Making alpha mutation decks through a card draft

GammaWorld4thThe alpha mutation cards in Gamma World are a pretty fun. After every encounter, or if a player rolls a 1 on a d20, the player draws a new mutation card to replace the one in his hand (or had used). Other environmental effects can also cause a player to draw a new card. It can be a lot of fun using this mechanic, however the player is totally at the whim of cards in the GM deck. To get around this, a player could assemble his own personal deck of cards. This might be desired if a character is going after a certain theme of mutations for RP reasons, or just prefers powers that would work off a specific stat.

I imagine WotC would then love the player to go out and purchase several booster card packs to create their own personal deck of cards. Good marketing there. An optional part of the game, but the diehard player may just decide to jump in an buy a ton of cards to get a little more control on his mutation draws. A workaround for this however is using a mechanic in many boardgames and other card games, a card draft.

Out of the box, Gamma World has 44 mutation cards (40 in the deck and 4 from an included booster pack). Staying with the 7 card minimum deck, you can have 6 players each having their own personal alpha mutation deck without having buy any additional booster packs. You generate these decks by dealing out all the cards, each player selects a card they want, passing the excess to another player.

As a step by step example:

1. Deal out all the cards – Some players will end up with extra cards, don’t worry about this. However you could always have all the players roll off, with the highest roll (resolving ties) being the first player dealt.

2. Each player selects a single card – Each player goes through all the cards in their hand, and selects one card they want to keep. They set that card aside for their deck.

3. Pass the remaining cards – Each player then passes the remaining cards to the player on their left.

Repeat steps 2-3 until a deck of 7 cards is made for each player.

Each player will eventually have 7 cards they have set aside. This is their deck for the night’s game. The remaining cards are given to the GM as his mutation deck.

I like having the excess cards given to the GM to allow for alpha flux mutations from other weird sources. If a player runs out of alpha cards in his deck he can draw from the GM deck. If you want a little more structured game, when a player runs out of cards allow them to reshuffle their discard pile and place it face down to make a new draw deck.

You can do a card draft for omega tech cards, but I prefer keeping them as a single GM deck. Yet instead of handing out a specified card to each player individually, deal the cards in a single pile face up on the table. Allow the players to barter, argue, or agree (boooooorrrring) on which card they will take. This way there is a little control the players have in choosing what tech card they want, but it is still a random draw. I like this better than giving the players a chance to draw from their own stacked omega tech deck.

If you have players complaining about the wildness of alpha mutation cards, and want to give them a little more control with the types they get, consider using a card draft. You get a pretty good selection right out of the box and can accommodate quite a few players at the table.

Giving Savage Worlds a spin

SavageWorldsGraphicSo last month I wrapped up my one and a half year D&D campaign and was looking for some new worlds to adventure in. I was clamping at the bit to get into Dark Sun and was pretty excited about DMing it. My players ranged from don’t-care-let’s-play-something, to I’m-not-too-big-into-fantasy. Given that the old campaign was a little dark, the idea of jumping into another bleak setting like Dark Sun was also a minus for some folks. So I had to think of other options.

I floated out an idea of playing the new version of Gamma World, possibly a 30s supernatural game using Savage Worlds, or maybe jump into the new version of Traveller. All were well received but Traveller was at the top of the list. I like the newest version from Mongoose Publishing and the rule system is pretty easy mechanic-wise, but I kept looking over my Savage Worlds books.

Traveller would be an entirely new system for everyone (including myself as a GM). So I’d have to go through the ropes of getting everyone into the mechanics of the game. If we wanted to take a break and jump into another genre, likely they’d have to learn an entirely new system. Gamma World wasn’t an issue for them on this point. As we had played it before and everyone knew 4E very well. So while I liked Traveller and was eager to give it a whirl, I didn’t want to get my group into a tailored system for just that game. If we wanted to jump into a superhero game, or maybe try out the 30s supernatural campaign for a few games, it would cut into our play time having to get everyone up to speed with different RPG systems.

