Today we finished wrapping up our Touch of Evil sessions.
We played against the Bog Fiend, and our characters were Karl, the Soldier and Isabella von Took. We were depressed, because we both agreed that both of them are the most overpowered characters in the game, and we both wanted a good challenge.
But, well. We didn't really know what was waiting us.
First of all, Isabella's wound ignoring ability wasn't all that good because mosquito swarms made heroes lose investigation points. And you fight mosquito swarms with Cunning, which isn't the best asset of Karl.
We were self-confident and pompous as Karl managed to find a book that gave him +2 cunning and book of medicine that made him able to heal people even in between showdown fight rounds.
Even when Isabella was possessed by a demon (again...!) it was not big enough a threat for the superman ego of the two overpowered character.
Only when shadow track started to fall rapidly (thanks to The Hour is Late -card) did the heroes think of starting the showdown.
Leisurely they trekked to Covered Bridge and started the showdown (okay, it wasn't all that easy - there was a real hurry, and first attempt at trying to start Showdown was failed because of the remains-in-play card Evil is on the move)
They lobbed blackpowder bombs at the bog fiend and hacked and slashed evil elders down like they were grass, and the bog fiend even with his mighty 13 dice couldn't hack them down.
But.
Neither could heroes kill Bog fiend because of its regeneration ability.
Soon Karl ran out of blackpowder bombs.
Eventually Magistrate Kroft was killed and combat items knocked away.
And Bog fiend just regenerated and regenerated... Most lowest wound count for Bog Fiend was 5, but at that moment Karl was fighting with 5 fight dice and Isabella with 4 or something like that. After that heroes couldn't keep on getting enough wounds in and bog fiend started regenerating more than what was done to it.
So, the mighty pair of Isabella and Karl was slaughtered, never to be said "they will beat anything" again.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
The Night of the Scarecrow (Touch of Evil)
Next we were against the Scarecrow.
And I learned a thing or two about karma.
We got Captain Hawkins and Eliza, the witch hunter as characters. Which was a filmatic pairing, again. Honorable and noble infantry commander and a cruel "end-justifies-means" inquisitor meet, and though they may not agree about the methods, they have to play along to win this supernatural threat.
Ah well. I said that Scarecrow was a weird villain with powerful abilities, but who seemed to go down way too easily in the end.
I guess Scarecrow got all insulted about this, because within just first few rounds it had got three Remains in Play mystery cards that added to its strenght.
Also, every second Mystery Card was Murder! that happened to spawn crows. And we rolled quite a many times Murder... murder! from the cooperative chart that just happened to spawn crows...
Also Lies and Deceit ran rampant. Until the end of game all town elders got a third secret from Lies and Deceit, so all of their secrets were revealed. Five out of six town elders were on the villain's side, two of them having the Darkest Secret. Only Doctor Manning was cool with us, except even he was a voyerist, drunk coward.
And, on top of all this, our witch hunter of questionable morals was possessed by a demon herself. A bit ironic, really.
We didn't even get to fight in a showdown, because shadow track started to shrink so rapidly, thanks to the Remains in Play card "The Horror".
But in the end we counted that the villain would have fought with 17 fight dice and had 24 wounds.
Never under estimate the villains. Rather, make them underestimate you.
And I learned a thing or two about karma.
We got Captain Hawkins and Eliza, the witch hunter as characters. Which was a filmatic pairing, again. Honorable and noble infantry commander and a cruel "end-justifies-means" inquisitor meet, and though they may not agree about the methods, they have to play along to win this supernatural threat.
Ah well. I said that Scarecrow was a weird villain with powerful abilities, but who seemed to go down way too easily in the end.
I guess Scarecrow got all insulted about this, because within just first few rounds it had got three Remains in Play mystery cards that added to its strenght.
Also, every second Mystery Card was Murder! that happened to spawn crows. And we rolled quite a many times Murder... murder! from the cooperative chart that just happened to spawn crows...
Also Lies and Deceit ran rampant. Until the end of game all town elders got a third secret from Lies and Deceit, so all of their secrets were revealed. Five out of six town elders were on the villain's side, two of them having the Darkest Secret. Only Doctor Manning was cool with us, except even he was a voyerist, drunk coward.
And, on top of all this, our witch hunter of questionable morals was possessed by a demon herself. A bit ironic, really.
