Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Keyflower; And That’s How I Died; Perspectives; Scotland Yard (revisited)

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Keyflower; And That’s How I Died; Perspectives; Scotland Yard (revisited) · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to pick up and Deliver the podcast where I
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorder as I step off the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: train and deliver an episode to you while I walk home.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I'm Brendan Riley. Well, good afternoon, listeners. It's a cool
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: day here in suburban Chicago. It's late September and it's
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: cloudy today. If the temperature is in the high sixties,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so pretty comfortable.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: It's a nice day to be walking home. I'm happy
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: to be talking.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: To you about the games that I played, because that's right,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it's time for a board game Espresso Triple Shot. For
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: those of you new to the podcast, board Game Espresso
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Triple Shot is a mini review episode in which I
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: talk about three games I played for the first time
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and give you my first impressions of them. Sometimes I
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: played them once or twice, but generally these this is
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: not a detailed response on the order of a review,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and said, it's just three games I played recently, so
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: let's just jump right in. The first game that I'm
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: talking about is Key Flower. This is a classic game
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: designed by Richard Breese and Sebastian Bleasedale. Richard Breese, of course,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: has designed a bunch.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Of games with the name key in them.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Key Flower is a tableau building or a city building
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: auction game. There are these tiles and you are auctioning
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: them with these little people, and then you get the people,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: use the people to get the tiles, and then the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: tiles get added to your display, and when you use
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the tiles then they generate resources and more people and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: so on. One of the clever things is that there
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: are different colored mepals in the game, but they do
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: different things, and different players own the different mepals.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: They're not all owned by one.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Person, so like there's yellow yellow mepals in the game,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: but they don't all belong to me.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Instead, you can tell who they.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Belong to by where you put them on the tiles
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: when you're bidding, and as you use them then they
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: get either spent and they go back in the supply,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: or if you use them on your own tiles, you
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: get them back again. I think as I recall, you
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: can also use them to activate other people's tiles, and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the fun thing about that is that you're blocking them
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: from using the tiles at least without spending a lot
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: more people. But the downside is when you do that,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: then they get those tiles, so it's a nice mix
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: of mechanisms.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Keyflower is a classic.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Its rank overall is one hundred and nine and it
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: has a seven point seven as its regular score on
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Board game Geek.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure what the gamer what.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: The Geek score is, but it's probably in the low
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: sevens and it's really good. I can absolutely see why
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: people think it's excellent. It's the kind of game where
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: if you were to play it once a month for
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: a year, you could.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Definitely ratchet up your skill a lot.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: But I also get the sense that there's a wide
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: variety of things you could do while you're playing it
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that give it depth and breadth. So from that perspective,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: it's a really exciting game to give a try. And
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you've tried.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: I tried it.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: That's Keyflower by Richard Breese, published in twenty twelve, so
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: games twelve years old. The Next Game is a warrior
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: themed dying game designed by Nikola Petrov and published by
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Mind Inventions.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Native is called and That's How I Died. The premise
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: is simple.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: All the players represent warriors who died gloriously in battle
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and are now sitting in the afterlife. Bragging about their exploits.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: In the game, you are trying to get a group
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: of cards together that describe the adventures that you had,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: and then when you get the mix that you want,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: then you can declare that you died and then sort
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: of lock in those cards, and your goal is to
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: get the best story into play. The game involves a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: fair amount of maneuvering each other's stories around collection game
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: with a little bit of take that energy to it
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and a really fun theme. It reminds me a bit
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: of the game Gloom, which has a similar mechanism. I mean,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Gloom uses clear cards, but it has a similar mechanism
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  Speaker 1: of playing cards to kind of establish sets of points
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: they're going to score you points and trying to sort
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of lock them in when they're good. And then there's
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: an element of messing with other players points, undoing the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: points that they've gotten or reversing them, or taking them