So I decided to put work into making a Savage World (SW) conversion for Traveller. There are all ready quite a few conversions out there. Not to mention that SW all ready is pretty generic to run just about anything right out of the book. I’ve also decided to focus on a few key bits within Traveller to work with SW. That way for a good chunk of the game, like spaceship combat, buying and selling goods, etc. I can use the values in Traveller, just quickly port it over to SW.

The biggest hurdle was trying to distill the various skills from Traveller down to a more truncated list for SW. A tad daunting, but something I was able to do. Likely there will be some more changes and not everything fits perfectly. However I think it’s good enough and my players will likely not be too irked by some of the skill swapping.

I’m liking this as Savage Worlds is very modular. If we want to take a break from Sci-Fi opera and try something else out, both myself and the players can switch gears pretty easily and not have to worry about learning another completely new RPG system. I think with posts on the blog you can expect a few directed more to Savage Worlds in the future. Yet I’ll still be plenty focused on dispensing my opinionated, bloated ego and ideas on D&D topics too.

Using monster templates and themes

I’ve taken a stab at using the DDI monster builder and found it a little clunky but serviceable. However I still was looking for offline tools that would allow me to tinker with making custom monsters. Another resource out there, straight out of the DMG, were monster templates and themes.

I tend to think monster templates and themes never really got any ground with DMs. It’s a clever idea. You’ve got a few key characteristic powers and traits you can slap on just about any monster and end up with a custom creature. The DMG2 expanded on this and gave some more general powers based on the role of the monster. Even an article or two in Dungeon magazine had a few templates (#190). One hiccup however with using templates (or themes) was that some of the earlier ones didn’t scale too well in level.

There was a workaround to this as the math for setting damage, defenses, and to hit bonuses were readily available. So with a little work, you could tweak the powers to make a level appropriate creature. This is one great thing about 4E, a lot of the numbers behind the scenes in the design were freely accessible, allowing for tinkering that made it difficult to break the game.

Enter the DM Cheat Sheet over at Sly Flourish, offering the most handy table any DM would ever need. This breaks down all the bonuses and average damage for any monster, level by level. Granted you could figure all of these values out, but looking it up on a chart makes the process tons easier. Not to mention the chart has been adjusted to the ‘new math’ for monsters, making them more on par with the PCs.

What is really great about this chart is that it makes some of the monster templates more flexible (especially many in the DMG2). The listed damage in these templates can be altered to reflect something more appropriate for that monster level. This also works wonders for creatures in the monster manuals. I can switch out the attack bonuses and damage with expected values for that monster level, and create a creature that can provide a sufficient challenge to the group.

Now, I’ve got a handy means to make some unique monsters on the fly. If I need to create some ice demon cultist group, I can switch out a few keywords and swap particular defences, HP, and damage output, making something that I am more confident will not TPK my players (or be a complete pushover).

Take Lolth’s Chosen from the DMG2 for this imaginary ice demon cultist group. You could drop out the poison keyword for many of the powers and use cold instead (imagine a biting, icy, cold spreading across the player’s body when they are hit). The cloud of darkness power could be described as a blast of hurling snow, which blinds the players. Scuttling escape could mean the ground is suddenly covered with a sheen of thin ice that the monsters could freely shift through. Not all the powers in the theme match, but with a little wrangling you could give your monsters a few custom powers making them stand out.

It’s too bad this hasn’t been explored more as articles in Dungeon. Having a greater variety of templates and themes offering different powers, particularly for certain monster roles and minions, would be a nice set of tools for that DM looking to spice up their game. Still, altering customizing monsters is a little less nebulous with 4E and a snap to do using themes and templates. I encourage folks to try it for their game.

Hoping healing surges stick around

I’ve got a bit of a rant with the latest Legends and Lore up on WotC’s site about saving throws, but I’m going to stew on that a bit. However a portion of the article throws out the idea of tagging effects based on hit point status. It’s something that could work, but I wonder if healing surges might be more appropriate as a gauge of relative fitness. And the failure of mentioning them makes me wonder if healing surges might make the cut for DnDNext. If not, that is sort of a shame.

