SurfMonkey Gaming: The Cooperative Games Invasion

Monthly SurfMonkey time! The first game to hit the table was the phenomenally popular cooperative dice game: D-Day Dice. Dice, WW II, and tough decisions, what's not to like? There are several scenario boards in the base game; we played the 'tutorial' board known as the Tiger Exercise. 

You roll dice every turn as you make your way up the beach. You gain resources through the dice to help make sure you complete your mission of reaching the final bunker. Along the way you recruit specialists, gain troops, and requisition equipment. You also have to muster your troops' courage to make sure they can continue to move forward in the face of withering machine gun fire. 

SurfMonkey and I had a few tough moments, but in the end we were victorious, assaulting the final bunker and winning by the skin of our teeth. 

I must say, I quite enjoyed this game. SurfMonkey says it plays well solo. I am going to put this one on my wishlist and see if it makes its way into my hands by Christmas. 

The next game hitting the table was Shadow Rift, a cooperative deck-building game where you and the other players must protect your village from an incursion of monsters coming through a shadow rift that has opened near your town. 

You and the other players must try to seal the rift or build up the walls before the monsters clog your town with enough corpses to trigger the plague. We did very well, narrowly avoiding disaster on more than one occasion. I took on the role of main monster killer, while SurfMonkey ran his deck as the main village booster. That strategy seemed to work as we sealed both rifts before the monsters littered the village with too many corpses.

I like this game and would play it again. I think it will be a nice game to bring out to scratch a fantasy itch, but I think, if I had the itch this game scratches, I would rather play Rune Age. Time will tell. 

The final game we dared to play is one of my personal favorites, and a cooperative game to boot. Space Hulk: Death Angel the Card Game. Love it! 

Though I have played the Space Marines from the first expansion packs, I had not yet played any of the new locations. Last night changed all that. We played with the Adrenal Genestealers and the new location cards.

Long story, short: We got crushed. The relentless advance of the Genestealers and a few unfortunate Event cards sent our marines to their doom. 

I enjoy this game every time I play. I look forward to more Death Angel soon. I have a request into Kato Katonian to pick me up the second expansion at Gen Con 2012. He is on his way there as I type these words! Hopefully, the next time I play it will be vs. the Tyranids...as if the Genestealers aren't difficult enough. Sheesh. 

Overall, two wins out of three in three separate cooperative games. Not a bad night, I would say. I think cooperative games are a nice departure from the heat of head-to-head competition. 

What will next month hold? Will there be new games coming out of Gen Con that make it to our table? Tune in next month to find out! 

Thanks for reading and see you soon. Until next time, play some games!

magehammer

Questers and Creatures Session Report: Doom at Dark Tree

This past Saturday night, four former students came over for our annual game night. In attendance were Nick, Zack, Brandon, and Katie. They graciously agreed to play Q&C.

Nick, Zack, and Brandon came prepared with characters ready to go. I had printed out some pre-generated characters and Katie chose the most 'magical' one. She was to be the group's magic-user. Speaking of the group here is the roll call:

Faldrik: Dwarf Fighter/Archaeologist.

Goloin: Dwarf Cleric of Tristan / Aristocrat.

Hunter: Human Thief / Spell League Witch Hunter

Chanterelle: Human Magic-user of the Town of Wingit.

I took them through a module of my own design called QC 1: Doom at Dark Tree. It is a pretty basic adventure in the vein of most old school modules.

Faldrik brought his friends to the city of Northgate in response to an old dwarf who had claimed to have found the location of one of the lost Dwarf Stones, ancient relics thought to be able to bring the dwarven gods back to Mevun. He provided them a map to an ancient tomb where the last bearer of one of the Dwarf Stones, the dwarf wizard, Demdothor, had disappeared.

His interest piqued, Faldrik and the others decided to follow up on the old dwarf's information heading to a lost tomb outside a nearby village, Dark Tree. However, little did the questers know, a necromancer had taken up residence in the ancient tomb. The evil one turned his attention to the unsuspecting denizens of the small village.

When the questers made it to the village it was deserted. On guard, they continued onward to the tomb. Once at the ancient burial site, they discovered a host of undead. After making their way into its depths and fighting through skeletons and zombies, they found a necromancer and defeated him, bringing his evil machinations to an end.

They found the Dwarf Stone among the necromancer's treasures. Faldrik also found an ancient magical greataxe.

They soon returned to Northgate and brought the Dwarf Stone to the old dwarf. He was ecstatic to finally have one of the eight Dwarf Stones in his possession. He warned the questers to be wary, though, as an organization existed who would stop at nothing to prevent the dwarven gods from returning. That organization may have turned its attention on the heroes. Now the questers wait for the next opportunity to explore the unknown and combat evil.

Overall, I was pleased with how my system worked. I did increase the damage clerics do with their Smite Undead ability.

I really want to thank the players! Their backgrounds and passion for the game really inspired me. Thanks again for a great gaming experience, guys!