Marcalla

Unfortunatly Pull My Finger is slow on the 2E updates.

Lynch is more of a card manipulator/screw with your opponents mechanics type of master.

The dreamer/chompy are the alpha strike master (a lil less in 2e but still bad asse)

Pandora is an alternate damger as most of her damage comes from willpower duel losses and willpower effects instead of def or combat.

Lucius is a manipulate your own crew guy IE he won't kill ya, but hill make the guy with the gatling gun shoot the crap out of you at his direction.

Collidi I don't have much experiance with, but he's more of a minion enhancer/maker type master.

THe dreamer, pandora, lucius are as derk said tricksy in that they don't play as much in the normal way's. So they take a bit more advanced tactics.

Even with saying that most all masters have multiple tactical build/directions they can go. For instance Lilith is a combat master, but as derk said can grow nephalims and or instead bring the forests of malifaux to life to destroy you. or she could just abduct your models swapping them for her's to kill you off one at a time with little sacrifice on her part. (I play alot of lilit)

I've had this one for a while but haven't gotten it on the table yet.

Munchkin is alot of fun, but eventually the end game is almost always the same. The first person who tries to win gets smacked to hades... and then the 2nd or 3rd player (depending on how many other players had to play cards) wins cause everybody is depleted.

I wouldn't suggest mixing sets, its fun but ultimately unwieldy and your just better off playing one version at a time. Obviously the base game has the most expansions and if you get many you will need to filter some of the repeat cards. most all other sets have at least 1 expansion if not 2. 

Catan is always a win. There' are many Catan pro's that can give you the low down on what to buy. In our group here we've got several ppl who have Catan and related expansions. So I bought the Start Trek version. Which is fun though missing 5-6 player expansion (if it doesn't come out soon, I'm buying another core and parting out the extra's to cover costs)

You might also want to check out San Juan, Its like Race for the Galaxy, but without the symbology to remember/learn. Easy to learn but alot of depth for mature players.

And another fun one is Village its a worker placement game so medium size.

Fluxx and the related versions are awesome.

Its a simply complex game.

I would suggest getting the base set and then adding one of the other sets (like python, star, stoner ect) to the mix it will muddy the 2 card win's much more and make the game a bit less abrupt.

Having not played with any of the new models or rules and only  quick read of the rules and Justin's post about em. I'm a bit torn I liked the idea of using upgrade cards specific for each master though they should have been priced higher in almost all cases. The new single manifestation is ok but will likely benefit some masters more and were right back where we started.

I like the new additions especially more mounted models this is at least a partial western themed game and it nice to finally see horses. Now if we can get some coaches or something similar like the one Collette was abducted in. Perhaps in campaign play.

anyway, its still early in the process well early in the refocused process to tell one way or another.

I'm excited to try it out. Though I think Jim is right, it'll likely see more play when the imps can play with big ships too.

Zero up till now, but that's cause I didn't have any big ships until MM's deal of the day practically twisted my arm to add porkins and the transport to the decimator/ YT 2400 deal.

So we'll likely be getting some in soon.

Whoops I forgot to post that. Thanks frank_dawg.

Its still a great deal even at 150 instead of 120.

Do you want to play a dog fight game, or a mass fleet combat game.

Basically the ruleset will be very very similar (its using the flightpath system as its base)

So it really comes down to if you want to fly 2-3 x wings vs 6-8 tie's. Or do you want to fight star 2-3 frigates/star destroyers vs 3-5 rebel capitol ships with some snub fighter stands mingled in.

@frank_dawg: Understandable. Though you could use all the content for numenera in a strange setting with the numenera being a recursion.

Especially the bestiary and artifact/cypher lists. And if you want mutants... They got a descriptor for that, and a foci to go with it. 

It really depends on the game and the expansion. Some expansions really help make a game that was a little limited to begin with a full robust game. Other expansions just add unnecessary complications and minutia.

For instance Galaxy Trucker is alot of fun in the base game, but the extra tiles and ship boards from the expansions make it even better.