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: for yourself and trying to screw them to get stuck
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: with a lower point value than they had maybe on
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the first go through. It's a clever game, really fun
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  Speaker 1: to play, silly and short, but worth a try if
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: you get a chance. I mean, I wouldn't put this
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: at the top of my list. I think Gloom is
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: probably I don't know, because Gloom is too long. My
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: main problem with Gloom is that it takes a little
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: bit too long, and that's how I Died is shorter,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: so it fits that regard pretty well. The take that
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: elements don't slow the game down too much, so it's
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: better than Munchkin in that way. That said, you know,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: it wasn't super memorable for me. I did have to
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: look up how it played before I recorded this, which
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I don't usually do, but I wanted to give it
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: a fair shake because I did remember enjoying it, and
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: as I looked up, I was like, oh, yeah, that's
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: how it worked.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: That was pretty fun.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: So I mean, it's a nice little filler game if
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: you have, you know, if you have a half an
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: hour and you want something that has a bit of
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: flavor to it.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I think and that's how I.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Died would probably fit that niche Another game that's much
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: older that I think would be in the same category.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: There's a game called Stuff and Nonsense, which is a
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: game themed around being an adventurer, and again you're trying
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: to accumulate these cards and artifacts that suggest you went
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: on this glorious adventure, when in fact what you did
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: is scavenged in the junk shops and antique shops around
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: London and then told people that you went on this adventure.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So I think that game's called stuff and nonsense. It's
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: from James Ernest, and that game I remember being pretty fun,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: probably in the same way as and That's how I died,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: So either of those would be good but worth checking
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: out it. If this description of the game makes you
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: sound makes you think that sounds fun, I would say, yeah,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: it is Fun's and that's how I died.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Rated seven point.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Eight in bord Gumbiek, so rated higher than Keyflower, although
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: its rank is sixteen thousand and six oh two versus
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: one hundred and two or one hundred and seven or something,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: so a much different overall rank, but a higher rating,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: which probably just speaks to the number of people who
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: have rated it that over time that rating is going
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to go down.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I did not rate it myself.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I would probably give it a six if I were
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: rating it, So that's and That's how I died.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Next up is a game I dusted off recently.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: This game it had been over five years since I
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: played it last, and the copy that I own I
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: got from Goodwill.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: If you this game sounds fun.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: You absolutely could pick up a copy of Goodwill if
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you make regular trips there or other thrift stores. I
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: think you would find it on the regular because I
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: often see it there. I haven't bought another copy though,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: because I have the one and this is Scotland Yard.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Scotland Yard is sort of the er hidden movement game.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: In it, one player plays Mister X, a villainous figure
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: who is on the run all over London, causing trouble,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: making waves and being chased by the police. The other
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: players play detectives from New Scotland Yard who are chasing
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: mister X. Primis of the game is pretty simple. The
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: player who is mister X, they put their figure on
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  Speaker 1: a specific spot and then on their turn they mark
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: where they're going from one spot to another on this
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: big networked board of movement, and then they have to
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: indicate what kind of traffic pattern they used to move.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Maybe they use a taxi, maybe they use a subway
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: or the underground, maybe they use a bus. Those are
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the three basically underground bus and they have a limited
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: number of tokens of each type. So however they move,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: they have to tell you how they moved, and then
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I think every fifth move or every third move or something,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: they reveal where they are anew and so if you're
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: trying to catch up with them, you can gain on
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: them and figure out where they're going, or you can
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: kind of reset your search.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: At that point.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: There are a couple spots where they can They have
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: a couple bonus powers that they can use to sort
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: of accelerate around the board, which helps them if they're
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: feeling stuck. But basically, in the ideas, you are a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: group of detectives and you're trying to find them by
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: searching for them. Now, unlike Letters from Whitechapel. In Letters
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: from Whitechapel, there is a searching mechanism where you can
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: kind of look for them and you'll get like a