I love healing surges, something I’ve gushed about before. They offer a way to rethink about what hit points represent. They also reinforce the idea that HP loss can mean more than just physical damage drawing blood.

From just healing potential, I can see curbing the number of healing surges characters have. The more defender types can be brought to death’s door twice before having to worry if a healer is available, and that isn’t even counting the bonus healing from leader powers. So trimming the total number by 2-3 surges likely could give some fights a bit more threat. I’d even go to say that first fight or two in an adventure is primarily there to whittle away healing surges and give more threat to later fights by drying up those potential healing resources.

However I’d offer an alternative to trimming down the number of healing surges by expanding their effects. They offer a unique form of currency for game resources. I would approach healing surges more as the PC’s will, endurance, vitality, and desire to push on against adverse conditions. In that light, the role of healing surges might be expanded to other enhance other abilities besides just granting HP.

They could be used to supplement attacks. Rather than encounter powers, allow a PC to double their damage spending a healing surge. It could be possible to allow particular feats to expand the area of effect for spells, or improve healing output, all at the cost of a healing surge. The player is drawing on reserves to give that certain attack or spell their all. Most importantly, there is a hard limit to what they can possibly do each day before they have to rest and recharge. It also gives PCs an interesting choice, do they burn through healing surges to enhance abilities? Or do they try to keep some in reserve for restoring lost HP?

Another great characteristic about healing surges is that it gives more flexibility to the DM when dealing damage, and also for rewards. Think instead of having a level drain effect, healing surges are drained (and if healing surges have a role with abilities and powers this could definitely hinder the player).

I’d be lax in failing to mention Fourthcore too.Those folks have worked in some particularly nasty monster powers targeting healing surges for PCs, rather than simply docking chunks of HP. Having a kill encounter power that will drain a specified number of healing surges (and if the PC doesn’t they die outright) can be particularly vicious.

I hope healing surges are in DnDNext. They provide a lot of flexibility for the DM when considering ways to damage players over just whittling down HP. They could also provide a unique game resource if the functionality of surges expand beyond just granting HP. It’s a neat idea from 4E that could definitely be tweaked, but hopefully won’t be eliminated in the next edition.

The high level game and world barriers

Something hinted at from one of the more recent Legends and Lore series talks about high level games, how they sort of break down, and what should be your typical experience at paragon tier and higher. One idea touched on was that maybe certain places in the game world might be better suited for high level play. If you are facing combat with a deity or traveling different planes, that’s something more aligned for high level tier groups.

It’s not a bad thought. I think higher level characters need something larger in scale to be an appropriate adventure for them. However at the same time, I like the flexibility 4E has given DMs for potential worlds to explore. I loved seeing lower level demons, elementals, and aberrant creatures pop up in MM2. While the majority of monsters that would frequent these different planes are for high level PCs, having a handful of heroic level creatures was a nice option.

Pushing this idea of flexible locations for heroes of all levels is inspiring. I tended to get stuck in the mindset that the planes were for higher level characters only. Having more heroic tier monsters available opened up that idea of allowing lower level PCs to step into other regions, especially the Feywild and the Shadowfell.

Even the scales of war adventure path had level 5 characters crossing over into the Shadowfell. Something that helped reinforce new DMs to think about having adventures in other lands. With folks that had run through a few heroic campaigns, having another place to kick off a campaign outside your typical run of dungeons against kobolds and goblins was a boon. Granted I could see the majority of the planes of elemental chaos something with incredibly difficult monsters and hazards, something only the most seasoned of adventurers would attempt to tackle. However at the same time, there could be this periphery on that plane that was more stable, with less powerful creatures, that heroic PCs could explore.

It makes me a bit nervous when I hear thoughts that certain places might be cordoned off to higher level tiers. I much prefer the direction taken in 4E where the DM was given tools to build encounters that could challenge a low level group (and at the same time not completely overwhelm them). It didn’t have to be enough to make out an entire series of adventures (or a whole campaign), but being able to slip over into the Feywild or pass into another planar region would be a pretty cool break from the typical game most folks run. And if anything, it could provide some ground story work to give an incentive for the players to visit those planes again.

