Runebound Review

Rishkith reviews Runebound Second Edition:

Family Gaming

Things have mostly been pretty good and we've been getting in more gaming as a family. The Wii game "Pirates Vs Ninjas Dodgeball" has been a huge hit in my house. Also, the Wii game DDR 2 has added a second dance pad and now dancing has become a huge family activity. Having games that one can enjoy with your children really helps bring the family together. The Wii has seen a surge of activity and my body is feeling better for the extra exercise. My Shoulders have even been quite sore a few nights from boxing. Plus I can feel my heart getting stronger again from all the vigorous dancing as Dance Dance Revolution puts me through the paces. Meanwhile seeing my kids get more into gaming as they get old enough to enjoy it has me very excited for the future.

I look forward to when my kids are old enough to introduce to roleplaying games. It is still years off, but the linked article makes me look forward to playing Shadowrun 3rd edition or Anima: Beyond Fantasy with new generation of gamers. Sooner than that we might get into the minaitures board game "Descent" if my kids are interested in it.

On my birthday I finally got to try out my copy of Runebound: Frozen Wastes expansion. It was a good expansion. I'm not sure if I like it more than the base game, but it was a lot of fun to mix it up and do something different. The Frozen Wastes expansion makes movement much, much more important. The game is also more competitive as you actually feel driven to keep up with others so the weather doesn't kill you and they don't beat you to winning the game or getting the good treasure. If you're a Runebound player it is definitely worth getting to get some more life out of your Runebound game.

For those of you interested in a good debate about gaming you can go have a debate about Violence in Video games. Worth checking out though both sides of the debate are getting very stale to me in my opinion.Honestly, this isn't new territory. Video games just seem to be a new emerging media to target.

Move Complete - End Turn

So not only have I been working... I've been moving. With a family moving becomes a horrendous affair. Plus so many delicate minis and terrain that I don't have proper packaging for. Luckily we're only moving about 15 minutes drive so we've made a number of trips for delicate stuff we didn't feel good about packaging. Today is our last day of moving and then I look forward to being able to have fun again and enjoy our new place!

We've got a nice garage in the new place that we're going to use for storage, as an art shop, and for gaming. We'll have a gaming table out there so we can keep games of Arkham Horror or Runebound out without having to put it away from the kids every night.

Speaking of which, I had a very nice Christmas haul. Runebound Frozen Wastes expansion, Runebound Scepter of Kyros expansion, Anima Tactics Momiji, and a visit to Cipher Studios. Once we're a little more settled in you can expect to see some youtube reviews of things and a nice blog entry with pictures about our visit to Cipher Studios.

Until then look forward to a normal resumption of blogging come January!

Lawbound

Runebound 2nd edition is a lot of fun. Taking legal action against your landlord because they're evicting you for having a kid is not.

Our apartment manager decided suddenly that our newborn is a violation of occupancy limits and gave us an eviction notice (which points to a non-existent clause in our lease). I'm certain it has nothing to do with the fact that our downstairs neighbor has been complaining if she ever hears a kid. We're talking noon - 6pm range, our kids go to bed at 8pm and by complaining I mean she grabs objects and thumps on her ceiling loudly and writes frequent letters to the management. Now you're probably imagining those apartments from hell that we've all lived in with paper thin walls, we generally have to be paying attention to hear the teenager up above us jumping up and down. So while I imagine our 2.5 year old and almost 4 year old are audible, how bad is it? Bad enough evidently that they asked us to change apartments and when I told them we'd do it if they compensated moving expenses they change their mind and decided we'd have to move out or be evicted when my pregnant wife had our son. Should I add that the manager avoids talking to me and comes and harassed my wife about all this as soon as I'd leave for my last job? Now that I got laid off he never stops by any more. I just had explained in detail to me today that there wasn't a more clear-cut case of family discrimination and harassment unless they had publicly advertised it.

But the good news? I have a follow-up interview tomorrow with a local game company for a Game tester position I'm excited about.

Runebound 2nd edition is a game from Fantasy Flight that I had heard raved about by some fans of Arkham Horror. Being another fan of Arkham Horror I was intrigued by this fantasy board game and I'm glad I was.

It is your classic fantasy trope on a board game. I'd call it Dungeons & Dragons in flavor but without bad and intermittent roleplaying or super heavy crunch. In fact this game is easier to start than Arkham Horror and can be played cooperatively or competitively by choice. You choose your hero, give him 3 coin tokens and start off finding and fighting monsters to unlock what threatens the land and defeat it. Along the way you can spend coin on items and allies to help your adventures. You can trade with fellow players if you meet up with them... or fight them. Another big seller for me is that there are lots of little card expansions for the game that cost $6 - $11. Add new monsters, new items, or expand character abilities for a relatively small amount. It is for 1 to 6 players and if it sounds interesting then it is probably worth giving a try.