We didn't even get to fight in a showdown, because shadow track started to shrink so rapidly, thanks to the Remains in Play card "The Horror".
But in the end we counted that the villain would have fought with 17 fight dice and had 24 wounds.
Never under estimate the villains. Rather, make them underestimate you.
Saving Elaine Bartlett (Touch of Evil)
So now I'm getting in games I guess. I'm visiting my friend at Oulu.
We originally made a bet back in 2009, with the loser needing to visit the winner. The bet was that would Privateer Press change Harbinger's Rebuke. I said no, they http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwouldn't. He said yes, they would. Well, the thought that they would ditch the spell completely didn't come across my mind so... I needed to make a visit.
Paying that debt waited for quite a long time.
Anyway.
Yesterday we played two Touch of Evil games, which were both pretty entertaining.
First we were up against the new web exclusive villain that you can download from Flying Frog's website, The Shadow Witch, ghost of Elaine Bartlett.
Heroes were randomised and we got Brother Marcus and Victor Danforth, the playwright, both of them who were boasting with a Combat rating of 1.
Luckily many of Elaine's minions were to be fought against with Spirit, which was pretty high for Victor.
Elaine was nice villain. There seemed to be some kind of story in hunting her, the clues about her past were a really nice touch. Also Solomon, the cat, was telling his own story. The times were countless where Solomon came to watch mysteriously at a space where a hero was standing, but it crossed players only a couple of times. Also Solomon lead the heroes to the Olde Woods, where final confrontation was made.
Anyway, it seemed that Brother Marcus was more efficient in tracking down what really happened. Victor was... ahem... distracted by poetic ambitions.
Shadow track did not move at all for a long, long time. It was pretty curious, actually, how easily the game seemed to progress until all clues were found. Then, suddenly, BOOMF. Two Shadow Spectres were spawned in far-away locations, which meant that three Mystery Cards were drawn every round. Which was way too much.
After an epic battle (I should say that most interesting and epic battle of all current Touch of Evil games - Elaine lost assets as fast as heroes, as there was Sophie, the Midwife in hunting party who removed Remains In Play mystery cards slowly but steadily) the Witch was finally laid to rest and her vengeful spirit calmed down.
But next we were against... Crows. Hitchcock would have loved that.
We originally made a bet back in 2009, with the loser needing to visit the winner. The bet was that would Privateer Press change Harbinger's Rebuke. I said no, they http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwouldn't. He said yes, they would. Well, the thought that they would ditch the spell completely didn't come across my mind so... I needed to make a visit.
Paying that debt waited for quite a long time.
Anyway.
Yesterday we played two Touch of Evil games, which were both pretty entertaining.
First we were up against the new web exclusive villain that you can download from Flying Frog's website, The Shadow Witch, ghost of Elaine Bartlett.
Heroes were randomised and we got Brother Marcus and Victor Danforth, the playwright, both of them who were boasting with a Combat rating of 1.
Luckily many of Elaine's minions were to be fought against with Spirit, which was pretty high for Victor.
Elaine was nice villain. There seemed to be some kind of story in hunting her, the clues about her past were a really nice touch. Also Solomon, the cat, was telling his own story. The times were countless where Solomon came to watch mysteriously at a space where a hero was standing, but it crossed players only a couple of times. Also Solomon lead the heroes to the Olde Woods, where final confrontation was made.
Anyway, it seemed that Brother Marcus was more efficient in tracking down what really happened. Victor was... ahem... distracted by poetic ambitions.
Shadow track did not move at all for a long, long time. It was pretty curious, actually, how easily the game seemed to progress until all clues were found. Then, suddenly, BOOMF. Two Shadow Spectres were spawned in far-away locations, which meant that three Mystery Cards were drawn every round. Which was way too much.
After an epic battle (I should say that most interesting and epic battle of all current Touch of Evil games - Elaine lost assets as fast as heroes, as there was Sophie, the Midwife in hunting party who removed Remains In Play mystery cards slowly but steadily) the Witch was finally laid to rest and her vengeful spirit calmed down.
But next we were against... Crows. Hitchcock would have loved that.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
When Tauloks Come
Okies, today we played another game of When Darkness Comes.
Lately it's been the only game I've been able to play, really. But that should be fixed soon enough as I will have a lot more free time at my disposal.
