ollie’s the Arrow? I know. Diggle’s baby, but even the Diggle baby’s been in the Arrow Cave. Still, the mass of people who know Arrow’s secret identity worked because Diggle was the only one willing to help Ollie. Arrow’s support system is not what it used to be, so that makes the offer Ollie received from Ra’s all the more tempting.

I do agree that Ra’s wanting someone to following in his footsteps reeks of Batman, and I’ll add that The Atom’s inclusion in this episode felt odd. He didn’t mesh with the rest of the story and he’s supposed to make a Flash crossover first thing after this two-week hiatus, which makes me question his link with Arrow. Perhaps he’ll get his own series next year. That would be fun. We may not have Batman or Superman, but we’ll have the guy who once played Superman playing a guy that can shrink.

Verdict:
A lot of stuff happened in this episode. Some of it worked and some didn’t work as well, but there are things to look forward to after the short break.

Check out our Arrow secrets page here.

Uno

Add a little color to a standard deck of playing cards, reheat the classic game of Crazy Eights, and you get the game of Uno, a game that dominated the seventies and eighties. Fast forward a couple of decades, and you can’t swing a mongoose in a supermarket’s gaming aisle without hitting an Uno spin-off or derivative.

We’ll get back to Uno in a bit, but first, we have to cover some tech speak.

The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Merle Robbins
Publisher: Mattel
Date Released: 1971
Number of Players: 2-10
Age Range: 6 and up
Setup Time: none
Play Time: as much as 30 minutes
Game Mechanisms:
Hand Management

Game Flow:
Players empty their hands and catch opposing players with cards in their hands, which scores the players points. Players take turns, attempting to play a card from their hand that matches, in either color or number, the topmost card on the discard pile. If you’re unable to play, you draw a card from the draw pile, and if you’re still unable to play, you pass your turn. If you have one card in your hand, you have to say “Uno,” or if another player catches you before saying Uno, you have to draw more cards into your hand. Play continues until someone has 100 points, and then the player with the least points wins.

Review:
Did I say Uno is the commercial version of Crazy Eights? I did? Well, it bears repeating. Sure, Uno adds wild and special cards to jazz up the gameplay, but it doesn’t venture too far from the basic rules.

Sample of a hand of UNO cards

I enjoyed playing Uno as a kid. The gameplay had plenty of gotcha and take that moments, but as a result of those moments, luck played more of a role than anything else. It’s still an okay filler game – or an appetizer game that you can play while you wait for the gaming main course – but it doesn’t hold my interest as it once did.

And if you find yourself on the receiving end of a lot of those gotcha and take that moments, you’ll grumble your way through a game where you don’t get to play much. The game plays you. There’s nothing worse than to get skipped, and you almost get your next turn but don’t because the player in front of you plays a reverse card. Or worse yet, the dreaded Wild, Draw Four card. Thanks.

Wild Draw Four UNO Card

Uno plays up to ten people, so it could serve as a party game, but there are plenty of other games that have surpassed it. Uno remains a filler game for me. But make sure you rub your lucky rabbit’s foot, hang your horseshoe in the right manner and eat your Lucky Charms. You’re gonna need all the luck you can get.

Verdict:
Like Crazy Eights before it, Uno relies too much on luck to be anything more than a mixed bag of a filler game.

Star Realms

Conquer the galaxy by using a combination of four unique alien factions with this blood-pumping amalgam of Magic: The Gathering’s combat and a deck builder. Designed by Magic Tour Champions Darwin Kastle and Robert Dougherty, this card game zips through the Kessel Run in twenty minutes or less—or your money back. Okay, that last part was from me, not the publishers of Star Realms. To the best of my knowledge, they don’t endorse the money back guarantee.

We’ll warp back to the foreign galaxy in a moment, but first, we have to go through the ubiquitous tech jargon.