The biggest difficulty for many DMs may not be designing encounters for high tier play (which can be an issue) but more along having problems with appropriate challenges and tasks that would appeal to higher levels. I hope a fair chunk of pages in the next DMG iteration of DnDNext tries to address this. I want to see a random table of 50 ideas for paragon and epic play. Give us some abstract rules for resolving large scale battles (something out of Savage Worlds Deluxe would be peachy), obtaining strongholds, and maintaining followers.

This seems to be the biggest roadblock to higher level play, thinking of an appropriate story that would grab the attention of high level PCs. To address this effectively is no easy task. For quite a few DMs with a lot of experience, this probably is not a problem, but relatively new DMs would likely appreciate advice. I’m hoping that is something that is given more attention for DnDNext. Don’t saddle the players with more complex mechanics and especially don’t consider things like segmenting off the planes for paragon level only. Keep planar travel and adventures flexible for adventure ideas. Spend more effort in helping DMs craft a campaign story that is worthy of high level play.

Expeditions of Amazing Adventure: The sorcerous silt of Olsaan

The far western reaches are wild lands. Olsaan is the most civilized region bordering the great kingdoms, likely simply due to its proximity to many trade routes rather than from the people that call these primitive woods home. The many elves, halflings, and even the sparsely numbered humans that live there all seek to try and make a claim within the wilderness. They form a diffuse network of small, fiercely independent, villages and communities among the dense woodlands.

The deep soil of Olsaan is said to have been blessed by the gods for fertility. A claim supported by the bountiful yields of crops from those able to plow through the solid rock. However, few fields can be completely cleared of heavy stones that litter such plots. Those stalwart enough in farming to do so find the ever encroaching woods not worth the effort to maintain large tracts of farmland. Instead generations have learned that smaller plots are more manageable and has become the typical custom for those few that farm within Olsaan.

The many rivers and streams however have been able to cut deep into the bedrock, disgorging the deep soil hidden below. These streams are of a rich muddy color, with the dark earth forming a fine silty bottom in streambed pools. The silt from these rivers and streams is greatly prized. It forms a reagent base for many magical pigments and can be used in the inks of arcane texts. Some have even claimed that the ingestion of this dried mud will infuse the spellcaster with even more powerful magics, although such a boon is temporary.

Exploitation of this natural resource is difficult however. Bullywugs are notoriously known for infesting the many streams and rivers with foul, makeshift camps. They seem to be a constant presence along the rivers and have been known to harass local villages if they feel their aquatic territory is being encroached on.

Others will claim that deeper into the wilds, more primitive forces move about the rivers. After several pints around community fires, tales speak of the very mud itself rising from the bottom of turbid waters, forming hulking, primitive man-like forms. These great primal elementals of earth and mud wield tree trunks as clubs and savagely fight any that they encounter. Likely a story told just to keep children from wandering too deep into the woods, and to keep those less adventurous types from seeking to secure some silt from the deep rivers. Such silt, when dried and placed in a clay urn, would likely bring a small fortune to those willing to brave the wilds and strange creatures of Olsaan.

Ditching the damage die roll

A common complaint about 4E is the length of fights. There are a lot of suggestions to curb combat length, but something I often see neglected is the variation in damage that PCs do. To me it has always been an odd mechanic that how well you hit has no effect on the damage inflicted. You can just barely hit a creature and max out damage, or get a solid hit (just below a critical) and flub your damage roll with a 1.

How minions deal damage has a nifty idea there. Minions do a steady amount of damage per hit. No die rolling. Perfect for the 1 hit creatures they are, but that concept of a steady state of damage output with less overhead in running them has some appeal when streamlining combats.

