Lords of Waterdeep: Dungeons & Dragons Meets Meeples, Makes Magic

Lords of Waterdeep. Image via Amazon.

Board games are serious business in this household, second only to our weekly D&D campaign when it comes to social interaction and flat-out fun. As such, we’re a little spoiled for games. I’ll have to admit, in spite of the fact that we’ve accumulated an entire closet full of games (just under a hundred and counting) I’m rarely really wowed by something enough to write about it. Especially when it comes to D&D-themed games. I was not thrilled by The Wrath of Ashardalon, and we really won’t talk about Castle Ravenloft.

Listen, I’m a very picky board gamer. I don’t have a ton of time on my hands. When I sit down and play a game I want to finish it and immediately want to play again. I want to feel challenged. I want to feel like the game is something special. Most games fall into the “play once” category and I never think of them again. But not Lords of Waterdeep. No, geek friends, this game rocks.

You know right away that’s the case, because as soon as you open the box you’re in a happy little magical world of cardboard and wood. Just a glance informs you that this is a special game, combining two things I love a great deal: Eurostyle gaming and Dungeons & Dragons. There are meeples. There are delightful little wooden cubes. There is slick art. There are cards. Board game geeks among our readers will understand what a thrilling feeling it can be to split the cellophane and lift the box (with just a little resistance as you break the seal) and see such a wealth of little, tiny pieces.

Like many Euro games, which Lords of Waterdeep clearly is paying homage to, the strategy is about building and plotting and planning your way toward victory points, much in the way you would with Puerto Rico or Settlers of Catan (some of the basic building mechanics remind me very much of Puerto Rico, which is still probably my favorite game of all time). But to sweeten the deal, there is a second tier of strategy: getting and completing quests. Each player gets certain bonuses for completing different kinds of quests (they’re color coded as Arcana, Warfare, etc.)–these various bonuses are assigned randomly at the beginning of the game, so your “identity” and bonuses aren’t revealed until the end. Which is particularly nice since it’s always hard to see a victor.

Image by rachel_pics via Flickr. CC BY-ND 2.0

To complete quests you must gain and spend both people (which are color coded and include rogues, wizards, warriors, and clerics, as you do) and money as well as other requirements. Positioning on the board changes with every turn, so depending on where you place your large meeples (think of them like emissaries or something) changes how you’re able to finish, get, and start quests. It’s one of the best mechanics out there for leveling the playing field and reminds me a bit of the game Citadels in that respect. The order is always fluid, so you can’t depend too much on the board at first glance. I’ve found it’s best to try and have plans A-D going in, because inevitably your plans will be foiled (which is totally part of the fun).

As always, I’m a big fan of good art, and this game certainly has that. The illustrations are evocative of the Forgotten Realms mythos we’ve all come to know and love, and support the nuts and bolts of the game effortlessly. One of my recent gripes in board games would have to do with the way many games are clearly a mechanic with a theme painted over it. The art might be nice, but it feels totally separate from the gameplay. Lords of Waterdeep never feels that way.

Best of all, it’s quick. The pacing is exciting, and you jump headfirst with the first round. Although I often wish for an extra round I think that has more to do with my own skills than the way the game is played. Unlike some games with thousands of pieces that take an hour to set up (seriously, Descent, I love you, but we’ve got to talk about the wind-up) it’s a fun, full-fledged game that’s easy to play spur-of-the-moment. No whining from the crew. And it’s a game–like Small World and a few others that I’ve been introduced in the last year or so–that I’m happy to hop into even if I’m tired or under the weather. It’s just that good.

And at just around $50 ($38.31 @ Amazon,) for such a polished game with so much replay possibility, you’d be a silly kobold to miss it. My hope (and there is plenty of speculation) is that there will soon be an expansion!

[Lords of Waterdeep]

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New York Comic Con 2012 in Pictures – Part 2 [Gallery]

You’ve seen the first part of our gallery from New York Comic Con 2012 (and if you haven’t, it’s here!), so now, here’s part 2 for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough photos left from Michael, our photographer, to do a full gallery, but fortunately, our pals from Aggressive Comics have given us some pics to fill in the void, and we also have some Amazing ones from Anna fischer as well.

[Other pics from Aggressive Comics | Anna Fischer]

Say Bye Bye to Laundry

Ever thrown something in the washing machine, even though it didn’t really need a full wash? Later regretted that decision because the piece of clothing has come out just a little bit stretched out and a little more worn down?

Well Lisa Marie Bengtsson, a London designer, wanted to come up with a solution. The world is constantly trying to come up with innovative ways to reduce our impact on the environment – and this has the added bonus of saving our clothes from unnecessary damage too.