Talisman is good at its base level, and the "corner" expansions are really neat, but the dragon, werewolf, death expansions just add needless complication and house keeping to an already long game.

Race for the Galaxy, geared towards war world strategies in the base game but the expansions (except for the take over one, see the talisman explanation above) add other cards that allow for more competitive non war strategies.

Expansions can also help iron out the issues that come up when a game gets out in the wild and has magnitudes of players looking for the bleeding edges as opposed to a smallish pool of play testers that could miss something. This is really best illustrated in Race for the Galaxy IMHO.

And no, a game shouldn't "need" an expansion to make it fun/playable. But often a game has to go to market rushed and somewhat rough, expansions can help make an otherwise rushed or awkward game into a fun and more complete experience.

Also I think with the popularity of this kickstart, they will do a "strange" version soon. Lots of chatter (enough to make the FAQ) about that possibilty.

Just to let you know, the stretch goals are rackin up. They're up to like 90K. Currently that means cloth map, dice, char gen cheet sheet cards, Character sheet pads, XP cards, Adventure Cards (build your own encounters) commissioned cover art and "glimmers" (mini expansions 2-3 pages) added to GM and Adventure book. At the 100K lvl the cloth map gets double sided with the full contenent.

All in all this is looking like a fab deal at 120. I've considered the mega 350 deal which gives you a subscription to all products for 2015 and a copy of the cypher core system book (new generic system book) to be released plus the world book which should be a 60-70 dollar book as well as at least one more "big" book and like 5 smaller expansion books.

Happy b-day. More beer, more years!

I tried the "demo" and found the use of the app to be a bit annoying It took a long time for my camera's (I used my phone and tablet just to check) to capture the images. The game looks like fun however.

So far so Good, we've been playing for about 3 months now so round 9-10 sessions the group is about midway through tier 2 with some extra's here and there. (they took the petrified brain from one of the book adventures and using an artifact control cypher and some exp turned it into the nano's companion. (so floating psychic brain pet) We haven't done much overall adventure plotlines, but have completed several small adventures and some general exploration.

So far the game is going good, we're getting a feel for the system and thats allowing for more Role playing.

Some of the things we've discussed recently is a change in spending 1 xp for a re-roll. we don't like that (as we tend to still roll low) so were flirting with having that add 10 to the current roll. I also give "re-rolls" (non exp versions) when players roll a natural 1. I've always been of the mindset that instead of rewarding the additional reward of rolling a natch 20 that players who fail miserably deserve some form of learning so a simple re-roll not usable on that roll has been pretty nice, Plus I get to "intrude" for free anyway soo...

With all the 1's rolled by the group I have found it hard to interject intrusions into the game as I tend to get 5-6 freebies per session already.

One of the thing's we've been experimenting more with lately is altering powers per scene via XP. Its been pretty handy for the PC's especially when increasing the range of an acid spew, or splitting out  single beam type weapon to hit multi targets at reduced damage/range.

Another thing I've added is the ability for non glaves to get familiarity with weapon groups at 3xp per and that has been a bit helpful as well.

Our group just recently went to an orbital station via a tether transport system. But being adventures nobody thought to bring some form of radiation protection and thus the two formerly pure strain humans (we had two mutants already) are now mutated thanks to the ambient rads in the facility. The funny thing is they still haven't really figured out what has mutated them or how to counter act it even though "brainy" (the pet) has dropped some hints for em. They are of the opinion that its just not safe to go back up there. They'll get it though I imagine. especially when they come across some protective gear for sale soon. lol

The strange looks interesting. Though the core system is the same its pretty much setting I would think that differs, and perhaps some of the foci/descriptors that may be "strange" centric.

I've considered getting it just for extra source/resource material for numenera.

So with the release of the "boxed" set of numenera in Italy Monty and the crew decided to do a Kickstarter for the rest of us to get in on the action.

