Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Ra; D&D Bedlam in Neverwinter; revisiting Glory to Rome; Everdell Farshore

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Ra; D&D Bedlam in Neverwinter; revisiting Glory to Rome; Everdell Farshore · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:05
  Welcome to pick up and deliver the podcast where I pick up my audio court
• 0:08
  as I leave the library and deliver an episode to you while I walk home.
• 0:11
  I'm Brendan Riley. Well, good afternoon, listeners. It's a lovely
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  day here in suburban Chicago. I'm taking a walk home in a light miss
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  from the library. Well with Karen attention, I continue to make progress on
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  sharing the games that I've played recently with you, So now it's time for
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  another episode of Board Game Espresso Triple Shot. For those of you new to
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  the podcast, the Board Game Espresso episode is one in which I am going
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  to review or talk quickly about, give quick first impressions three games I've encountered
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  for the first time recently, as well as one game that I dusted off.
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  I don't know why I still call it triple shot when I'm talking about
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  four games, but maybe the maybe the dusted off game isn't a shot of
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  espresso. It's a cookie or something. It's a treat. It's a treat
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  to go back to an old game. Take that anyhow, I do remind
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  you these are not reviews. These are generally first impressions after one or maybe
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  two plays. I have not played these games extensively enough to call this a
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  review. And one more reminder as well, I am a part owner of
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  a board game company and we do a variety of production material. So I
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  guess there is a way in which I am biased in reviewing these games because
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  these are competitors to us. Yeah, sort of. I don't think that
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  affects my discussion here, so I'll let you decide, all right. The
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  three games I'm going to talk about today. The first one is a classic,
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  Reiner Knitzia's Ra Ra has often talked about as the epitome of the auction
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  game. It has been published several times in a variety of different formats,
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  most recently and successfully from twenty fifth Century Games and a gorgeous new production that
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  we have a copy of it my Game club and we have, and my
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  friend Rob has a copy of so I don't need to get my own copy.
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  But I'm kind of jealous of these. It's such a good game.
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  But anyhow, Raw, like I said, is an auction game. You
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  play some sort of Egyptian nobility and your goal is to build up the Nile
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  area, and you do that through these auctions and the mechanism in the game
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  is very clever. So the game is done in a series of auctions,
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  and each player gets a couple of discs. Those discs have bidding amounts on
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  them. Everybody starts the game with a high disc, a medium disc,
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  and a low disc in these different values and that depends on player order.
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  And then the first player starts an auction by drawing a tile from a bag
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  and adding it to the little auction row. Then the next player can either
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  call and start the auction or they can draw a tile from the bag.
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  Now, sometimes they'll draw a tile from the bag it is a raw tile,
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  and then the auction starts. But sometimes they'll draw the tile they draw
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  from the bag is another tile to be in the auction, and the tiles
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  do a variety of different things, so it keeps going until either you draw
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  a raw tile or someone calls raw. Hear I'm saying the word the name
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  raw the Egyptian god are A. When an auction starts, so the person
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  to the left of the person who started the auction gets to bid first.
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  And when you bid, if to place one, put one of your bidding
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  tiles out in front of you to say I'm bidding this much, So you
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  can't choose how much you bid. You have to bid one of your bidding
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  tiles. Then the next player can either bid higher tile. And the thing
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  is all the tiles are different, so you never could bid the same amount.
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  It's just not possible. So they can build a bid a higher tile,
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  or pass, and the bidding goes around the table one time, ending
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  with the person who started the bid. Once the bidding's done, whoever put
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  out the highest value bidding tile into the auction. They take all the tiles
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  that were in the auction and then they place their bidding tile up in the
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  auction area. And now the next auction will also include the bidding tile that
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  the previous player won the auction with following me. So if I bid ten
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  on this auction and I win the auction, then we take the ten chip
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  that I used to bid, We put that into the next auction and I
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  win. If it's the very first auction in the game, I win some
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  chip I don't remember exactly what I win a chip with the auction. Then
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  the chip that I won goes face down on my mat. I can't use
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  it again this round. Then we started another auction, or we started another
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  build up to the auction and another auction. You keep going until everyone has
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  used all three of their bidding tiles. I think there might be a way
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  to sacrifice bidding tile and not win an auction and you do something else instead.
