Thunderstone - a really fun deck-building card game

I'm becoming more and more enamored with board games of varying stripes, and diligently looking to see if I can find some electronic versions of well-loved games for my iPad. Since my post on the deck-building game Ascension, I've been playing that online with a friend almost non-stop. It really has increased my interest in deck-building games (and I still suggest that you friend me on Apple's Game Centre so we can play).

Wednesday night, I met with the Kitsilano Board Game group for the second time since I joined. We had a great three hours of gaming with quite a number of games to choose from. Everything from San Juan to Factory Fun (a game that I discovered last meeting that I *cannot* play because it involves having to picture how things can be laid out in a very quick fashion. Since I have no relative spatial ability whatsoever, I quickly became overwhelmed) and even Settlers of Catan.

You can see the large number of choices here.

Click for larger view. And yes, that's my beer, though that's not me in the picture.

I ended up playing this interesting-looking deck-building card game called Thunderstone, though.

The idea behind Thunderstone is that you are an adventurer who has come to a village where there are caves nearby. Buried in the caves is the Thunderstone, a stone of immense magic and power. But it's guarded by hideous monsters.

You can hire mercenaries and buy supplies in the village to help you in your quest.

At the beginning of the game, you have twelve basic cards (some militia, some light sources, and some food) and you are dealt six of them. You can either choose to go to the village and buy one card with the gold value in your hand, or you can go into the dungeon and kill a monster if you have enough attack points in your hand.

Be careful, though. There are three monster cards dealt out, and each one requires one extra light source or you will have an attack penalty.

The third option is to rest, and that allows you to destroy one card in your hand. This can come in handy when you have more cards in your deck, because you want to weed out the riff-raff that doesn't help you much (or perhaps one of the monsters gave you a disease card, which has a -1 Attack and should be destroyed ASAP).

At the end of each turn, all six cards are discarded and you draw six more. Any monsters you have killed or village cards that you've bought are put in your discard pile and will show up again once you have shuffled your deck.

Monster cards are replaced in the dungeon as they are killed, and eventually the Thunderstone will show up. Once the stone reaches the first level of the dungeon, the game ends and victory points are tallied (from monsters that you've killed). The one with the most victory points is the winner!

It may sound a little confusing just from the description, but it's incredibly easy to learn once you have it in front of you, though that does require somebody who knows the game as well. The rulebook can be a bit off-putting. However, with the owner of the game explaining things, I understood everything perfectly within a couple of turns. I even caught her on a misinterpretation of a card or two!

It's an incredibly fun game, and there are a bunch of expansions for it already (I'm not sure how many expansions she had), so the cost can build up. But if you are a gamer (and have the room to store all these games), it's a must-buy.

There is even a free Facebook version of the game that will allow you to play either against AI opponents or against your friends! Just search for "Thunderstone" on Facebook.

There is an iOS app too, but unfortunately it's for the Facebook game and not its own game. I hope they rectify that, but I get the feeling that won't be happening any time soon.

However you play, I do highly recommend it.

Ascension - Come Play with me on Apple's Gamecenter!

Ascension: Chronicles of the Godslayer is now free on all iOS systems. I downloaded it to my iPad on Thursday.

I don't know how long it will stay free, but you should jump on it while you have the chance. And then friend me on Apple's Gamecenter (username: histerin) and play it with me.

Why? Because I said so!

Oh, and because it is a seriously awesome game. It's a deck-building fantasy game where you are playing for the most "honor."

The game is for up to four players, but you can play against AI opponents.

The rules of the game are actually quite simple. Each player starts out with ten cards. Dealt across the center are six cards dealt from a separate deck, a combination of heroes and constructs that you can buy (with "runes" that the cards in your hand produce) or monsters to kill to gain honor (with "strength" that the cards in your hand have). As you buy cards, your deck will grow and you are able to do more. Heroes can give you more runes to use to buy more stuff, or strength to kill more monsters. They may also give you the ability to draw extra cards that turn, or things like that.

(Click images to see a bigger version)

Here's one of the heroes you can buy. At the top right corner is the rune cost to buy the hero. From the description, you see that he gives you four strength.

Here's the starting board configuration, with the center row laid out and your beginning hand.

Every time you buy something, it goes into your discard pile. You also discard all five cards (or more if you've been able to draw more) at the end of each turn. As you can see, you go through your deck fairly fast, but it continues to grow. The only cards that stay on the board are "constructs" that can help you each turn by giving you runes or strength.

You start out with fairly weak cards, eight "apprentice" and two "militia" cards, but will quickly build that up over time.

Once all of the available honor chits are gone (there's a limited number, based on how many people are playing), each player gets one more turn and then the game ends. Total honor is added up (most cards have an honor value at the bottom left which will tell you how much they give at the end of the game) and the one with the most honor wins!

I played this game at V-Con this year, and had a lot of fun. When I heard it was also on the iOS systems, I knew I had to have it. It's normally $5.00, but right now it's free! So you should pick it up even if you're not sure if you'd like it. What's the worst that can happen? You take it off your phone/iPad. You're not out anything.

