Joe Gamer

Your friend Jeff here with the scoop on a new RPG I played when I went to Mobicon a few weeks ago.  Having gone to play 4e DnD but having not signed up for Living Forgotten Realms (the official Wizards Realms campaign) in time, Elizabeth (the Queen of the Tiny Kingdom) and I went looking around, checking out the cool gamer merchandise.  While we were skulking about we ran into a booth run byThe Wandering Men promoting a game called Untold, a card based role playing game I’d only heard of in the periphery.  We had some time before anything was going to go on, so when one of the team members mentioned he was doing a demo, we both agreed pretty heartily.  The first game was a lot of fun with my character freaking out on the rest of the party and the big barbarian guy throwing a charmed enemy at something we needed that was out of reach.  The game was so much fun we ended up playing in another demo the next day and would have played more if not for some of the other activities at the con.  Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

To explain, Untold is, like I said, a card based role playing game.  It’s a tabletop RPG in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons, but all the player needs is a deck (representing your character) and one 20-sided die.  When making a character, the players assembled a deck of cards like in Magic the Gathering or games like it based on an amount of Untold Points as determined by the GM.  Each card has a value in Untold Points so if the GM declares you have 30 points to make a character, you have that much to use.  Each card represents something about your character.  There is the Race card that gives you the basic stats for your race and type, Aspect cards that increase each stat (Body, Mind, Spirit) and then the Swap Cards.  There is Story Swap (you must either have a story for the card or fulfill something in the story to acquire it), Site Swap (have to be somewhere or have something specific to use it), and Time Swap cards (takes an amount of time to equip, use, or ready the item or action).  It is important to not use all up all your UP with these cards because there is another set of cards you can have call Hot Swap cards that represent actions or spells that aren’t always active.  If you have 25 UP used toward a 40 maximum, you can use Hot Swap cards up to 15 UP.

The cool thing about Untold is everything is story based.  Your Apoc Churl (human barbarian, essentially) has a powerful tribal bow?  How did you get it?  Questions like that are essential to gameplay.  Let’s take an example real quick.  My first game I played a steampunk robot called a Klik Roller.  One of my Swap cards was “Diplomatic.”  After a series of embarrassing situations and harassment from the other players, I asked the GM if I could remove my Diplomatic card.  My character was stressed to the point of breaking and decided he had enough and was no longer Diplomatic.  Because of the freeing of some UP by removing the card, I was able to increase one of my Aspect cards to have higher stats.  But only because I could justify it in the story.

Untold is very customizable for both the GM and the player (giving it Untold possibilities!  See what I did there?).  I bought a bunch of cards and plan on buying some more.  I have a character in mind that I’ve already written up a story for and have a pretty good idea of the cards I’d use too.  It’s very easy.  I hope to do more articles on the game as I get more in to it and after we play it some.  The full rules are on Untold’s website along with setting information and a very helpful forum.

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

The Littlest Gamer(4 years old) – who at times is a more avid gamer than her mom – has discovered our DnD minis. She is a natural storyteller and I fully expect her to be a Game Master just like her dad.

She came over with an Aracnix Guard and told me he was in China – so here he stands on the computer desk. One other figure was outside all night and in the morning he died. There is now an epic battle between a Bulette, Chillborn, and Xorn. Apparently a couple of the figs are on fire, and a Spined Devil is going to save them. She keeps this up and her daddy might ask her to join his gaming group. She is always entertaining, but it is quite funny to see her playing with these scary figures when earlier she was playing with My Little Pony.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

I don’t know what other names this game has, but on Facebook Apps, it’s FARKLE and I’m addicted.

Basically this is a dice game, similar to Yatzee where you attempt to score the most points off of a certain number of dice rolls. Here however you have six dice (d6′s for those of you wondering). There are ten rounds to score points. With each roll you may score points by setting aside dice. The more dice you set aside, the more points you score, but the fewer dice you have to score additional points as well. Points for a round are accumulated until they are banked or lost. So if your first roll results in 200 points, and your second roll results in 300 points, your points for the round becomes 500 points which you may bank and save or risk for morepoints.

