Fun Friday
The first name of the lady who checked me out at the grocery this morning is Deer. She's a Native American. The curious thing is that my German dialect last name translates to roughly 'venison.'
I was driving along this morning and noticed a sign at the entrance to a strip mall advertizing the businesses there in. Nothing particularly exceptional except that two of the signs that were together had the same font except that one was red and the other green. It occurred to me that if I were red-green color blind the sign would read quite clearly "Bug and Weed Grooming."
In honor of the new Potterverse movie, I'm going to talk about a Potterverse game that was released this year called Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle. While this kind of tie-in-with-mass-market-movie/book/TV-show game is often poorly done and not worth looking at, this particular game is both well thought out in terms of the tie-in to the subject and is a good game besides.
The box says it's a game for 2 to 4 players, eleven years old and up. It's probably better to say that the game is for 2 to 4 'Harry Potter characters' because it is certainly playable solitaire as long as more than one character is played. Nor would there be any particular problem with each character being played by a team of two discussing between themselves how to play out each turn. The suggested age for players is up in the air as well. The introductory game probably could be played and enjoyed by an eight or nine year old, but the most complex versions of the game might be a bit much to deal with for anyone less mature than say twelve or thirteen.
Hogwarts Battle is a cooperative deck building card game, which means it's a game in which all players are on the same side and the basic play of the game will revolve around purchasing cards with in-game currency for later use to gain more in-game currency and to work toward directly winning the game. While there are a lot of things to keep in mind while playing the game, the order of things that can happen during a character's turn is consistent which helps a lot in keeping the game moving. There are actually three different sizes of cards used in the game mostly to make sorting much easier; playing-card sized cards that are used for the bulk of the action, square 'dark arts' cards which start off each turn with a bit of a villainous twist, and over-sized cards that fill a variety of roles from setting the location, to showing the villain of the moment and representing the hero or character whose turn it is. The over-sized cards don't move much during a game and after the very beginning of each turn the square cards are left alone.
There are what amounts to seven progressively more complex games in the box. The games are numbered one to seven and roughly parallel the years of the Harry Potter books with characters and villains according to when they were introduced or became more important. Each succeeding game builds on the one before it in size and complexity. As the years pass and the characters in the books learn more spells and run across new magical items, those things appear in time in the game. Just as the books become more adult as the years pass so does the game. The introductory game is necessary to get the players up to speed. But it is not terribly challenging or even very interesting for an adult. It does go fairly quickly, fortunately only 30-45 minutes, so that the second, slightly deeper and noticeably more challenging game can easily be played the same evening, taking about the same time as the first since the players' familiarity with the game improves.
The things that need to be kept in mind while playing are that the paths to either winning or losing the game are completely separate, that there are two different kinds of currency in the game, one to purchase cars and another to use to attack the villains, and that another separate matter, character health, is neither tied directly to winning nor losing but is important indirectly toward both. The cards played during each character turn can effect any of these things, and often the player will have to make a choice what to do according to the situation in the game at the moment. For instance you might have the choice from one of your own cards to either improve your health or get currency to buy better cards. From the 'dark arts cards' one or all the players may be forced to choose between taking a hit to health or discarding a card from their hand which will hamper their current or next turn. Sometimes you have to choose between helping yourself, helping someone else similarly or helping everyone to a lesser degree.
Hogwarts Battle is a game best for adults, though it takes awhile to get it going at adult level. It encourages the players to play all seven games over time, something not everyone is going to have the patience for. It's certainly far too much game to experience it all in one sitting. It's fun, and at least spaced out over a few weeks real time, it doesn't get boring. I like the game quite a bit and recommend it to anyone that doesn't mind following instructions to get through complex games.
Only in Canada
I was driving along this morning and noticed a sign at the entrance to a strip mall advertizing the businesses there in. Nothing particularly exceptional except that two of the signs that were together had the same font except that one was red and the other green. It occurred to me that if I were red-green color blind the sign would read quite clearly "Bug and Weed Grooming."
In honor of the new Potterverse movie, I'm going to talk about a Potterverse game that was released this year called Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle. While this kind of tie-in-with-mass-market-movie/book/TV-show game is often poorly done and not worth looking at, this particular game is both well thought out in terms of the tie-in to the subject and is a good game besides.
The box says it's a game for 2 to 4 players, eleven years old and up. It's probably better to say that the game is for 2 to 4 'Harry Potter characters' because it is certainly playable solitaire as long as more than one character is played. Nor would there be any particular problem with each character being played by a team of two discussing between themselves how to play out each turn. The suggested age for players is up in the air as well. The introductory game probably could be played and enjoyed by an eight or nine year old, but the most complex versions of the game might be a bit much to deal with for anyone less mature than say twelve or thirteen.
Hogwarts Battle is a cooperative deck building card game, which means it's a game in which all players are on the same side and the basic play of the game will revolve around purchasing cards with in-game currency for later use to gain more in-game currency and to work toward directly winning the game. While there are a lot of things to keep in mind while playing the game, the order of things that can happen during a character's turn is consistent which helps a lot in keeping the game moving. There are actually three different sizes of cards used in the game mostly to make sorting much easier; playing-card sized cards that are used for the bulk of the action, square 'dark arts' cards which start off each turn with a bit of a villainous twist, and over-sized cards that fill a variety of roles from setting the location, to showing the villain of the moment and representing the hero or character whose turn it is. The over-sized cards don't move much during a game and after the very beginning of each turn the square cards are left alone.
There are what amounts to seven progressively more complex games in the box. The games are numbered one to seven and roughly parallel the years of the Harry Potter books with characters and villains according to when they were introduced or became more important. Each succeeding game builds on the one before it in size and complexity. As the years pass and the characters in the books learn more spells and run across new magical items, those things appear in time in the game. Just as the books become more adult as the years pass so does the game. The introductory game is necessary to get the players up to speed. But it is not terribly challenging or even very interesting for an adult. It does go fairly quickly, fortunately only 30-45 minutes, so that the second, slightly deeper and noticeably more challenging game can easily be played the same evening, taking about the same time as the first since the players' familiarity with the game improves.
The things that need to be kept in mind while playing are that the paths to either winning or losing the game are completely separate, that there are two different kinds of currency in the game, one to purchase cars and another to use to attack the villains, and that another separate matter, character health, is neither tied directly to winning nor losing but is important indirectly toward both. The cards played during each character turn can effect any of these things, and often the player will have to make a choice what to do according to the situation in the game at the moment. For instance you might have the choice from one of your own cards to either improve your health or get currency to buy better cards. From the 'dark arts cards' one or all the players may be forced to choose between taking a hit to health or discarding a card from their hand which will hamper their current or next turn. Sometimes you have to choose between helping yourself, helping someone else similarly or helping everyone to a lesser degree.
Hogwarts Battle is a game best for adults, though it takes awhile to get it going at adult level. It encourages the players to play all seven games over time, something not everyone is going to have the patience for. It's certainly far too much game to experience it all in one sitting. It's fun, and at least spaced out over a few weeks real time, it doesn't get boring. I like the game quite a bit and recommend it to anyone that doesn't mind following instructions to get through complex games.
Only in Canada
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