Into the Fortress!

Between work, school starting back up, ever-present COVID, and California fires that continue to dump smoke into our valley, I think we all needed a bit of a pick-me-up. On a smokey Saturday afternoon, then, the boys and I made our first foray into the Blackstone Fortress of, well, Blackstone Fortress. We followed that up with a return trip on Sunday. 

How did it go? This is the game we wanted Gloomhaven to be. Granted, Blackstone Fortress can't top Gloomhaven's richly unfolding storyline or the players' ability to shape the world around them, but all that cool stuff doesn't matter if the game is lousy. Gloomhaven takes forever to set up and the mechanics are ridiculous, forcing players to abandon smart dungeon-crawler tactics due to the game's oppressive timer.  I've covered all this ground before. In contrast, Blackstone Fortress is rather lighter on story but the gameplay is slick and fun. There's a lot you can do on your own turn, and the generous overwatch rules keep you motivated to pay attention even when it's not your turn. The boys and I all found characters we liked, and so far our experience is that the characters play very differently; Matthew gets his mobile damage dealer, Nathaniel gets his tank, and I get my jack-of-all-trades. It's rare indeed that all three of us enjoy the same board game, so I think we've got a winner on our hands with Blackstone, and I'm pretty sure we'll stick with this game long enough to make it all the way to the hidden vault!

808 Storylines

As I noted a while back, I've been chipping away at my Druid Cycle matrix, a massive spreadsheet that tracks all characters, locations, organizations, etc. The character tab is by far the biggest component. As of this writing, I have 808 named characters for whom I've specified a location, any group affiliations, a 5e stat block, and lots of other relevant information. 

Something was missing, though. I needed their motivations. So, for all 808 characters, I added a new field to specify their objectives. What do these people want? Now every character -- from the lowliest shopkeeper to the most powerful immortal -- has a goal. It's taken me weeks to get to this point, but at last I have hundreds of potential storylines  just waiting to be explored!

Malaise

Work has felt rather more stressful of late, with setbacks that continue to nag me even after I leave the office. Between that stuff and the ongoing complexities of life in COVID times, I haven't had quite the same energy for game stuff. To wit, I've paused my Strat-O-Matic baseball league at the halfway point of Season 6 (the Blue Legs and Resolutes are neck-in-neck in a tight pennant race) and I even gave up on landing a copy of that new Gargoyles board game after my local Target twice indicated it was in stock but then didn't have it when I showed up. I did manage to grab the new Warhammer Age of Sigmar starter set for a bit of building and painting fun on the side, and at some point I'd like to try Blackstone Fortress with the boys. It's out of print now, but I grabbed a copy from an Amazon third-party seller and it seems like it will provide the great co-op gaming experience that we thought we'd get with Gloomhaven. I'm looking forward to some time off around Labor Day and hoping I can learn the rules by then so that the boys and I can jump right in.

FCBD Today!

 Today is Free Comic Book Day! Enjoy safely!

FCBD 2021

Just a quick reminder that Free Comic Book Day is scheduled for this Saturday, August 14.

Gargoyles Awakening

I just found out moments ago that there's a Gargoyles board game coming out today as a Target exclusive. I dearly love everything about the '90s Gargoyles cartoon -- its authentic New York City setting, its amazing voice cast, its deep allusions to literature and mythology -- so I will definitely need to find a way to pick up a copy of this game, pronto!