These clothes hangers are equipped with activated charcoal – that is carbon that has been treated with oxygen in such a way that it becomes a porous material that absorbs odors. You can then leave things like, say, a blazer you wore while someone was smoking, hanging up and have it smelling fresh, without having to subject it to a full on wash.

Of course, this will never remove stains nor replace actually washing dirty clothes – it’s more just to remove slight odors from not-so-dirty clothes you wish to wear again.

It’s a pretty cool concept, but I’m not sure how much I’d really use it. If I felt like I could use some clothes again, I’d probably just hang it up and let it air out – not sure the activated carbon is particularly necessary.

What do you guys think? Good environmentally-friendly innovation or making a simple thing more complicated than it needs to be?

[By Lisa Marie Bentsson | Via Geeky Gadgets]



Super Morrissey Bros. [Audio]

You haven’t lived until you’ve heard The Smiths’ “This Charming Man” done in the 8-bit style of Super Mario Bros!

[Via SoundCloud – Lazyitis]

Han Solo Swimsuit: Perfect for Water Pistol Fights!

First, Black Milk Clothing created the TARDIS dress; then the R2-D2 dress.

Now??

THE (2-SIDED) HAN SOLO SWIMSUIT!

Buy yours here! Available in S-XL!

[Via Geekologie]

 

Holy LEGO Batcave, Batman! [Pictures]

This (light-up!) Batcave diorama, assembled by “Brothers Brick” (a.k.a. Carlyle Livingston II & Wayne Hussey), took 800 hours to assemble and over 20,000 LEGO! It also weighs over 100 pounds!

[Via io9]

 

 

 

Nature + science + waste = A home in the country

Kevin McCloud is a British designer and television presenter best known for the show Grand Designs which features people who have designed and built (or rather hired people to build) their own homes in unusual, creative and sometime outlandish style. While the series usually features all the latest construction technology, McCloud (and a helpful band of friends) took a very different approach to a spin-off series that has just aired.

He bough a two acre site of wild woodland and tried to build his own shed, following two main principles: every material he used should be taken from the site itself if possible; if it wasn’t, then he should try to use materials that were in some way sustainable, natural or would otherwise have been thrown away.

The series has now concluded and it’s not really a spoiler to say it proved successful. While McCloud did have to rely on a few modern machines, he generally managed to either use traditional techniques or find some creative solutions. Much of what he did used techniques that are vary basic to scientists but were still amazing to see in this very stark before and after form.

To run down some of the key features:

The frame of the house came from two oak trees on the plot, though for the sake of his sanity McCloud cheated a little and eventually used a chainsaw to fell them. He then used gunpowder to split the logs.

The roof was made of shingles crafted from the logs, again eventually using professional machinery for the cutting (having done many by hand first), though McCloud and friends did attempt to split them using a Roman chariot like spear attached to a car axle.

The window came simply from melting sand in a kiln and then rolling the sheets using a log from the plot. While it was more translucent than transparant, and while the small sheets had to be cobbled together in a stained-glass window style of frame, the result did provide both adequate lighting and the some ability to see the outside world.

Lighting came from burning liquid fuel extracted from fat deposits taken from the sewers under the streets of central London, made up largely of cooking oil people thrown down the sink. It didn’t take at first, but a whisky-based pilot light did the trick!

The floor was made from a “cheese” made of milk and human hair.

An old bank safe became a wood burning stove.

A tractor rescued from a scrapheap provided the frame for a reclining chair, while the seat itself was a hide from a deer. (McCloud shot the deer himself, then provided urine to soak the hide.)

An outdoor toilet dropped (literally) into an underground chamber that provided biofuel for cooking. An expert who advised on its construction estimated that a dog’s daily droppings can produce enough fuel to boil a kettle, so it appeared that a human could self-power one or maybe two hot meals a day through a camping stove, making it a sustainable cooking source. However, the chamber needed to be full as a starter, so McCloud took a shovel and bag to the lions section of a nearby safari park, carnivores providing the most useful dung for this purpose.

A trip to a nearby “aircraft graveyard” provided the cylinder that houses a 737 jet engine. Turning this sideways, putting it in the ground and piping it in to a gas cylinder converted to burn wood produced a hot tub, albeit with a five hour start-up time.

A complex series of chains and gears from scrap allowed McCloud to lower and raise a wall section to become a drop-down veranda.

An attempt to make the ultimate in memory foam mattresses with a sack of cornflour and water (which makes a liquid that turns solid when pressure is applied) proved unworkable thanks to the sheer weight of the cornflour needed. Instead McCloud fell back on a more traditional woven frame.

Unwanted maps proved a suitable and eyecatching wallpaper.

The most labor intensive luxury came last: after McCloud shaved an alpaca, a local weaving group put in the 200 hours needed to turn it into a dressing gown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp71LsxRMog