Cliffhanger!

For those of you that don’t know me, I’m a bit of a gamer.  I don’t mean videogames(though I certainly enjoy those as well).

 

No, I mean tabletop games.  Board games, miniature games, roleplaying games…I enjoy many of them, but sadly being an adult means you just don’t have as much time to play all of them as you did back in your school days.  But I still try to get together with friends to play board games at least once every week or two.

 

This last week we got to try out something shiny and brandy-new: Star Wars Rebellion.  This is the new big box game from Fantasy Flight, where the Empire faces off against the Rebels.  It’s asymmetric, which for you non-gamers out there means that the two sides are balanced and play differently, and have different paths to winning.  For the Empire to win, they need to find and destroy the Rebel base.  For the Rebels to win, they need to accomplish various secret objectives that will gain them respect and sympathy in the galaxy.

 

It’s nominally a 2-player game, but has some really solid and enjoyable rules to play it with 2 teams of two like we did last Friday, where the division of what you do in the game is done in a way that keeps all the players active.

 

There were some really great thematic and cinematic moments throughout the game.  At one point, the Rebels had not only recruited Luke Skywalker to their cause, but also played a mission that allowed him to go to Dagobah and train up to become a Jedi, immediately increasing his abilities.  However, their excitement at this was short lived, because the Empire had recruited Boba Fett, who flew their and captured him.  Later, the Emperor even tried to turn Luke to the dark side(also via a mission card), but Luke barely managed to resist him.

 

The game turned into a real nailbiter, as the Empire finally figured out where the Rebel Base was, but the Rebels were able to relocate just before they could attack.  And though they guessed the new location of the base, time just wasn’t on the Empire’s side and they lost the game before they could mount an attack.

 

So if you can afford it(or your friends can) I highly recommend checking it out.  It was a lot of fun, though not a short game by any means- it took us about 5 hours to play, though this would probably shorten to 4 if everyone knew the rules and had played before.

 

And after this lengthy blog entry, here’s even more words…the next installment of the short story:

 

 

4.

 

And so Derrick’s thoughts turned to what most other young men’s thoughts turned to whenever they weren’t thinking about sex.  I’m speaking, of course, about adventure.

 

Really, Derrick had kind of pigeonholed himself by this point, anyway.  By mentally eliminating all other forms of livelihood, all he had left as an option was that, or working his way up the ranks in the King’s army.

 

Granted, as minor nobility he was guaranteed to start off as an officer rather than one of the common infantry.  Which wasn’t a bad way to go…as long as the men under your command like you.  There was a long history in Thudd of impromptu field promotions being made at swordpoint by disgruntled soldiers unhappy with their officers.  And Derrick wasn’t too keen at having his head on a pike because some grunt didn’t like being told what to do.

 

So, adventuring it was.  And really, what wasn’t there to like about being an adventurer? Your hours were your own, there was treasure just waiting to be found, and tavern wenches in each town that would swoon over your tales of heroism, falling into your arms and into your bed.  And sometimes you even got a free meal out of it, to boot!

 

Though there were some things that weren’t so great about being an adventurer.  Like, say, deadly werepiranha.

 

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