EMOTIONALLY14

Tuesday, 16 January 2018

Tabletop Review - Legacy of Dragonholt

Legacy of Dragonholt
Designed by Nikki Valens
Published by Fantasy Flight Games

Buy it.

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What do you mean that’s not enough of a review? I’ve advised the readers to do the decent thing and buy it. What more do you want from me?

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Have you bought it yet?

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Ugh, fine. Here’s why you should buy it.

If you’re an old school gamer who enjoyed classic game books like Fighting Fantasy, Endless Quest, Lone Wolf, or even the godawful Choose Your Own Adventure line, which I distinctly remember having a kung-fu book that featured a karaoke section (I shit you not) like some sort of analog Yakuza game...anyway. If you enjoyed gamebooks, then this is what they have grown up, matured into and become. Legacy of Dragonholt has taken a few cues from Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, but more in terms of presentation than in terms of execution. This is a narrative adventure, where you create your own characters and play through a GM-less adventure.

Valens is one of the finest game designers working at the moment, having given us Eldritch Horror and Mansions of Madness 2e. What she does is push boardgames towards RPGs. Have you seen how much like a game of Call of Cthulhu (the RPG) Mansions of Madness is becoming? Now, here she’s given us a GMless RPG for the fantasy genre. There’s character creation, high adventure...it’s glorious.

Still here?

Okay, have you ever played a TellTale video game? It does stuff like that. The decisions you (as a group) make will affect things that happens a long way down the line. The story is organic and fluid and it is yours to shape. If you’re a video gamer, imagine TellTale Skyrim, and you’re getting there.

The only real shame here is that FFG just let this plop out, almost like they were ashamed of it. For what this game has achieved, it should have had all the pomp and ceremony that Star Wars: Legion is currently receiving.

It’s January, and we may be looking at the game of the year already.

One of the founding members of E14, Brad Harmer-Barnes boasts an impressive track record in the entertainment industry. A comedian since the age of 12, Harmer created the comedy club Rock N' Rant which entertained the people of Chatham for over five years.

A recurring guest on the Crazy Train podcast, Brad published his first novel, North Sea Hunters, in 2017, and you can now find all of his books from Severed Press via Amazon using the links below!

Thursday, 11 January 2018

Aaron's Spoiler-Free Review of "Lovely Molly"

Psychological thrillers are normally the kinds of films that can go one way or another: they’re usually either brilliant, or just downright bad. This film, however, seems to glide somewhere in the space betwixt the two.

Now, this film is pretty bad, but for some reason is also pretty good due to its efforts or lack thereof. It’s a weird one.

The story is of Molly and her new husband who move into her dead parents' house where, as you can imagine, weird shit starts happening. Now, Molly is a recovering drug addict (you could say Lovely Molly finds Molly lovely) so her already fragile psyche takes somewhat of a heavy hit by all the nonsense (and for the most part, it is nonsense) throughout the film.

None of the characters are particularly likeable either, which is an especially vigorous bummer at times when we’re meant to feel for these people and just don’t, and the story’s pacing feels somewhat anaemic at the best of times (I’m really not selling this am I?). Truth be told, I often found myself checking my watch, which is weird because I don’t own one.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty to like about this film: The acting from our leading lady Gretchen Lodge is pretty solid, as is the performance of our supporting actress Alexandra Holden, and the atmosphere is absolutely spellbinding at times.

It’s just a shame that this film was let down by the continuous amount of dullness in between excellent scenes and the tinnitus-inducing soundtrack.

Aaron's Spoiler-Free Verdict: A solid film that could’ve been a hell of a lot better, but that being said, it could’ve been a hell of a lot worse. 5/10

Aaron James Waters is a best-selling Pulp Fiction writer who has written more books than he's actually read.

He's also the rotten apple of the group who thinks this whole Star Wars thing needs to hurry up and die already.

You can find Aaron's debut novel on Amazon!

Wednesday, 10 January 2018

Review - Sub Terra

Sub Terra
Designed by Tim Pinder
Published by Inside the Box Board Games

When I was a kid, there used to be a TV show called 999, where John Craven would present dramatised versions of true stories involving the emergency services. I can only really remember one story clearly, which revolved around a group of Scouts or Venture Scouts who’d gone pot-holing. They’d come across a short underwater passage that needed to be crossed, which involved ducking underwater for about three feet, and then coming up the other side in a large cave, which was presumably very interesting to people who are into pot-holing. Anyway, one of the lads involved accidentally took a wrong turn, and came up in a wholly separate cave, completely cut off from all his friends. No-one else found the opening he did, and he was all alone, cut off and completely unable to hear anyone. None of the rest of the group found the passage he did, and couldn’t work out where he had gotten to.

Sub Terra is a bit like that. Players are exploring an underground cave system for scientific research (or just shits and giggles, depending on your group), and have to deal with all the things that can go wrong down there: cave-ins, gas build up, dodgy flooring, you know the deal. Imagine a 21st century dungeon crawl and you’re along the right lines. The board spans out using a stack of tiles, very much like the dungeon crawl games made popular by Wizards of the Coast (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, etc). This makes for a completely different layout each time, creating theoretically endless replay value.

Of course, in the darkness, there are more than just natural hazards waiting to trap the party. Something creepy lurks down there, calling to mind the classic horror movie The Descent. As the game goes on, the tension increases further and further, often ending in a very close game as the party rushes for the exit.

Each member of the party has a special skill set (medic, engineer, etc.), and this - much like Flash Point - helps keeps things different from turn to turn and game to game.

The components are all exceptionally high quality, especially considering the price point. The tiles are all thick and heavy card, tying in with the dark artwork to add to the claustrophobia of the subject matter.

The only real criticisms lie in that the dark artwork may be a little too dark at times, and players with vision or colour-blindness issues may need a little help at times. Also, players who are put off by luck in a game may find it a little too random at times. However, for those of us who like card-drowning, chit-pulling and dice-rolling, this won’t be a problem at all.

Also, while I like monsters as much as the next man (probably more, unless the next man is Rick Baker), they really feel unnecessary in this game. Flash Point doesn’t have the firefighters dealing with pyromancers, Police Precinct doesn’t involve zombies or demons. We can have games that exist outside of the fantasy/sci-fi/horror sphere, and personally I feel that Sub Terra just didn’t need the added gimmick.

If you’re into dungeon crawls and want one with a twist, or if you really enjoy off the wall co-operative games, then Sub Terra is well worth checking out. If you’re put off by randomness, then give it a miss.

Oh, and cave rescue found that dude in the end. People rarely got fucked up on 999.