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TDT # 457 - Creepy Crawlies

In this show, we talk about Alan’s Adventureland, Shadow over Westminster, Histrio, The Palaces of Carrara, Ravenous River, and Dice City.  We also hear about an annoying gamer, Friday, bashing Monopoly, and a report on Tabletop Day at the F2Z headquarters.  Finally, we end the show with our top ten Creepy Crawlies games - games that feature bugs, spiders, worms, and more!

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TDT # 456 - Publish my Game!

In this show, we talk about Dungeon!, FreshFish, T’Zolkin: Tribes and Prophecies, Bastian, Spheres of Influence, DilluviaProject, and Greedy Greedy Goblins.  Tom talks about thesights and sounds of the Gathering of Friends, Eric goes through agamut of emotions with a bunch of Tales, and we hear from a greatnumber of great contributors!  Finally, we end the showtalking about how to pitch your game to apublisher.

2015
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Description from the publisher:

The T.I.M.E Agency protects humanity by preventing temporal faults and paradoxes from threatening the fabric of our universe. As temporal agents, you and your team will be sent into the bodies of beings from different worlds or realities to successfully complete the missions given to you. Failure is impossible, as you will be able to go back in time as many times as required.

T.I.M.E Stories is a narrative game, a game of "decksploration". Each player is free to give their character as deep a "role" as they want, in order to live through a story, as much in the game as around the table. But it's also a board game with rules which allow for reflection and optimization.

At the beginning of the game, the players are at their home base and receive their mission briefing. The object is then to complete it in as few attempts as possible. The actions and movements of the players will use Temporal Units (TU), the quantity of which depend on the scenario and the number of players. Each attempt is called a "run"; one run equals the use of all of the Temporal Units at the players' disposal. When the TU reach zero, the agents are recalled to the agency, and restart the scenario from the beginning, armed with their experience. The object of the game is to make the perfect run, while solving all of the puzzles and overcoming all of a scenario’s obstacles.

The base box contains the entirety of the T.I.M.E Stories system and allows players to play all of the scenarios, the first of which — Asylum — is included. During a scenario, which consists of a deck of 120+ cards, each player explores cards, presented most often in the form of a panorama. Access to some cards require the possession of the proper item or items, while others present surprises, enemies, riddles, clues, and other dangers.

You usually take possession of local hosts to navigate in a given environment, but who knows what you'll have to do to succeed? Roam a med-fan city, looking for the dungeon where the Syaan king is hiding? Survive in the Antarctic while enormous creatures lurk beneath the surface of the ice? Solve a puzzle in an early 20th century asylum? That is all possible, and you might even have to jump from one host to another, or play against your fellow agents from time to time...

In the box, an insert allows players to "save" the game at any point, to play over multiple sessions, just like in a video game. This way, it's possible to pause your ongoing game by preserving the state of the receptacles, the remaining TU, the discovered clues, etc.

T.I.M.E Stories is a decksploring game in which each deck makes anything possible!



Official FAQ



Expansions were published in this order:

Asylum (base game) (2015)
T.I.M.E Stories: The Marcy Case (2015)
T.I.M.E Stories: A Prophecy of Dragons (2016)
T.I.M.E Stories: Under the Mask (2016)
T.I.M.E Stories: Expedition – Endurance (2017)
T.I.M.E Stories: Lumen Fidei (2017)
T.I.M.E Stories: Estrella Drive (2017)
T.I.M.E Stories: Brotherhood of the Coast (2018)
T.I.M.E Stories: Madame (2019)

The Expansions link below also includes many fan-made expansions.

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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Peggy Chassenet
Publishers: Space Cowboys
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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Eric M. Lang
Publishers: Fantasy Flight Games

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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Friedemann Friese
Publishers: 2F-Spiele
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Vlaada Chvátil
Publishers: Czech Games Edition
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Oleksandr Nevskiy
Publishers: Libellud
2015
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In many ways 7 Wonders Duel resembles its parent game 7 Wonders as over three ages players acquire cards that provide resources or advance their military or scientific development in order to develop a civilization and complete wonders.

What's different about 7 Wonders Duel is that, as the title suggests, the game is solely for two players, with the players not drafting cards simultaneously from hands of cards, but from a display of face-down and face-up cards arranged at the start of a round. A player can take a card only if it's not covered by any others, so timing comes into play as well as bonus moves that allow you to take a second card immediately. As in the original game, each card that you acquire can be built, discarded for coins, or used to construct a wonder.

Each player starts with four wonder cards, and the construction of a wonder provides its owner with a special ability. Only seven wonders can be built, though, so one player will end up short.