Anyway, we played the Brain Freeze scenario where the players hunt invisible tauloks that they can see when they have drank enough of Lilly's Special Drink. Go figure.
This scenario was nice in that there was a slight timing pressure from Lilly's drink, which rewarded the Speed stat for a change. But to make Speed stat truly shine we used a home-brew rule for this scenario that followed the 12-sided die I introduced in last game. The idea in using a 12-sided die was that it goes down one number at the end of every round, and once it drops below 1 it is turned back to 12 and something "bad" happens.
In this game, when the die first time drops below 1, dusk/light rain Line of Sight effect takes place. If the die drops a second time below 1, it becomes a full night/heavy rain.
Well, about the game itself.
My team member got the ball rolling real quick - well, her character's lucky number happened to be 4. My lucky number was 6, which was probably the worst lucky number around. In fact, her character had already killed and returned two tauloks all the while my character was trying to climb through windows and open doors with zero victory points.
In fact, had not a lucky WooHoo -table rolled a random item for my character (a knife from the other player) I think I wouldn't have gotten any kills during the whole game.
After getting that, however, my dear little character was able to beat up one measly taulok and return it to Lilly, managing to get just over 10 victory points to get at least a little character advancement.
Next, as the person we've been playing When Darkness Comes with is going to move away in a couple of months, we're going to play the scenario "The Enemy of my Enemy" next where you have to kill both Mega-Adversary and after that dismantle a tough bomb, where the bomb will explode and kill everyone if it's not taken care of soon enough.
That scenario will be a fine ending, and looks like it's challenging enough so that it doesn't need any additional 12-sided die. Maybe.
Ah well, I'm tired and writing erratically. Better go to sleep now.
Lately it's been the only game I've been able to play, really. But that should be fixed soon enough as I will have a lot more free time at my disposal.
Anyway, we played the Brain Freeze scenario where the players hunt invisible tauloks that they can see when they have drank enough of Lilly's Special Drink. Go figure.
This scenario was nice in that there was a slight timing pressure from Lilly's drink, which rewarded the Speed stat for a change. But to make Speed stat truly shine we used a home-brew rule for this scenario that followed the 12-sided die I introduced in last game. The idea in using a 12-sided die was that it goes down one number at the end of every round, and once it drops below 1 it is turned back to 12 and something "bad" happens.
In this game, when the die first time drops below 1, dusk/light rain Line of Sight effect takes place. If the die drops a second time below 1, it becomes a full night/heavy rain.
Well, about the game itself.
My team member got the ball rolling real quick - well, her character's lucky number happened to be 4. My lucky number was 6, which was probably the worst lucky number around. In fact, her character had already killed and returned two tauloks all the while my character was trying to climb through windows and open doors with zero victory points.
In fact, had not a lucky WooHoo -table rolled a random item for my character (a knife from the other player) I think I wouldn't have gotten any kills during the whole game.
After getting that, however, my dear little character was able to beat up one measly taulok and return it to Lilly, managing to get just over 10 victory points to get at least a little character advancement.
Next, as the person we've been playing When Darkness Comes with is going to move away in a couple of months, we're going to play the scenario "The Enemy of my Enemy" next where you have to kill both Mega-Adversary and after that dismantle a tough bomb, where the bomb will explode and kill everyone if it's not taken care of soon enough.
That scenario will be a fine ending, and looks like it's challenging enough so that it doesn't need any additional 12-sided die. Maybe.
Ah well, I'm tired and writing erratically. Better go to sleep now.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
When Skeletons Come
Today I played a game of When Darkness Comes with two players. Same continuum than in couple of earlier WDC posts, too.
Scenario was the Skulls and Bones or something like that, where you need to kill a certain number of skeletons and then dump their remains in the ocean.
Now, this was first time that I used a home brew rule that I've been thinking for quite some time. In every single game report I have complained how WDC lacks pressure and feel of hurry.
This was the home brew rule that I used and I plan to have in every other scenario too (modified to scenario specific needs, of course!):
You have 12-sided die, and at the end of every full round you reduce the face number by one. When it falls below 1 you turn it up again at 12 and place the monsters on the board as if first gun had been found. If the monsters are already on board, move ALL of them their SPD stat closer to Gun Shop. If at the end of those movements enemies have LOS to player characters, resolve combat as usual. If the first gun is found before the die has spawned them, reset the die pointing to 12.