The iOS presentation is beautiful on the iPad (I assume it's similar on the iPhone, though maybe not truly gorgeous except on the iPhone 5).

It also has a wonderful tutorial that walks you through the opening of the game. Even better, though, once it has taught you what you need to know, it will let you finish that game on your own.

You can play against the AI or you can play "hand the iPad to the next person" multiplayer, but you can also play online multiplayer through Gamecenter. I haven't had the opportunity yet, but I'm chomping at the bit to do so.

So what do you say? Download the free game (did I mention it's free?) and get in the game today! Then hit me up on Gamecenter.

As I said, I don't know when the game will go back up in price, so you should download it today, even if you don't have time to play right now. You may never get this chance again.

You Don't Know Jack

A "Dis or Dat" answer

No, I'm not insulting you.

Instead, I'm introducing you to a really fun trivia game that's currently on Facebook and is on its way to Android and iOS devices.

You Don't Know Jack is a long and storied trivia franchise on the PC, but I never played it until the last version came out on consoles. It was really nicely-priced at $30, but I guess it didn't do very well.

Then Jellyvision Games hit the mother lode: Facebook!!!

Now You Don't Know Jack is one of the few Facebook games I play every day.

The game is hosted by a character named Cookie Masterson, and his jokes are usually pretty funny. Or at least amusing if nothing else. He welcomes you to the show with things like this one that I heard on the game I played today (paraphrased from memory):

"Hi, this is Cookie, and I'll be with you after I file a complaint about this truck driver. Let's see, 1-800.....E....A....T...S...H...Hey!!!!"

Each game consists of five questions, which can either be straight trivia questions, a Dis or Dat (where he gives you seven things and you tell him which of two choices each thing is a member of), a gibberish question (where you are given a gibberish phrase and you say what TV show, saying, or something else that it rhymes with), or several other ideas. The fifth question is the Jack Attack, where you have to make the best match possible.

A basic question asked in Cookie's unusual way

Even the straight trivia questions are asked in a rather unique way, which occasionally (though not too often) masks what exactly Cookie was asking. For example, one of today's questions was asking how you could text your friend that you're at a KISS concert, and the answer was the emoticon for a kiss. For some reason, I wasn't making the connection.

Most of the time, it makes sense with a little thought. But that doesn't mean you'll know the answer.

One strike against the game for some people (at least one of my friends for example) is that the game insults you when you get a question wrong. If you find humour in that sort of thing, you'll love the game. If you find it condescending and annoying, then you should probably stay far away from the game. Personally, I can take it and I find it hilarious, especially the play on words that's often involved. In the "Elephant, Mustard, Teddy Roosevelt or Dracula" questions (where one of the answers is always one of those things), if you choose Dracula and it's wrong, Cookie will say "That answer sucks!" Get it? Dracula sucks your blood?

Ah, never mind.

Anyway, the Facebook game (and I assume the mobile device ones too, when they come out)gives a nice feeling of playing opponents online even though you're really not. The game will randomly assign you five "opponents" who have already played the round you're playing. They're scores and answers are recorded, so you're playing against them. You don't get to see their answers (except in the Jack Attack and Gibberish questions), but you do see their scores.

No matter where you place (1st through 6th), you will always receive a certain number of tokens. You can play the game once a day for free, and then each play after that is 200 tokens. You can buy more tokens to play more often, or you can earn tokens doing various things that the game will tell you about. I play when I can, at least once a day, and earn tokens to play more games. I have never purchased anything.

Thus, if you're against having to pay for your games, you certainly don't have to. But you can if you wish to play more often. It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.

You have to have a certain sense of humour, but if you do, You Don't Know Jack is an awesome trivia game. It's funny, and I for one have never had so much fun feeling stupid at times.

Really, who knows the three "official" types of hail descriptions anyway?

(not meatball, just so you know)

Women Gamers and the Abuse They Suffer

(Thanks to GamingsRapture)

(Some rude language follows, as I'm not going to censor it so that you can see what they really do put up with)

In Thursday's post on movie review misogyny, I mentioned the troubles that female gamers have as well. I don't game online that much, but when I do (mostly first-person shooters), I have noticed that most of the usernames on there are either obviously guys or they're ambiguous. I do sit up and take notice when there's an obviously female name on there, though.

This is not for the reasons you might expect.

You hear stories all the time of the abuse that women get when they play online. Rude come-ons ("Would you mind...showing me your tits?"). Insults because they just happen to be better at the game than the guy saying the insult. ("stfu you fat fucking texas slag, go lose some weight,get a job and make some real friends.")

Some of these are said on the mic you use to talk when you're online. Some of these are actually sent to the woman's inbox on Xbox Live or Playstation or on the PC. It's no wonder that in most of the games where I do notice a female gamertag, she doesn't say anything. It really opens you up to abuse when you do that. Some are dismissive of them as a 12-year-old boy (yes, some women's voices are high-pitched, which is amplified by the mic) and when it does come out that they're a woman, the comments are let loose.