If at any point during a round you cannot score any points,for instance you have scored two dice and are rolling four, the result of which is 6 – 6 – 4 – 2, all accumulated points for the round are lost; this is called a Farkle. I have another word I like to use. Intrestingly enough it also starts with the letter ‘F’.

On your first roll during a round you roll all six dice. Every die scored is removed from the pool to roll. Only certain dice combinations score points. You must score at least one die each roll during a round. Scoring is as follows:

• Ones and Fives score you 100 and 50 respectively.
• Three of a kind scores you 100 times the die value except for three ones which scores you 1000 (instead of 100).
• If you roll a three of a kind and additional dice of that same value, such as five 4′s, then you add the three of a kind score again for each additional die with the matching value. So in our case of five 4′s you would score 1200 points (400 for the three of a kind and 400 for EACH of the additional 4′s).
• Three unique pairs scores 750 and a full straight (1-6 no repeats) scores 1500 points. Of course these last two can only be scored on a roll of six dice.
• If you end up scoring all six dice in any number of rolls with no Farkles, you get to roll all six dice again keeping your accumalated score for all prior rolls.
• At any point in a round in which you have 300 or more points, you may bank all of your points for this round. This ends the round, all dice are returned to the cup, and the points for the round are added to your total.
• If you Farkle three times in a row, you loose 500 points.

The game is simple once you understand all of the rules and highly addictive.

My stratagy is to go for three of a kinds, especially with ones, fives, and sixes. If I do not get a three of a kind, I keep a single 1 or 5 and roll again. This maximizes the number of dice in my cup which significantly increases my chances for a three of a kind or at least another 1 or 5. I save anything over 450 points if I have less than 4 dice to roll, or anything over 300 if I have Farkled twice in a row prior.

~JoeGamer

© 2009, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

We had so much fun at MobiCon that we are on the hunt for the next con. There are plenty of cons that are yet to come in 2009. When we find out about them, we’ll post them here.

May

May 22 – 25, 2009 – Birmingham, AL
Play On Con

May 29- 31, 2009 – Charlotte, NC
ConCarolinas

June

June 5 – 7, 2009 – Nashville, TN
Tennessee Game Days

June 5 – 7, 2009 – Chattanooga, TN
War Fair

June 5 – 7, 2009 – Nashville, TN
Origins Game Fair

August

August 13 – 16, 2009 – Indianapolis, IN
Gen Con

September

September 4 – 7, 2009 – Atlanta, GA
Dragon Con

September 25 – 27, 2009 – Memphis,TN
Game Con Memphis

Have a Con you want listed? Leave it in the comments and we’ll add it for you.

© 2009, admin. All rights reserved.

This past weekend we went to MobiCon – our first time going to this gaming con in Mobile, Alabama.  Last year some friends had went and had a great time. So this year we decided to join them.

We arrived Friday and by Sunday,  I was exhausted. As I’ve gotten older, it’s harder to get a good night’s sleep in a hotel.  On top of that, we were up late each night and packed each day with a lot of activities. Since I had the girl(our three year old) with me,  she and I mainly went to the panels and the merchant room – a dangerous place to be.  We spent way more than we should have but we had fun doing it.

I do have a few regrets.  I regret that I didn’t get to play games especially Untold since so many friends were raving about it. There was also a midnight game of Are You a Werewolf? I would have loved to have played but I haven’t been able to stay up past midnight in years. Who am I kidding? I’ve never been able to stay up past midnight.

I really didn’t take a lot of photos but here are a few

This is a picture of members of SOLAR fighting it out in the courtyard. Did I mention that our room was on the second floor facing the courtyard? The same courtyard that was party central between 7pm and 4am both nights we were there? Yeah, between that and the a/c kicking on every 2 minutes, both evenings were a blast. I can’t complain too much because then I really will sound like an old fart. I always tell JoeGamer if it’s too loud then you’re too old!

Here is the three-year-old – the Belle of the Con(well one of them as there were to my surprise quite a few kids her age and younger!) – lounging at the pool.

And one of my favorite purchases from Those Damn Pixies, this cute crocheted zombie. Look at her with her poodle skirt and milkshake. Too adorable!

Overall we had a blast even if it let me tired as all get out on Monday. It was worth it and can’t wait for next year.

© 2009, admin. All rights reserved.