Additionally, when first monster reaches the last row of tiles, every player receives a failure token.
Now, as I have played the game, I think it will be a perfect sense of small hurry if I modify above rule so that you also get a failure token when first time monsters enter the middle row of tiles. Reason for these failure tokens is that the villagers start to slowly wake up and there is always some early bird who sees the walking dead around, which in turn raises suspicion...
Anyway, randomly picked "town" was kinda nice. I tried to take all woods tiles away from randomisation, but I don't know how I still managed to blunder the shuffling so that the shore was behind a cabin and a woods tile. Ah well. At least the mysterious ship was well hidden!
Also, one of the randomly picked adversaries was the Mega-Adversary, and to be honest, all of this summed up (difficult terrain in between the skeleton bodies and ocean, a little bit of hurry and Mega-Adversary) made the game quite entertaining. Though the only real excitement came when all the other adversaries were killed except the Mega one. My playing friend had to move the Mega-Adversary so it got a Line of Sight to my character, after which it obviously charged, not giving us enough time to plan for it and pick our own fight.
It did horribly maul my character, despite her trying to shoot it down with both barrels of a shotgun. She had just one health remaining, when it was other players characters turn to try to save Camomile's already fried arse.
And, well, that he did, though he wasn't as skilled at using shotgun as Camomile was. Fighting the Mega-Adversary cost my character 8 victory points and the other character 7-8, so it was a costly fight.
But after that it was just a race to dump the skeletons to ocean. My character had 14-15 victory points when game ended, and my friend's character had 17. Damn. Her character has now more advanced character than I do.
(By the way, which is another point I have to check a bit. Now these character have played 3 games, which means that there is quite a bit of progress under them. Is the game too "easy" because of that?)
Scenario was the Skulls and Bones or something like that, where you need to kill a certain number of skeletons and then dump their remains in the ocean.
Now, this was first time that I used a home brew rule that I've been thinking for quite some time. In every single game report I have complained how WDC lacks pressure and feel of hurry.
This was the home brew rule that I used and I plan to have in every other scenario too (modified to scenario specific needs, of course!):
You have 12-sided die, and at the end of every full round you reduce the face number by one. When it falls below 1 you turn it up again at 12 and place the monsters on the board as if first gun had been found. If the monsters are already on board, move ALL of them their SPD stat closer to Gun Shop. If at the end of those movements enemies have LOS to player characters, resolve combat as usual. If the first gun is found before the die has spawned them, reset the die pointing to 12.
Additionally, when first monster reaches the last row of tiles, every player receives a failure token.
Now, as I have played the game, I think it will be a perfect sense of small hurry if I modify above rule so that you also get a failure token when first time monsters enter the middle row of tiles. Reason for these failure tokens is that the villagers start to slowly wake up and there is always some early bird who sees the walking dead around, which in turn raises suspicion...
Anyway, randomly picked "town" was kinda nice. I tried to take all woods tiles away from randomisation, but I don't know how I still managed to blunder the shuffling so that the shore was behind a cabin and a woods tile. Ah well. At least the mysterious ship was well hidden!
Also, one of the randomly picked adversaries was the Mega-Adversary, and to be honest, all of this summed up (difficult terrain in between the skeleton bodies and ocean, a little bit of hurry and Mega-Adversary) made the game quite entertaining. Though the only real excitement came when all the other adversaries were killed except the Mega one. My playing friend had to move the Mega-Adversary so it got a Line of Sight to my character, after which it obviously charged, not giving us enough time to plan for it and pick our own fight.
It did horribly maul my character, despite her trying to shoot it down with both barrels of a shotgun. She had just one health remaining, when it was other players characters turn to try to save Camomile's already fried arse.
And, well, that he did, though he wasn't as skilled at using shotgun as Camomile was. Fighting the Mega-Adversary cost my character 8 victory points and the other character 7-8, so it was a costly fight.
But after that it was just a race to dump the skeletons to ocean. My character had 14-15 victory points when game ended, and my friend's character had 17. Damn. Her character has now more advanced character than I do.
(By the way, which is another point I have to check a bit. Now these character have played 3 games, which means that there is quite a bit of progress under them. Is the game too "easy" because of that?)
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