Another game comes to mind where damage output was less random is Star Fleet Battles. This was a tactical space combat game set in the Star Trek universe that first came out in the late 70s and hit its stride in the early 80s. What was interesting about the game was that many weapon systems had a flat damage rate, it just depended on whether you hit based on a D6 roll. Other systems (like phasers) had effectively no ‘to hit’ roll at all, they just did a random amount of damage. However the closer you were the less random the damage output was, effectively shifting a damage roll from 1-4 at long distance to 5-6 at broadside range.

What I particularly liked was that certain ranges had a sweet spot where the variation in damage output was minimized, and got better as you closed the distance. It was very predictable. Risky long range shots sniping at a target across the map was exactly that, risky and did little damage. Closer in, you could predict how much damage you could inflict (and take yourself). The game came down to pre-planning moves, maneuvering, and efficient energy allocation.

So with D&D I found it odd there is this huge disconnect with damage and to hit rolls. They are completely independant from each other. On top of that a series of rolls is needed with each effective strike. It’s a lot of manhandling of dice and steps to resolve combat. So why not consider dropping the idea of random damage altogether if fights are dragging?

Write down 4 typical damage rolls beforehand – Take the normal die roll a player would make and replace it with an average damage, or a simple mean of the potential die outcomes. Additionally make a limited damage value being 25% of the potential damage from the same die, and an improved damage value calculated as 75% of the potential damage. Don’t forget to include the max damage roll from critical hits too.

With those 4 values, add the bonuses to damage due to feats, enhancements, ability scores, etc. and you’ve got a simple list of damage numbers a PC does with each attack. If extra bonuses come in from other player’s powers they can quickly add it to those totals.

Average damage is the default – Any powers or abilities that do multiple weapon hits are just multiplied by this number, just follow up and add the various bonuses to damage from feats, etc. This is the bread and butter output from attacks.

Critical hits work as before – Roll a 20 and you max out damage. Nothing changes.

Limited Damage on an even hit – If a player scores a hit roll that evenly matchs a creature’s defense, he uses the limited damage value. Just a little variation to the damage. You barely get a hit and in turn do less than average damage.

Improved Damage at one less from a critical hit – Typically on a 19 (but may be different for some characters that can expand the range of successful critical hits), but this is a hit that would do a bit more damage from normal yet still not quite the max damage from a natural 20.

With a little prep time, the players have their turn streamlined a little. Additionally, there is a small amount of variation in their damage output. The big, and less than optimal, hits are there. More importantly, they are tied to how well you roll to hit. Also, different damage output is tied to some simple conditions (i.e. score an even hit roll with a monster’s defense and you do less damage). If anything, I think this could work out well on the DM side of the screen for handling monster damage.

I’ve yet to to try this out with my group. I expect most players will balk at the idea of dropping an opportunity to roll a damage die. I think most will still want to roll that 1D12 rather than agreeing to constantly hit at 6 damage (plus all the bonuses). Still, if combats are dragging this might be something for groups to explore.

Traveller again…

I’m out of the country for most of the week with limited internet access. Another work trip and I’ve come to realize I simply fail as an international travelling man of leisure.

The D&D campaign is wrapping up and some of my players are hankering for other settings. I wanted to run something for Dark Sun, but likely most are balking at that one. Maybe I’ll take a short spin with the recent version of Traveller from Mongoose Publishing. Did a bit of gaming way back when with both the old 80’s boxed set and MegaTraveller version. Looks like a fun game to run.

Rules are PC insurance from a bad DM

A topic being passed around with all the hubbub of DnDnext is what role do rules play in the game. How far should rules reach? What should be the breadth and scope of them? Should they be simulationist or should they lean more towards letting a DM make the call?

I believe in having a system of rules. You are playing a game. There should be some structure to that with a framework of rules. Otherwise you are just playing pretend and doing an exercise in make believe. The catch however is how far should those rules go and how much they should encroach on determining the outcome of player actions.

Fearless DM put up some of his thoughts on the recent DDXP held earlier in 2012. A bit further into the post he laments about the state of organized play. I do think he has a solid point that such a structured game environment is not working well with promoting D&D. I feel stuff like the lair assault clicks well. After all that is a very straight forward, hack and slash, beat the monster type of event. D&D encounters and LFR however seem to be a bit of a mess. The focus on fights really hamper what 4E can be as a game, and in the end give people a limited view of how D&D plays. So how did we get here?

