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Day of Descent & More
Feb. 21st, 2010 09:43 pmYesterday was our fourth weekend in a row without roleplaying, but a couple of my Saturday group did get together to play Descent. We had Kevin, Donald, and Dave S., of which I figured the first two would turn up on time and the third would not.
I spent about an hour before our scheduled starting time of 1pm getting things setup. I actually have things pretty well organized, with two Plano boxes holding most of the cardboard pieces and an individual bag holding each size and shape of tile. However, I also had Road of Legend mixed in, from our short-lived failure of a Road to Legend campaign a couple of years ago. So, it took me much of the hour to first figure out what all the bits were and second get everything reorganized without RTL.
We played the sixth scenario in the main book. In previous years we've played #1-5, the first four successfully on the players' part, the fifth not so much. One of the things I don't like about the scenarios is that they don't give what their playing lengths are, so starting a game of Descent is always a bit like stepping off a cliff. We got lucky with #6, it ran in the 4-5 hour time period that's average for the game.
Donald and Kevin turned up about close to on time (the first slightly early, the second slightly late) and Dave S. was, no surprise, not present and unreachable by the time the other folks were here. We talked about it for a while and decided that when he arrived we could just crank the player number up from 3 to 4 at the end of a full turn. And, that's exactly how things went, when Dave S. arrived a couple of hours late.
The game was fun, as usual. My preference is generally for the players to win, because that gives the maximum number of people enjoyment, but for it to be tight--and that was pretty much a description of the game. About halfway through the game the players got down to four conquest tokens. Two character deaths would have ended the game, and there were enough monsters to make that a possibility. Heck, I missed one of those kills by 1 life point, and that would have dropped them to 1 conquest. But, from there they were able to push back, and won with a much more overwhelming count of 12 or 13 or so.
Anyway, fun all around. I wish we could play the game more.
Today has been much less eventful. I was sick during the night (for the second Saturday in a row, for reasons I can't really fathom), and thus I was a walking zombie (and a cold! walking zombie) much of the day. Read. Napped. Talked with my dad for the first time since we returned from Hawaii.
I may do a tad of writing in what's left of this evening on one or two reviews I have floating around, now that I'm a bit more recovered & more awake.
Learned today that Berkeley once more has a new book store within its boundaries. There's a Books Inc., down on Fifth Street. I used to love the Town & Country Books Inc., down by Valley Fair in Santa Clara. Sadly, it seems to be gone now, probably pushed out of business by that self-same Valley Fair Mall. But when I was growing up it was the only place I knew of that regularly imported British books. So, I could get my Doctor Who Magazines there and Michael Moorcock books that weren't available in the US. My dad & I would actually go there pretty often, and I'd search for new British stuff, and then we'd go to Valley Fair Mall, which had a good game store (Games Etc., maybe?), where I remember buying issues of White Dwarf and stuff for Traveller.
Ah, good times.
Anyway, twenty years later it's a different world. Books Inc. has changed hands at least once, and in any case, British imports are easier to get thanks to the internet. Heck, the expanding global economy alone seems to have brought them into this country. For years, I've seen Doctor Who Magazine at Comic Relief. And I've had my own local book store, Dark Carnival, which at least used to import a lot from Britain.
Ah, good times.
Ironically, that new Books Inc. probably isn't our closest book store. I'm pretty sure that the Borders in Emeryville is closer. Maybe the Barnes & Noble too. If all the Borders haven't gone out of business yet ...
I spent about an hour before our scheduled starting time of 1pm getting things setup. I actually have things pretty well organized, with two Plano boxes holding most of the cardboard pieces and an individual bag holding each size and shape of tile. However, I also had Road of Legend mixed in, from our short-lived failure of a Road to Legend campaign a couple of years ago. So, it took me much of the hour to first figure out what all the bits were and second get everything reorganized without RTL.
We played the sixth scenario in the main book. In previous years we've played #1-5, the first four successfully on the players' part, the fifth not so much. One of the things I don't like about the scenarios is that they don't give what their playing lengths are, so starting a game of Descent is always a bit like stepping off a cliff. We got lucky with #6, it ran in the 4-5 hour time period that's average for the game.
Donald and Kevin turned up about close to on time (the first slightly early, the second slightly late) and Dave S. was, no surprise, not present and unreachable by the time the other folks were here. We talked about it for a while and decided that when he arrived we could just crank the player number up from 3 to 4 at the end of a full turn. And, that's exactly how things went, when Dave S. arrived a couple of hours late.
The game was fun, as usual. My preference is generally for the players to win, because that gives the maximum number of people enjoyment, but for it to be tight--and that was pretty much a description of the game. About halfway through the game the players got down to four conquest tokens. Two character deaths would have ended the game, and there were enough monsters to make that a possibility. Heck, I missed one of those kills by 1 life point, and that would have dropped them to 1 conquest. But, from there they were able to push back, and won with a much more overwhelming count of 12 or 13 or so.
Anyway, fun all around. I wish we could play the game more.
Today has been much less eventful. I was sick during the night (for the second Saturday in a row, for reasons I can't really fathom), and thus I was a walking zombie (and a cold! walking zombie) much of the day. Read. Napped. Talked with my dad for the first time since we returned from Hawaii.
I may do a tad of writing in what's left of this evening on one or two reviews I have floating around, now that I'm a bit more recovered & more awake.
Learned today that Berkeley once more has a new book store within its boundaries. There's a Books Inc., down on Fifth Street. I used to love the Town & Country Books Inc., down by Valley Fair in Santa Clara. Sadly, it seems to be gone now, probably pushed out of business by that self-same Valley Fair Mall. But when I was growing up it was the only place I knew of that regularly imported British books. So, I could get my Doctor Who Magazines there and Michael Moorcock books that weren't available in the US. My dad & I would actually go there pretty often, and I'd search for new British stuff, and then we'd go to Valley Fair Mall, which had a good game store (Games Etc., maybe?), where I remember buying issues of White Dwarf and stuff for Traveller.
Ah, good times.
Anyway, twenty years later it's a different world. Books Inc. has changed hands at least once, and in any case, British imports are easier to get thanks to the internet. Heck, the expanding global economy alone seems to have brought them into this country. For years, I've seen Doctor Who Magazine at Comic Relief. And I've had my own local book store, Dark Carnival, which at least used to import a lot from Britain.
Ah, good times.
Ironically, that new Books Inc. probably isn't our closest book store. I'm pretty sure that the Borders in Emeryville is closer. Maybe the Barnes & Noble too. If all the Borders haven't gone out of business yet ...