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  I don't quite recall, but the central crux of it is that when
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  you bid, then the next auction the cart the tile you bid with is
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  going to be in the auction, and the three tiles that you win in
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  your three auctions that round are the tiles that you use in the next round.
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  So it's pretty it's a pretty clever mechanism to drive the way that the
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  auction values move around the table, and then the auction itself is a sort
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  of set collection deal, where there are a variety of different scoring conditions based
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  on which tiles you have and how you have them and when you have them.
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  There are some tiles with different symbols, and you're trying and collect a
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  mix of different symbols. There are some tiles that payoff only when you have
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  other tiles, and so on. At the end of the round, most
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  people discard some of their tiles, although some other tiles stay around those ones.
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  Usually are game and scoring, meaning you didn't score any for them now,
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  and you score stuff for them at the end of the game. I'm
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  not sure that was a good explanation. It was maybe too detailed for an
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  audio podcast where you can't see the product. But boy, rise really good,
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  Like about halfway through the game, everybody who's just like, man,
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  there's a reason people call this a classic. It is really good. That
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  said, my family does not like auction games, and auction games are not
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  my favorite. Like, I could recognize why Raw is amazing, and I
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  will happily play at anytime someone suggests it, but I don't think it would
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  go over well with my family. My wife does not like auction games,
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  and so I think it's probably not a good fit for my collection. But
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  boy, I'm glad to play it, and I look forward to the next
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  time I get a chance. That's Raw, a modern classic from Ryner Kanzia.
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  All Right, the second game I'm going to talk about is Dungeons and
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  Dragons Bedlam in Never Winter. This is a game that was given to my
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  son by one of our friends for my son's birthday. It is ostensibly a
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  kind of mystery solving or escape room game combined with some Dungeons and Dragons mechanisms.
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  In the game, at the beginning, you pick one of six characters.
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  Each character has a mix of skills that they are good at. Unlike
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  a regular Dungeon Dragons game where you have six stats, in this one,
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  you just have two stats that you're good at and you get a bonus when
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  you roll your die. There are a number of challenges throughout the game.
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  Whenever you take a challenge, you roll a twenty sided die, and then
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  if you have the appropriate stat in that challenge, then you also roll a
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  six sided die and add that to your twenty sided die. Many, if
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  not all, the challenges are combat, so these creatures will show up and
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  you attack them, and some of them are susceptible to people with different bonuses.
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  And then the rest of the game is played on these big tiles that
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  have numbers on them, similar to Seventh Continent, actually only when you go
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  on to the number, instead of reading something out of a book, you
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  find the card that matches that number and read the card. Some of the
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  cards will have story elements and choices, maybe they'll be a die challenge or
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  something, and a lot of the cards are clues toward different puzzles, and
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  they'll it's very new puzzle game friendly because it'll have like this is puzzle C
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  and you have two this is number one of three, and you need to
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  find all three of three before you can do puzzle CE. So that kind
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  of hand holding is there, and it's fine, but it does a little
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  bit get in the way of making the game feel like a challenge. It's
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  a very entry level game for people who like mystery solving or that sort of
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  thing. But it was still fun. We played all three chapters. It
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  was a good time. Like I said, it wasn't that difficult, in
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  part because the game really holds your hand in a lot of the how the
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  game is going to function stuff. It does not solve the clues for you.
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  But the puzzles we found to be pretty simple. In fact, I
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  had a couple of times where I solved the puzzle and I held off saying
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  the answer so other people could get a chance to look at it. Like
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  I looked at it and I knew what the answer was because I'm super smart.
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  Well, no, it's not that, I just that was the nature
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  of the puzzle. So the characters were neat the art is good, the
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  game is immersive and thematic. It's just very light and I'm not difficult.
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  If you know, if you were going to play with younger, younger players
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  like ten year, ten years old, eleven years old, twelve years old
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  maybe, or you just want a light puzzle game to solve. I think
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  that DND Bedlamb in never Winter would be a fine game to play. It
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  also is resetable, so you can other people. Could you could pass it
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  on to other people when you're done with it with just a little bit of
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  management of pieces. So my revisit for the episode is Glory to Rome.
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  Now, Glory to Rome is a game I had for a long time.