With a more open system, you are reliant on having a fair referee that governs the action of the game and makes sure everyone has fun. If you’ve got a good DM, this kind of game can sing. You will have a fun time at the table and really stretch the abilities and resources your party can utilize to overcome obstacles. If you’ve got a DM that shuts you down, is not impartial, and derives more fun in hampering the PCs rather than letting them accomplish key tasks, you’ve got a bad DM. Even worse, you are stuck with a system that allows the DM to do what they want and leave the players powerless. AD&D can fall into this camp. With a good DM you have a fantastic game. With a poor DM, it can be disastrous.

Of all the events in D&D, combat is likely the most needed for having a framework of rules. Lessen DM adjudication and you end up with a very structured way of resolving fights. The more regimented it is in the mechanics, the easier it becomes to predict how certain actions will resolve. If anything, players can call out a DM if they are fudging numbers and breaking the rules. In effect, these rules hamper the ability for a bad DM to throw a fight.

I see this all the time in miniature wargaming. You want a rule system that dictates clear resolution of events. As a fall back, you’ll always see players pull out the rule book and determine if something can be done (or have guys roll off to resolve it, play on, and check it later after the game). The key point is that everyone follows the rules and are not pulling stuff out of their butt simply because they want to pull off a maneuver, make an attack, or avoid having something bad happen to their units. D&D has set up such a structured set of rules in combat to do the same thing. Have a uniform list of possible actions, simply to make sure everyone (both the DM and PCs) play fairly and actions are resolved without bias.

With a good DM this isn’t an issue. The guy (or gal) is there to give a challenge, but make the game fun. With a bad DM, having such elaborate combat rules can curb that. The players have a fall back position within the rules to make sure combats are fair. Without such structure, you can end up with a frustrating experience.

I’ve seen folks call for giving the DM more power to resolve things and how 4E has removed that. I am truly baffled by that statement. I really wish folks would sit down and read the 4E DM guide. It has some fantastic advice for a new DM. Take a gander at pg. 28 and the philosophy of saying ‘yes’, look over troubleshooting and the advice for encounters being too hard or too easy (pg. 30-31). And lastly pg. 42, where right in the text it talks about how to resolve any action that can’t be readily found as a rule. It’s all there in the book. With great guidelines to how to fairly adjudicate any situation and keep the story moving.

If WotC could reprint the book, I’d make pg. 42 almost the first point discussed about DMing. Emphasize a fair, structured, means to resolve events in the game, roll with it, and move the game along. I’d have example after example how a DM can employ pg. 42 to make their game better, and even talk about when you might want to just throw out the rules and let the players run with it. Breaking the rules for story is in the 4E DMG, I’d just make sure that was front and center so it didn’t get buried in all the other advice.

Somehow this idea got lost in the implementation of 4E with published adventures. Somehow they became more worried about making sure players couldn’t suffer at the hands of a bad DM, rather than advising how a good DM can handle tricky situations. There is a solid framework of rules here with 4E, I’m hoping more emphasis with DnDnext is to show DMs how these tools can help them run a fun, and fair, game.

Review: Thunderstone – Dragonspire

This month I’ll be reviewing the fantasy card game, Thunderstone: Dragonspire from AEG games. This is a stand-alone expansion that can be added to the basic set of the game, but also has enough cards to play as a game on it’s own. The 2-5 player game falls into the deck building theme, where players try to pick up cards to fill out their hand. I’m approaching this review as a game, and avoiding talking about it as an expansion, as I haven’t had a chance to pick up the original game.

In a nutshell, the object is to secure as many victory points before a thunderstone relic card enters the last area of play (or ‘rank’) on the table, or gets picked up by a player. Each player represents a party, trying to head into a dungeon and defeat monsters for victory points, obtain treasure, or at the least gain experience to hone their combat skills. As a theme, it plays out very much like a basic hack and slash D&D game, low on story and high on action and hording loot.

