On NYE I got to spend the night with my local besties B and L, and some of their local friends who they have gotten into some of the boardgames we love.
It was on a big rural property in the sticks. Foothills of the Sierra Mountain range about a half hour away. The area is still laden with snow from the big storms earlier in the week, and it's just beautiful. I got my own flat to sleep in for the night (with horses living just under it), so I was totally up for it and raring to go for drinking, smoking, and playing some games. B and L are also hitting the road soon (they spend about half the year out on the open road) so it was about my last real change to game with them for at least a couple months.
So after a bit of the usual holiday cheer we got down to it. B and L recently got the Dead of Winter expansion The Long Night. It ties in nicely with the original game, making it and even bigger play area. A bandit hideout is included, and also the location of "Raxxon," this games Umbrella corporation. I'm sure this is a ripe-off or Marvel comics old Roxxon evil corporation. Raxxon is making super zombies, and is also likely the cause of the zombie crisis.
You also get a lot of new characters, including a monkey.
It plays out just like regular Dead of Winter. This was the first time doing it with 5 players, so there was a lot going on. By halfway through the game pretty much everybody at some point was accused of being the traitor. But towards the end it was clearly Bill, who was promptly exiled.
The paranoia is the best thing about the game, since everybody gets a motivation card with objectives, and if the player tries to meet them (such as the game being won with two weapons in your possession or whatever) and the actions don't appear to serve the common good, you will get eyebrows raised at you, traitor or not.
The players won the game, though I was lacking one of my objectives, so I didn't get to share in the bragging rights.
We also then played a few rounds of King of Tokyo, one of my quick game faves. But our kind hosts for the night owned the Halloween edition so we played that. One of the change ups from the regular edition is every character gets a costume card. So your Kaiju might be dressed as a cheerleader, or a princess or witch. This gives you a special ability.
Since you don't always get a lot of power up cards in the original edition, I welcome something to make your monster different. But the costume thing kind of destroys any verisimilitude. OK, that is kind of ridiculous statement seeing as this is a whimsical game to begin with. But it's all good. It was just s different way to play it. And I did enjoy the chaos of a 5 person game.
And its all about being with friends on the last night of the year, and that is what counts the most. B and L have been really good to me the last couple of years, and spending time with them, even often as a third (or even 5th) wheel, is very important to me. So, the year for me was ended just right.
Happy new year!
Sounds like a lot of fun. My family got some board gaming in as well. My boys have been itching to play an entire game of Monopoly for the past two years, but my younger was never mature enough to see it through. We finally did it on NYE, and my older boy smoked us! Good fun.
ReplyDeleteI tried to get some more board gaming going on New Years Day, but some family stuff came up. In the evening, though, we did play in a friend's RPG session (Rad Hack, a Black Hack powered Gamma World type game).
oh man it has been decades since I’ve played Monopoly. I remember me and my older brothers played the hell out of it when I was a little kid though. One of the best parts was wheeling and dealing outside of the rules. At least I think what they were doing was outside the rules. But whatever it was usual they always left me broke and talked out of my good stuff. Ha ha ha.
Delete""Raxxon," this games Umbrella corporation. I'm sure this is a ripe-off or Marvel comics old Roxxon evil corporation."
ReplyDeleteGranted, but Roxxon itself was a thinly-veiled Exxon in the first place.
I think it was marvel two in one from the late 70s or something that featured marvels ocean going C grade heroes and the Roxxon corporation. The serpent Crown affair? even as a little kid reading those I always wondered if Exxon was even aware of it at the time. If Roxxon was a major part of the cinematic universe I’m sure there would’ve been lawsuits. Anyway my friends that I play the most games with aren’t really heavy on the pop culture outside of maybe Game of Thrones in a couple of other things. So I had fun on New Year’s Eve trying to explain to them the Raxxon Roxxon connection. The same way I annoyingly filled them in on every little Lovecraft thing we encounter playing Eldritch horror ha ha.
DeleteYep, there was a Roxxon oil rig in the story, and the company's president turns out to be the guy who was behind everything for reasons. Pretty good as I recall, well drawn and written for its era. First time the Serpent Squad showed up too. Also nice to see Stingray (one of the best C-listers IMO) as well.
DeleteRoxxon featured prominently in a few iron man stories too. Proabably others, but I mostly recall the one where they introduced Sunturion, and then promptly killed him off in a heroic sacrifice dealie. It's Marvel though. He probably got better eventually.
Roxxon was fairly prominently featured in the Disney+ Loki series. I think the old Agents of Shield show also used Roxxon a fair amount.
DeleteRe. Board games -- I'm not a huge fan of Monopoly, but my boys picked it up when they were in the US two and a half years ago, and have been wanting to run an entire "play until only one person has all the money" game for all that time. :D
I remember me and my brothers played Monopoly a ton when I was a kid. With all the wheeling and dealing we did outside of the rules it was probably more like a role-playing game. But once I discovered things like talisman around 1990 it was likely I would never play a game of Monopoly again. But if I had kids I would certainly be playing it with them Over some other stuff.
DeleteThat sounds pretty awesome. We spent a lot of the holidays playing Axis & Allies, but I'd love to try Kings of Tokyo sometime...always liked that old Gammarauders BG.
ReplyDeleteI remember ads for Gammarauders. was that both rpg and board game?
ReplyDelete