This is a pretty decent little kickstarter. They've taken the base book and split it out into "players, gm's, settings, and adventures" books so 4 in total now. But its still the same info as in the original hardbound book. (well stretch goals not withstanding cause they will be adding to the books as stretch goals are achieved)

If you're thinking about getting started with Numenera (which you should cause its awesome) check out the kickstarter.

Numenera Kickstarter

Also worth a look is the Space Hulk Card game.

I saw it at Guardian Games earlier this week, tuesday I think. Just the starter but it comes with 3 dragons! And from looking at Min market they will have foot troops as well. (gnolls, trolls ect)

I always thought that the "path" system would work well for foot troops like ohh I don't know say AT AT's and such. Hoth battle via the path system could be a very interesting game. (and I know there is going to be another boardgame version for foot troops but it uses the descent system I believe)

Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Yes please!!!

Interesting.

Just to clarify for the Hardcore event on saturday. Since its 20 stones we'll be using henchmen led crews, is that correct?

The Numenera book is worth picking up just from a "technical" standpoint. The layout/design of the book ('s) is the best I've seen in an RPG. Any would-be game designer/editor should look at this book and steal steal steal... 99% of important information referenced out of its section is annotated back to the section where you can find the information, this is done along the sideboards and within the body text as bold/highlighted text. And it isn't just within the book. All of the books are cross annotated. Very smart bit of editing on the designers part. 

As far as the game goes. I really like it.so far. Its simple which allows for whatever you (gm) wants to do. As the GM you never (or very very very rarely) roll dice. Rolls are usually made by the players. When the players attack they roll to hit. When the monsters or other obsticals need to hit, the players roll their defense all vs Target numbers set by the book and modified by you (if needs be). The GM hands out exp to "intrude" IE throw a monkey wrench into the works for the players. So say you are crossing a well traveled rope bridge spanning a chasm. Its not a difficult task the bridge is well maintained and used so no roll is required to cross it. However the GM wants to spice things up a little bit so as the group is crossing the GM announces that as the group is crossing the winds pick up and throw one of the party off their feet. At this point the GM gives that player 2XP (1 for the player intruded apon, and one that the player has to give to another party member w/explaination as to why). At this point the GM calls for a few rolls to stay on the bridge from the player intruded apon. The intruded player could pay 1 of his XP (not the one he would receive) to ignore this interruption or he can take the XP and the "setback".

In our play sessions this worked out really well. You don't have to roll for every little detail just let the players play and when things slow down you can inject with rewards.

Its also has a bit of resource management because your health pools (there are 3 might, speed, and mind) need to be depleted to use your special skills/tactics/powers as well as when you take damage or suffer ill effects. So it gives the players some tactical thoughts. Do I really want to exert extra effort draining my might pool (where most damage goes to) to do some more damage or cause a condition on an enemy knowing that if I get hit I'm that much closer to being beaten. Then again if I spend that effort (points) and manage to knock the critter down I have a chance to end the fight or gain the upper hand. So its a trade off. Also some tasks may require you to spend points just to attempt them. For instance the party comes to a heavy iron door, its locked and rusted shut. The GM decides that to even attempt to open the door (a might roll) that the players must exert extra effort to overcome the weight and rust. So to attempt to open the door they have to spend points out of their pool before they roll. This shows putting extra effort into something really prying on that door ect.

All in all I'm really excited to play it. It fits right into My GM progression from complex systems to more easily accessible less complicated systems that allow for more playing and less number crunching/rules remembering.

@frank_dawg: I'll be GM'ing. I'm "on deck" in the rotation (so prolly start running in the next 1-3 weeks). I did run it for several (2-3) sessions when we first got it as a sideline for when one of the group was out but we still wanted to play that night. So I have some limited experience running it.

News from the beyond.

So I picked up the Character Options book. Its got some cool things for making characters mostly foci and descriptors. But it does have rules for going above tier 6, and it also adds on several new abilities to the 3 classes (glaive, nano, and jack). Also new mutations as well as some other bits and bobs. Its totally worth picking up, the descriptors and foci alone make it worth it.