The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Robert Dougherty and Darwin Kastle
Publisher: White Wizard Games
Date Released: 2014
Number of Players: 2-6
Age Range: 10 and up (12 and up on the box)
Setup Time: less than a minute
Play Time: up to twenty minutes
Game Mechanisms:
Card Drafting
Deck/Pool Building
Hand Management

Game Flow:
Players start the game with the same weak, boring ten-card decks. Your hand size is five, unless you’re the first player on your first turn, and then your hand size is three—a punishment for going first—but each subsequent turn, your hand size is five. Each player starts the game with fifty authority (a fancy way of saying health) and tries to get their opponent’s authority to zero or less to win.

Authority Cards: cards used to keep track of your authority, or health

On your turn, you play all the cards in your hand—there’s no cost to play—and cards grant one of four things: combat, coin, healing, or special effects. And these cards come in two flavors: ships and bases. Ships do most of your attacking. Bases offer special bonuses and some can be used as walls for your opponent to knock down before you can attack them.

You can do all the things on your cards during your turn, so feel free to deal damage, buy new cards to improve your deck, and heal yourself. Whenever you run out of cards in your deck, shuffle your discard to make a new deck.

Typical Trade Row or Communal Offering

Unlike every other deck building game, the communal offering of cards that you can buy changes throughout the game. You only have five available face-up cards, while the rest comprise a draw deck. As soon as one of the five face-up cards are bought and added to a player’s discard pile, a new card takes the old card’s place in the trade offering.

Review:
Two things make Star Realms stand out from all other deck-builders: a variable trade offering and direct combat.

Most deck-builders shy away from players dealing direct damage to each other and this leads to indirect interaction which equates to slower gameplay. There’s nothing slow about Star Realms. Fifty sounds like a lot of hurting you have to deal to your opponents, but my son has dealt me thirty plus damage on a single turn. He had the biggest grin when he saw his ships chain into that much damage. I only put twenty minutes as the game’s play time because there are multiple ways to play—and some of the game variations take longer.

Viper deals 1 damage, while Scout gives you 1 currency

And it’s no small thing that Star Realms has you change the cards available for purchase. This small tweak to the traditional deck-builder results in no two games playing the same.

The factions have great balance while coming off as four distinct alien races. The Trade Federation (blue) earns you more money and does the most to heal you. The Robots (red) are efficient and allow you to get rid of the chaff in your discard pile, making your deck run faster. The Royal Family (yellow) collects taxes from the smaller races by making your opponents discard cards. And The Blobs (green) build off each other to great effect, but their favorite trick is to mess with the trade offering.

Representative cards for each faction

In short, I love this game. It’s the perfect introductory deck building game. Many other deck-builders have funny triggers and timing issues. I like deck-builders for these quirks, but if I’m teaching someone who’s never played a deck building game before, I’m pulling out Star Realms.

Still not convinced? Try the game for yourself. There’s a free Star Realms app for most digital devices and you can download it here. http://www.starrealms.com/digital-game. I enjoy the digital version almost as much as the physical one because the computer tallies all your bonuses for you, so the play time gets cut to five minutes or less. I don’t know how many times I’ve played ten to twelve games in a row.

Screen shot of the Star Realms Digital Game

Verdict: A true gateway deck building game with great balance, a fast play time, and enough variety to keep you engaged for a long time. And at fifteen bucks, Star Realms is a lot of game for little dough.

Quiz Answers: United States Designer Debut Games

Alex Randolph: Twixt

Matt Leacock: Borderlands

Richard Borg: Liar’s Dice

Sid Sackson: Slam!

Thomas Lehmann: Fast Food Franchise

Debut Games: United States Designers

Now we cross the pond to cover tabletop designers from the United States. Can you match the following game designers with their first games?

Designers:

Games:

Geekly TV: February 23, 2015

Sorry, folks.

Grimm is on hiatus until March 20th, and Bob’s Burgers is taking a week off so we don’t have Monday morning TV reviews for you.

We’ll be back on Friday with our weekly reviews of Agent Carter, Arrow, and The Flash. Stay cool until then.