Players can purchase resources at any time from the bank, or they can gain cards during the game that provide them with resources for future building; as you acquire resources, the cost for those particular resources increases for your opponent, representing your dominance in this area.

A player can win 7 Wonders Duel in one of three ways: each time you acquire a military card, you advance the military marker toward your opponent's capital, giving you a bonus at certain positions; if you reach the opponent's capital, you win the game immediately; similarly, if you acquire any six of seven different scientific symbols, you achieve scientific dominance and win immediately; if none of these situations occurs, then the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Antoine Bauza
Publishers: Repos Production
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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Mike Fitzgerald
Publishers: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Isaac Vega
Publishers: Plaid Hat Games
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Bruno Cathala
Publishers: Matagot
Year Published: 2015
Designers: James D'Aloisio
Publishers: Hasbro
2015
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"Life is Battle; Battle is Glory; Glory is ALL"

In Blood Rage, each player controls their own Viking clan’s warriors, leader, and ship. Ragnarök has come, and it’s the end of the world! It’s the Vikings’ last chance to go down in a blaze of glory and secure their place in Valhalla at Odin’s side! For a Viking there are many pathways to glory. You can invade and pillage the land for its rewards, crush your opponents in epic battles, fulfill quests, increase your clan's stats, or even die gloriously either in battle or from Ragnarök, the ultimate inescapable doom.

Most player strategies are guided by the cards drafted at the beginning of each of the three game rounds (or Ages). These “Gods’ Gifts” grant you numerous boons for your clan including: increased Viking strength and devious battle strategies, upgrades to your clan, or even the aid of legendary creatures from Norse mythology. They may also include various quests, from dominating specific provinces, to having lots of your Vikings sent to Valhalla. Most of these cards are aligned with one of the Norse gods, hinting at the kind of strategy they support. For example, Thor gives more glory for victory in battle, Heimdall grants you foresight and surprises, Tyr strengthens you in battle, while the trickster Loki actually rewards you for losing battles, or punishes the winner.

Players must choose their strategies carefully during the draft phase, but also be ready to adapt and react to their opponents’ strategies as the action phase unfolds. Battles are decided not only by the strength of the figures involved, but also by cards played in secret. By observing your opponent’s actions and allegiances to specific gods, you may predict what card they are likely to play, and plan accordingly. Winning battles is not always the best course of action, as the right card can get you even more rewards by being crushed. The only losing strategy in Blood Rage is to shy away from battle and a glorious death!

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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Eric M. Lang
Publishers: Cool Mini Or Not
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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Wei-Hwa Huang
Publishers: Rio Grande Games
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Rob Daviau
Publishers: Z-Man Games
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Matthew Dunstan
Publishers: Space Cowboys
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Simone Luciani
Publishers: Hans im Glück
2015
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Stockpile is an economic board game that combines the traditional stockholding strategy of buy low, sell high with several additional mechanisms to create a fast-paced, engaging and interactive experience.

In Stockpile, players act as stock market investors at the end of the 20th century hoping to strike it rich, and the investor with the most money at the end of the game is the winner. Stockpile centers on the idea that nobody knows everything about the stock market, but everyone does know something. In the game, this philosophy manifests in two ways: insider information and the stockpile.

First, players are given insider information each round. This information dictates how a stock’s value will change at the end of the round. By privately learning if a stock is going to move up or down, each player has a chance to act ahead of the market by buying or selling at the right time.

Second, players purchase their stocks by bidding on piles of cards called stockpiles. These stockpiles will contain a mixture of face-up and face-down cards placed by other players in the game. In this way, nobody will know all of the cards in the stockpiles. Not all cards are good either. Trading fees can poison the piles by making players pay more than they bid. By putting stocks and other cards up for auction, Stockpile catalyzes player interaction, especially when potential profits from insider information are on the line.

Both of these mechanisms are combined with some stock market elements to make players consider multiple factors when selling a stock. Do you hold onto a stock in hopes of catching a lucrative stock split or do you sell now to avoid the potential company bankruptcy? Can you hold onto your stock until the end of the game to become the majority shareholder, or do you need the liquidity of cash now for future bidding? Do you risk it all by investing heavily into one company, or do you mitigate your risk by diversifying your portfolio?

In the end, everyone knows something about the stock market, so it all comes down to strategy execution. Will you be able to navigate the movements of the stock market with certainty? Or will your investments go under from poor predictions?

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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Brett Sobol
Publishers: Nauvoo Games
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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Christopher Chung
Publishers: Foxtrot Games
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Matthew O'Malley
Publishers: Stonemaier Games
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Tim Fowers
Publishers: Fowers Games
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Ole Steiness
Publishers: Grey Fox Games
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