WinterCon 2025

 The Discord group TTRPG in Korea is in the middle of their WinterCon 2025 online gaming convention. I got late notice of this event (last Sunday) so I didn't have a lot of free time this weekend. I've got my face to face TS&R Jade game this afternoon, and due to family stuff, I only had time for the afternoon session yesterday. And that meant I got to play another game of Mausritter. 

Looking through my old posts quickly, I don't think I blogged about playing Mausritter with Justin a few months back. We tried it, and it was a lot of fun. You roll up a mouse adventurer defined by your gear rather than by a character class or a truckload of skills to choose from. Besides your gear, you have three ability scores, hit points, and pips (money) to keep track of. It's a simple game, but it really gets you into the problem solving mentality. Yes, there is combat, but it's hazardous (Into the Odd style no attack rolls, if you attack, you just roll damage). You're also a tiny mouse. So problem solving and careful investigation is in order. 

Yesterday, our game was run by a guy who goes by Fakesauce John on Discord. Four players, myself among them, gathered and John went over the rules briefly while he led us through character creation. That took about 40 minutes of our 4 hour slot, but we had quite a few technical issues to work out. 

My character was Adrian F. Cheddar, blacksmith mouse with "delicate features" (a.k.a. the pretty boy!). My mouse joined up with Clara June, a bold take-no-guff mouse (player: Elizabet), Brutus, the big but dumb bruiser (Evie), and Nibbles, the snarky message-runner (Frankie).

After characters were created, we were given our mission (rescue Lady Cheddar who had gone missing in the mine). We did a bit of shopping, then took a quick break and got the tech issues sorted. 

After that, we were off on our mission. The mine was an interesting place to explore, with multiple entrances (we ended up taking one that John didn't expect us to take of course!), interesting encounters that didn't demand combat (but could have turned into combat), and a mystery to solve on top of the mission to rescue Lady Cheddar. 

John said he didn't have much experience as a game master, but he ran the session well. He kept things going, described things in detail, answered questions, adjudicated the rules when necessary, and managed to bring four mostly strangers together to form a team that used creativity and goofiness to solve the problems put in front of us. 

Chatting with the organizer Amae, I'd mentioned that when they do it again, with more advance notice, I'd be happy to run a game (or two?) the next time they do this. He said this has been a challenge, and he's not sure he will. But people seem to have had fun yesterday, and hopefully the games that happen today will also be fun, and they will make this a tradition. Amae did invite me to run games through their Discord at any time. So even if they don't do another online convention, I may take him up on his offer.

Movie Review -- Captain America: Brave New World

Steven (my 10yo) and I went and saw the new Marvel movie yesterday. It's the fourth Captain America movie, but of course following the events of Avengers Endgame (where Steve Rogers retired) and the Disney+ show Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where Sam Wilson becomes the new Captain America, it's got Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson in the title role. So maybe the start of a new Cap trilogy? We'll see.

I'll try to avoid spoilers here, since the movie just released this week. 

Overall, it was a solid political/espionage thriller with superheroes involved. Much like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, while it had its superhero action scenes, it was really a story about solving a mystery and preventing political ramifications from damaging the status quo. In that sense, I really liked it. It didn't need to be a "big damn movie" to tell its story. It used the political and espionage angles to inform us about the characters, rather than setting up a mystical MacGuffin to prevent the end of the world/multiverse. 

Most of the characters had clear motives, and most of the principle characters had a satisfactory story arch within the movie. 

The action scenes were well shot and well edited, so I never felt confused, or that I was just watching a big CGI puke vomited all over the screen. 

The dialogue could have been snappier at times. There were a few funny bits, but not as much as in previous Cap films or in the FatWS series. 

There were a couple of well-placed cameos of characters from previous films/shows that made sense within the narrative, not just as "member-berries."

Was it great? I wouldn't say that. I enjoyed it, and I think people who don't really care about superheroes or science fiction but like espionage thrillers (Bourne movies, etc.) would enjoy it despite the supersoldiers and gamma-fied people and whatnot. And it's got just enough of that comic book goodness to keep the comics nerds in their seats. 

I think it could have been improved if they had not spoiled a few things in their own promotional materials. If they had kept people wondering "will he? won't he?" about Thunderbolt Ross turning into Red Hulk, for example, that might have been better. But that might have been an impossibility in today's social media spoiler age. 

So again, a solid movie. Worth the price of admission, but probably not one to set up among the best of the MCU. But in comparison to the MCU movies of the past two years, it's nice to see them putting out something small, contained, and decently crafted.

Designing a Card Game

My older son and I have been working on ideas for card games recently. Our first foray is now available for sale. We've played the game quite a bit here at home, and I've also tried it a few times with some local board gamer friends, who really enjoyed it. 

Castles: A Game of Medieval Rivalries 

That's a link to DriveThruCards. 

The game is designed to be quick to learn, easy to play, and fun. Each player is trying to build castles. Castle cards are played in front of you, and each has points, from 1 to 5. Action cards can help you or hinder your opponents. On your turn, draw a card and play a card. Simple. 

 

 

Once one player has five Castle cards in front of them, each other player takes one more turn. The player with the most points (not necessarily the most Castle cards) is the winner. 

A game takes around 15 minutes to play, and with 60 cards in the deck, it should suit games with 2 to 6 players. The most we've had is four players, so far, but that went well. Played/discarded cards get shuffled and made into a new deck when the draw deck is empty, so 6-person games (or more?) don't need to worry about running through all the cards. 

The proceeds will go to Flynn, to help him save up for university expenses. 

I'll post updates with other ideas when we get them worked out.

Some Board Gamin'

In the first two weeks of January, I taught my Speaking English with Boardgames class at the elementary English camp I usually do every summer and winter break. 

This time, I didn't change much, other than to bring in some of my miniatures to use as character markers for the Dungeon! games. And the kids loved it! 

Each class is only 50 minutes long, so in order to explain the game, set it up, and have enough time to give the kids a chance to have a winner, I have to simplify the game a bit. 

First, I cut all the treasure requirements in half, and don't require the group with that much gold to return to the entrance. 

Second, monsters don't fight back. If a group fails to kill a monster on the first die roll, they can try again next turn (or run away). Other players can come in and fight that monster, though, and possibly steal the treasure. 

Third, Wizards get a set of 3 fireballs, 3 lightning bolts, and two teleports, rather than rolling and selecting spells. 

Fourth, this time, I made a small change to the Thief (elf in the original). In addition to the increased chance to find a secret door, I decided that the Thief ignores traps and just gets the treasure. I also decided the original Hero/Superhero names were easier to explain than trying to explain what a cleric is.

Fifth, the Chambers only have one monster each, and also provide a treasure. The only thing different about them is that the Wizards can only teleport to/from Chambers. 

These rules make the game play quickly, and the kids really got into it. 

The first time I used Dungeon! at a camp, a kid mangled one of the treasure cards, so now I keep all information about each team on the white board. This includes what type of hero they are playing, how much gold they have/need to win, spells for the Wizards, and any magic items they pick up.