Tag Archives: review

Vast: The Crystal Caverns (boardgame, 2016)

Posted on by Henry

What an incredible premise. What a fun game! If only it were playable without constantly referencing reams of paper on rules, errata, and commentary on the rules and errata.

Vast is admirably ambitious. It’s designed for up to five interlocking, competing, asymmetrical roles that all fit together beautifully to make this boardgame a nail-biting, neck-and-neck race toward victory. With a few important caveats, each player has their own rules reference sheet for their role, encompassing everything they could need to know in order to play the game. And with another few important caveats, everything can flow smoothly as each player chases their own victory conditions, pushing the game onward towards a thrilling conclusion.

Those caveats?

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Monarch (Apple TV 2023), update

Posted on by Henry

Turns out the third episode was perfectly placed to build up my impression that there wasn’t enough character development or emotional grounding going on in the modern day storyline. I’m not going to edit my review, but

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV, 2023)

Posted on by Henry

Remember how I was upset with Castlevania? Very mild spoilers here.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters shows how to give a character life after killing them in episode one. It makes that death a tragedy instead of a cheap trick, and lets us come to know the person—their strengths, their joys, and their faults—even after we know they’re dead. Even better, that character’s death and life reveal the themes foundational to the Godzilla series; after all, Godzilla stories aren’t just about giant monsters.

Don’t worry. There are definitely some giant monsters. It’s just… Monarch, like the first Godzilla movie, is really more about human drama and humanity’s hubris than about a big stompy beast.

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Gamer Typology a la Robin Laws

Posted on by Henry

We’ve been talking a lot about improvisation and working with your players, but we haven’t given you nearly enough background for the topic.  There’s a book that I found years ago called Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering, and I lend or recommend it to every one of my friends who asks me for tips on how to be a good storyteller.  I like it so much that when I started looking through my old copy again while I was starting this article, I had to stop myself from simply quoting the book word for word.  It’s more than just a good place to start; the book has an impressively down-to-earth approach that will give you a basis for campaign and adventure design, for preparing easy improvisation, and for reading and managing your gaming group’s social (and problem solving) dynamics.  It also offers a very simple gamer typology that should allow you to identify what drives you and your players and what rewards them most in the realm of RPGs.  If you’re interested in gaming or in group dynamics, I couldn’t recommend a better read.

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