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: kind of hot or cold thing, or you can say
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: are they where I am? And if they are, then
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: you win. In a Scotland yard, I believe if a
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: player moves onto the space where the criminal is, they
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: find them immediately. They don't have to assert I think
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: you're here and score the search. I think they just
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: move on to the spot where.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: The villain is. And then they get the points.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: So that's a little different than Letters from White chap
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: or Whitechapel Mystery, but it's in the same neighborhood in
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: terms of what you're doing.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Scotland Yard is a classic.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: It was designed by Manfred Bergraff, Dorothy Gerrels, Wolf Horman,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Fritz Iffland and two more people. That's a lot I
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: wonder if it's just the Robinsberger design team from the era.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: They're the main publisher of the game, and it's still
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: in print, so you could actually just go buy a
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: new copy if you want it, or like I said,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: you can regularly find a copy at Goodwill. And that
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: game is originally from nineteen eighty three. All right, The
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: last game I want to talk about is called Perspectives.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Perspectives was designed by Matthew Dunstan and Dave Neil, both
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: designers I have a lot of interest in. Matthew Dunstan
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of course came to my attention when he designed Elysium
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: with Brett Gilbert. They also he has designed a number
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of games with Brett Gilbert and I have several of them.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Matthew Dunson is also I believe involved in the Adventure Inc.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Games from Cosmos, and those are pretty interesting too, I
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: haven't I've played a couple of them, and they're fun.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: They're more adventure games than mysteries, sort of choose your
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: an adventure style something or other, and those are pretty good.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Dave Neil, of.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Course, is I know him best as the designer of
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the new Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Box, but he also
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: seems to be the designer de jure for mystery games
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: that I've seen his name on a number of things,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and Perspectives is one of those. So Perspectives is a game.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: It's a mystery game sort of in the Neighborhood of
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Unlock or something like that, where you have a series
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of clues. Actually, what would it be most like? I mean,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: it's you know, it's in the Neighborhood of Unlock and
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the Sherlock Files, and so what's clever about it is
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: that you have this box and a lot of the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: information you need is on cards and on the box,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and so the game asks you you investigate in certain ways,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: and the game asks you a series of questions that
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: you have to answer collaboratively with the other players based
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: on what you can see and the whole point is
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: like you have to sit kind of around the box,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: so you're not able to see more than two sides
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: of it, and I think you're like, ideally in a
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: bigger group, you can only see one side, and so
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: being able to see one side of it, then you're
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: able to reflect on what you can see and what
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: the evidence teaches you, and so by communicating with one another,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: then you can figure out what has been explained it.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: So in that regard, it's sort of like micro Macrocrime City.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: You're seeing things about the city through the cards that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: you're looking at, or through the box that you're looking
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: at and the cards, So that part is pretty neat.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: I like it.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: This game, like I said, it comes it has a
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: series of cases, and as you do the cases, you're
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: going to open different parts of the box and reveal
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: different things. There's also like there's envelopes, and envelopes have
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the different case elements, so it looks like one of
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the things you're gonna do is be reusing the box
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: for different things, which is kind of a fun element.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: We played two of the cases so far and they're
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: both pretty interesting. Pretty they weren't super difficult. We solved
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the mysteries, but we've got a lot of practice at that.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: So my perspective on how hard a game is pardon
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the pun. My perspective on how hard games are is
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: often slanted because we've played a lot of them. So
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: that's my take on perspectives. So what games have you
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: been playing lately? Head over to board game geek kild
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: three two six nine and share your gameplays there. I'd
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: love to hear about them. I am over on board
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: game Geek as user wombat nine two nine, so if
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: you want to send me a message, you can send
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: it there to that address. You can also reach me
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: by email Brendan at radoboxgames dot com. I hope i'll
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: hear from you soon. I want to hear what you're playing.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: The Borgin geek forum is the best place to do that.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: So thanks for joining me on my walk today, and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I hope your next walk is the pleasantest mind walk.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Bye bye.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Brought to you by rattle Box