Barnestorming- Hearthstone in Review (again), Temple of Elemental Evil, Age of Ultron, Penny Dreadful

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You repeated the TOEE paragraph twice.

Hang on, I wasn't wearing my Editor in Chief hat...there, it's like it never happened. Except for your post pointing it out!

Michael Barnes wrote:

Sorry all you folks that must hold physical dice or insist on being able to see a real, physical middle-aged weirdo sitting in front of you.

One of these days, you too will be a middle-aged weirdo. And everybody's somebody's weirdo.

As for Winter Soldier, I think I'm with you on that. For me it's the best MCU movie of the bunch.

I'm still madly in love with Fallen. It's the closest I've come to putting a new design on my top 10 of all time since X-Wing, which did make the cut.

It's not perfect but it's just so damn unique and enjoyable. It's interactive and moves at a quick pace while giving you strong narrative and satisfying feedback. Effortlessly fun and always magical.

It really solves that "adversarial DM" problem that games like Descent and Imperial Assault have by making it head-to-head. One hero versus the bad guy. I love how straightforward it is like that, and there's lot of challenging decisions to make.

However, it doesn't quite hang together narratively...much like how in Star Wars LCG you have to work out how a Tauntaun is involved in destroying a Star Destroyer, in Fallen you've got to sort out that the narrative isn't literal. It's strange, it's almost like an aggregate, jumbled storyline. It's modular too, so you might get different non-synergetic segments. I almost wish that they had done it as more of a Gamebook style, where it's fixed narrative with decision points. But that would, obviously, impact replayability.

It's a really interesting game, that's for sure.

Those aren't really problems in my mind (although I did note them as such in my review), or at least big problems. Rather, the game is putting the onus of mending the seams on the GM, much like Shadows of Malice places the color in the hands of the player.

I described the three story cards as separate acts in the overall story, and when playing I will narrate a brief segue between them. They're not literally meant to follow each other without time passing.

The monsters not meshing with the narrative is more difficult to deal with but anyone who has spent time DMing will easily be able to incorporate the creature into the story. I actually enjoy doing this to some degree. It actually brings a further realization to the whole RPG feeling.

I really WANT to like Hearthstone. I enjoy it well enough when I'm playing it. But I couldn't be less interested in constructing decks, grinding for rares, and being matched up against those who have. My finger has hovered over the delete button several times but each time I think I should keep it. I don't end up deleting it, but nor do I end up playing or wanting to play it.

I haven't touched Hearthstone since the day I got completely annihilated by a single super rare card.

"Sam and Steve mention a child trafficking case they’re working on together"

I thought it was "missing person"....i.e. Bucky....

Ha, I didn't even draw that conclusion and then I misremembered it too.

Once more, this doesn't appear on the front page.

Can't wait to play ToEE, sounds great. Have you noticed any upgrades to characters re: fifth edition?

Did Babylon 5 also inspire that kind of X-Files/Twin Peaks narrative or is that really a different structure?

I played both Fallen and TOE this past week. Loved Fallen and TOE is so far making the cut even though I traded away Ravenloft for its uninspired gameplay. The small changes in gameplay may be just enough to put it over the top for me. I wrote up some of my thoughts in the "What Board Games Have You Been Playing" forum. Penny Dreadful was great. Watched the entire first season as it unfolded and loved it. Eva Green is a revelation. I love the twists they've put on the classic horror novels and I'm happy it's being renewed for another season.