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  I have a homemade copy that I made with a print and play edition,
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  and then I played it once one time and I had fun with it.
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  I thought was cool. I never got it out again, which is a
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  little bit of bummer, but that's okay. Finally I did bring it to
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  toggle and got a chance to play it with four other people and it was
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  a really good time. A lot of fun, really interesting mechanisms, lots
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  of fun interchange. It's very fighty ass as is expected, and we had
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  a lot of good time playing it if you haven't played. It's a multi
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  use card game by Carl Chuttick in the Vein of Innovation or Mattaynai or the
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  Lesser Known Impulse or the Brand New a GNC. These are games where you
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  have cards that do a bunch of different things, and a lot of the
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  cards have powers on them that go a little crazy, and so the fun
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  of the game is sort of finding ways to make the most of what you
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  have and outthink the other players. It's a good time. Really enjoyed it,
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  Glad to get back to the table, and hoping to do so again
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  before another few years have gone by. That's Glory to Rome by Carl Chuttick,
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  and I think printed by Carl Chuttick, and I can't remember the name
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  of his partner. If that game ever comes back into print, I will
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  certainly buy a copy. Finally, the last game I want to talk about
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  today is Everdell far Shore. Now you know that I'm a big fan of
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  Everdell. My wife and I enjoy all things Everdell. We have the Complete,
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  the Complete Addition with all the expansions, and we enjoy playing that occasionally.
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  While so when everydeal far Shore was announced, it was an obvious addition
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  to our collection, and it turns out to be pretty fun. With the
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  exception of the scoring condition. If you've played regular Everdell, Everydell Far Shore
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  is very close to the same game. A lot of the same powers show
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  up on new cards. It's all new art and it's slightly redesigned. There
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  are a few differences in the rules. There are these ships that do things
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  that you don't see in other cards, but generally it works the same as
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  the other game, with one exception the traveling achievements that are a key part
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  of regular Everdeal you get like three or four or five points from them.
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  In Everdeal Far Shore, the traveling components are or can be a huge part
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  of the game because the way they work is that they multiply by how many
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  you have, so the more you get, the more points they're all worth,
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  and that can quickly add up to a whole lot of points. This
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  is one of those places where I just I'm not sure where the disconnect was,
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  But when I taught my wife this game, I explained that and I
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  meant to really emphasize these are worth a lot of points, and she ignored
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  them almost completely, and I ended up just getting a whole bunch more points
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  than her because I took these pieces that I said, hey, these are
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  worth a lot, and I felt kind of bad about it after because she
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  was pretty salty because she hadn't realized how many points they were worth. And
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  that's one of those things, like you sometimes there's something where you intuite it
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  from the rules, or you understand it if you're the one learning it,
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  but it's very hard to explain to other people in a way that helps them
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  really understand it. And that's kind of what happened with us in Everydale far
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  Shore. I hope I'm going to be able to get it back out again.
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  That first play wasn't great because of that misunderstanding about the final scoring.
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  But the cards are neat, the components are neat. You get these little
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  anchors that are super cute, these little shells, top notch component from I
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  can't remember the companies now. It used to be Startling Games, but they
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  change their name table Time Tycoon that's what they're called now. So if you
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  are interested in Everdell, I recommend Everdell far Shore. It's a nice addition
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  or expansion or whatever. Next version of Everdell, but I do really it
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  is really important that you work with your players to understand that final scoring,
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  particularly of those traveling cards. It's pretty intense. And with that I have
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  arrived home, which brings me to the end of the podcast. I want
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  to say thank you for joining me today. It was a pleasure talking to
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  you about games. If you want to reach out to me, you can
• 13:30
  do so by going to board game Geek Guild three two six nine and visiting
• 13:33
  our forum there. You can also send me an email Brendan at ratabox games
• 13:37
  dot com or a board gain Geek direct message a geekmail by going to board
• 13:43
  gain Geek in messaging Wombat nine two nine. Okay, so that brings me
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  to the end of the day. Thanks for joining me on my walk today.
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  I hope that your next walk is as pleasant as mine. Wales,
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  Bye bye. So if you've played regular everydeal ever There, if you've played
• 14:18
  regular Everdale brought to you by Rattle Bags