Players all begin with the same cards and have the option during their turn to pick up new equipment or improve their heroes, discard their hand for a new one, or try their luck defeating a monster. Each player has their own deck and discard pile, so they will find themselves occasionally throwing in their current hand and drawing a new one if needed. A key point of the game is to try and pick up cards that will give them some fighting advantage to consistently enter the dungeon and win battles against monsters.

There are a couple of wrinkles to the game play. One that there is a limited number of resources. Once a pile of heroes or equipment is gone, that’s it for the rest of the game. So each player is typically in a race to pick up the best cards before they are gone. The second interesting portion of game play is that many special abilities and card functions require it to be destroyed. This can even happen if a hero is crippled in battle. Usually most cards are placed in the discard pile, which can be shuffled into a new deck that players continually draw from. However, destroyed cards are pulled from the game entirely. Combined with limited resources and heroes, this can make for some interesting game choices during a player’s turn.

Combat itself is pretty simple. Players add up their attack bonus and try to equal or beat the monster defense score. Additional card effects on the monsters, heroes, or weapons the heroes employ usually give modifiers. Monsters also line up in a queue, with increasing attack penalties for those deeper in the dungeon. This adds some tension to the game, as players that opt not to fight might find themselves up against even tougher foes if the other players manage to defeat that creature on their turn.

Another neat feature is that only a few types of cards for equipment, heroes, and monsters are used out of the entire game set. A special set of cards are used representing one of each card type. After shuffling, you then draw a particular number (4 heroes, 4 monsters, 8 village cards, etc.), ending up with a pretty decent way to make each game a bit random. As a nod to the other sets and expansions, these ‘randomizer’ cards have a different back to help distinguish them from other normal cards. Dragonspire has randomizer cards from all the previous sets so they all can be used interchangeably. It’s a nice touch and gives a new player an idea of what cards are in the other sets.

As gameplay goes, it is a bit low on direct interaction. Interestingly your actions typically limit your opponents as you might fight easier monsters, or pick up the last card of some spell or weapon. The game does feel like a bit of a race though to pick up the best heroes, fight the most monsters, and gain the most treasure. Slip behind and it can be a little difficult to catch up. Also, in some situations you might end up with a slew full of tough monsters, without the resources to take them on effectively. Having to opt out and redraw your hand in such cases can be a bit of a downer while other players forge ahead.

The Good – It’s a fun game that seems to capture feel a little bit of that classic, hack and slash, dungeon crawl. A fair amount of random setup allows for a slightly different game to reduce repetitiveness and there is a decent variety of cards out of the box. The artwork is nice and the card quality is good. I have to say the box is spacious enough to also accommodate cards from other sets which is a nice organizational touch.

The Bad – Direct player interaction is pretty much non-existent. At times a player might get a bad draw of cards against monsters in play, resulting in not much else to do but clear out their hand. With a lot of people downtime can creep in a tad. Even with the different cards, repeated play might start to encroach on the familiar. Something that likely would be alleviated picking up other expansions or the base Thunderstone game.

The Verdict – Thunderstone: Dragonspire is a fun game that has that feel of progression with a group of adventurers (through buying equipment and leveling up) fairly well. It is an abstract game and to say it captures that feeling of exploration and adventure in a dungeon crawl can be a bit of a stretch. The gameplay is pretty much a race to pick up the most effective heroes and equipment, all in the name of slaying the most vile and toughest monsters. While direct player interaction is low, your actions do have an effect on other players, and the mechanic of destroying and obtaining limited cards does put an interesting twist on this deck building game.

I found the game entertaining. It is a light, fantasy card game that revolves around killing monsters and looting stuff. Much of the strategy is trying to work out decent combinations with different heroes and equipment to become effective in combats, and in that sense, fits into the deck-building niche of games pretty snugly. While Thunderstone: Dragonspire is slated as an expansion, I would consider it a great buy if you wanted to initially get into Thunderstone. Be sure to pick it up if you’d like a fantasy-themed card game.