Role Playing

Star Trek: The Next Generation -- A Klingon Challenge

Board is set up in view of a television/VCR and players watch a videotape of simulated action and narration filmed on the set of the Star Trek series. Players assume the roles of the few remaining on-board crew members of the U.S.S. Enterprise, which is docked for repairs.

The players (watching the tape) see a renegade Klingon (named KAVOK) hijack the ship with only themselves aboard with him. He periodically appears on the television screen (which is a simulation of different communication view screens aboard the ship) and talks to the players during the game.

KAVOK's intention is to use the Federation ship to to attack the Klingon Empire and instigate a Federation/Klingon war. He also plans to gloriously die in battle along with the remaining crew. KAVOK will create setbacks and obstacles for the players as they attempt to gain access to the bridge and regain control of the ship. The journey to the Klingon Empire takes 60 minutes of real time game-playing (displayed on screen). They play against the clock, and if nobody wins, they all lose.

Play consists of rolling the die, moving around the board (which represents the Enterprise), drawing cards and interacting with the video of KAVOK until they reach the bridge and win, or the time expires and they lose.

NOTE: This game cannot be checked out due to being a "Rare/Protected" game. Playing this at Spielbound will require renting out a backroom and bringing a VHS player & monitor to play.

Dungeon!

In many ways Dungeon! is similar to Dungeons & Dragons, although much simplified and transformed into a board game. Players explore a dungeon that is divided into levels of increasing difficulty, fighting monsters for valuable treasure. As players venture deeper into the dungeon, the monsters become more difficult and the treasure more valuable. Several character classes each have slightly different fighting abilities – most notably the wizard, who can cast spells. Combat is simulated using dice; players roll the dice to attack a monster, and if unsuccessful, the dice are rolled to determine the effect of the monster's counter-attack.

The winner is the first player to bring a certain amount of treasure back to the Dungeon's entrance.

Reimplemented by:

The Classic Dungeon
The New Dungeon

Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2nd Edition): Lair of the Wyrm

Game description from the publisher:

Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) - Lair of the Wyrm introduces five new quests that can be played individually or used to supplement a larger campaign. With inventive objectives like rescuing survivors from a burning inn and protecting valuable ore from a greedy ettin, the Quest Guide in Lair of the Wyrm delivers fresh new challenges to your adventures.

What's more, Lair of the Wyrm brings two new heroes to the fight against the forces of evil. Reynhart the Worthy is a fearless warrior whose prowess in combat means he rarely makes mistakes. He can reroll misses once per attack, helping to ensure that every strike is righteous and true. Meanwhile, High Mage Quellen is a master of body and mind, and is able to quickly recover from exertions that would devastate lesser men. Quellen has developed the ability to feed off the fatigue of those around him, gaining strength where his fellows fail.

But even as the heroes of Terrinoth gain new allies and tactics, their great enemy silently grows in sinister power. In addition to the Wyrm Queen herself, a fearsome Dragon Lord lieutenant seemingly formed from solidified flame, the Overlord gains two new monsters: mischievous and destructive Fire Imps, and flying Hybrid Sentinels...half-dragon monstrosities with a cruel penchant for preying on the weak. The Overlord's new advantages are not limited to his minions, however. His new available class, Punisher, specializes in making heroes pay for every inch they advance. With abilities like Trading Pains and Exploit Weakness, the Punisher class will make the hero players flinch with fear every time something seems to go their way.

Mice and Mystics

Game description from the publisher:

In Mice and Mystics players take on the roles of those still loyal to the king – but to escape the clutches of Vanestra, they have been turned into mice! Play as cunning field mice who must race through a castle now twenty times larger than before. The castle would be a dangerous place with Vanestra's minions in control, but now countless other terrors also await heroes who are but the size of figs. Play as nimble Prince Collin and fence your way past your foes, or try Nez Bellows, the burly smith. Confound your foes as the wizened old mouse Maginos, or protect your companions as Tilda, the castle's former healer. Every player will have a vital role in the quest to warn the king, and it will take careful planning to find Vanestra's weakness and defeat her.

Mice and Mystics is a cooperative adventure game in which the players work together to save an imperiled kingdom. They will face countless adversaries such as rats, cockroaches, and spiders, and of course the greatest of all horrors: the castle's housecat, Brodie. Mice and Mystics is a boldly innovative game that thrusts players into an ever-changing, interactive environment, and features a rich storyline that the players help create as they play the game. The Cheese System allows players to hoard the crumbs of precious cheese they find on their journey, and use it to bolster their mice with grandiose new abilities and overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.

Mice and Mystics will provide any group of friends with an unforgettable adventure they will be talking about for years to come – assuming they can all squeak by...

Expansion advice:

For those who have expansions for this game the recommended order by the game designer for playing them is as follows (see original post HERE):

Sorrow and Remembrance (Base game)
Cat's Cradle (Lost Chapter 1)
Heart of Glorm
The Ghost of Castle Andon (Lost Chapter 2)

Perfect Heist

"The Perfect Heist" is a cooperative/competitive board game based on the heist movie genre. It is designed to capture the excitement of pulling together a handpicked crew of professionals and loose cannons to pull off epic heists. To win, you must convince your friends — those gunmen, con men, getaway drivers, and grizzled vets who are "getting too old for this" — to join your crew and take on increasingly more difficult jobs ranging from boosting cars to nicking top secret documents and biological weapons.

But even as you need their expertise to chase the big scores and make a name for yourself, don't think for a second they're doing you any favors. They are trying to win, too. And they may double-cross you any chance they get to steal the loot for themselves and leave you for dead.

Ultimately, the player with the most notoriety wins. You accrue notoriety points from heists, by successfully completing hidden agendas, and more. But, you need to hustle for it. A clever player could win by only pulling off 2 jobs, so long as they hustled other players for a better cut of each job's notoriety. Likewise, a player could pull off 15 jobs and yet still lose if they made bad deals with other players.