I am lucky enough, probably because I don't play that much, that I can say I've never heard any of this in the games I have played. Then again, I have rarely heard the woman speak unless she's in with her husband/boyfriend and they're talking, so it's not surprising I haven't heard any of the abuse either.

It's sad to say that this has kept many women from actually participating in online gaming.

Others, however, fight to expose the misogyny and shame them into submission.

The two quotes I pulled above were taken from two wonderful sites run by confident female gamers who have some fun while they're exposing the idiocy of the "typical" male gamer (hopefully they're not *that* typical and it's just because there are so many of us out there that there's always going to be a sizable proportion of assholes).

The "show me your tits" comment was taken from a site called Not in the Kitchen Anymore run by Jenny Haniver. I just found this site today and it appears to be all her own stuff. She takes recordings of the stuff she hears and puts them on display for all to hear, with transcripts too for those who can't listen or don't want to. She sounds like an incredibly tough woman to put up with all of this, but sometimes it's best to laugh and mock than to get upset by it. All transcripts say "RMP" (Random Male Player) rather than calling out who it is.

The other comment with the helpful suggestion of going out and making some real friends comes from a site I discovered a few weeks ago (thanks to one of the best bloggers on Game Informer, Oni No Tenshi, for pointing this out to me in a wonderful article on trying to get your female significant other to game).

The site is called "Fat, Ugly, or Slutty" and the title is based on the typical insults that female gamers get. If you're a woman and you're a gamer, it's very likely you will be accused of being fat, being ugly (both because you obviously can't find a man...you're gaming, right?) or being a slut. That last one doesn't make any sense to me because, if you're truly a slut, why would you be wasting time with idiots online who you can't see, rather than going down to the bar and picking up guys there?

Logical thinking has never been the strong suit for these types of idiots.

Anyway, Fat, Ugly or Slutty is the brainchild of one "gtz", or Grace (gtz is her online handle). She and a small staff of supporters document the abuse women take online. Readers can submit what they have had to deal with, so it's not just a personal thing for these women. The examples shown on the site are from a lot of people. The site also doesn't hide from naming names. If "IgnorantGuyGamer" says something stupid, he will be named on the site.

I like this kind of public shaming. These guys shouldn't be able to get away with this shit. It's sad that, in this day and age, women have to either be afraid to be gaming online or have to grow super-thick skin in order to put up with it. And it's not just shooters. They can get it in an online casual poker game! "never play poker again. Your (sic) the worst player I've ever seen ohh by the way close your legs I can smell you from here."

That guy's Xbox Live name is now out there attached to that comment.

(Thanks to DigFest)

I like to think that I would be publicly calling this out if it were happening in a lobby that I was in (and I had my mic on, which I often don't). I did call out some racist guy who was making comments about black people during a Call of Duty game I was playing, but sadly it was my last game of the night so I couldn't tell whether it actually had any effect. That makes me think I would do so in a case like this too.

Guys out there, come on. Stop with this stupid bullshit. There should be no divide between male and female gamers. We're all just gamers. Period. Stop with the misogynist idiocy. If a woman is good at a game, it's not because she's a fat, ugly shut-in who got good because she can't get a man. Realize that hey, she might just be better than you if she's killing you all the time, and she's probably also a perfectly well-adjust businesswoman who happens to have gaming as a hobby.

Or, then again, you might just suck at this game.

Because we already know you suck at life.

Magic: The Gathering

I can't believe Magic: The Gathering came out 17 years ago!  I remember playing it with one of my friends who got me hooked on the game, though I was never very good at it.  The interest kind of waned for some reason, and since it was only the one friend I played with, I ended up selling my cards when I stopped playing.

While I was aware that the game was still going strong, I never really payed that much attention to it.  Until I did my post asking for XBLA Arcade suggestions.  That's when Rack (from Game Informer Online) suggested getting the XBLA version of Magic: The Gathering and playing that.  Now I'm kind of hooked on that, though I haven't played it online yet (I'd like to unlock all the decks first).

Sadly, this card isn't in the game, but it should be!

I'm worried, though.  I know how expensive the hobby can be, and reading up on it, I doubt I'm ever going to get serious about it.  Getting involved in Magic fandom looks to be a complete lifestyle choice!  And just playing it with friends and not getting involved in all that stuff requires friends who are playing the game.

Who am I kidding?  That requires actual friends in the first place.

But I feel the urge pulling at me a bit.  It's saying "You want to go buy a starter deck and return to the fold.  Do it. DO IT!!!!" (are they even called "starter decks" anymore?)

So I take a look around the web, and I am just totally baffled at how I would get started in the first place.  Which is probably a good thing, as it's keeping me from getting started!  There are so many expansion sets, new editions (up to 9 now? with a new core set on the way?) and other things that just add to my confusion.

How does a newbie get started?  And it is something you even want to start to begin with?

I need your input.  Convince me that I either should or shouldn't dive in and never come up for air.

Also, as a side question: are the two expansion packs for the XBLA game worth getting?