Table Top Game Club Week Nine: Skeletons, Lovecraft, and Poe...Oh my!

This was a great week for the Table Top Game Club. 

On Tuesday we introduced the students to Small World.  This year, with so many new students joining the club, it's been a joy to introduce the some of the "old standards" of gaming to fresh audiences.  Small World delivered, and it was neat to see how new players adjusted to the strategies.  One player's Trolls dominated the northern part of the map.  Two other players traded territory between Halflings and Ratmen.  I thought I had made a good decision to sweep across the board with my Amazons, completely wiping out another player's Triton army.  That was a huge mistake as that player swore vengeance upon me.  She proceeded to launch an attack of Skeletons that not only destroyed me, but scored her the win.  Her new nickname is "The Beast", and we're all thoroughly intimidated.


After finally posting my thoughts on Lovecraft and gaming (it's the post below this one), I decided to introduce the crew to Elder Sign, a cooperative, supernatural game of teamwork as each player uses an interesting set of dice to fight monsters, look for special items, and investigate rooms of a museum.  It might be a little lighter on theme than its more complicated brethren (Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror), but gameplay is fun.  It was encouraging to see students high-five over the successes of others, and after an hour, we succeeded in vanquishing the snake cult of Yig.  I think next semester we will try the Gates of Arkham expansion, which I have heard is quite good.

With about half an hour left, the players decided to play a little Nevermore, a card drafting game that has some neat mechanics, but suffers from a lack of clarification when it comes to rules, especially when resolving conflicts during ties.  I happen to think it's a fun game, but certain moments can slow the game down because the rules aren't clear enough at times.

It was a good, solid week of gaming.  Next week, we're down to one day (Friday is a Teacher PD Day).  I think it's time to see how devious and sneaky our Grade 9s can be... it's time to play The Resistance!

Thanks for reading!