Tag: Dicepen

PnP Review

Let’s Review More: Dicebound Heroes

Luiz Gustavo Mendes

1-4 Players

Designer: Roman Solar

Artist: Roman Solar

Publisher: One Page Creations

Players take the roll of adventures, going into dangerous dungeons full of monsters and treasures. But they have only a day before they perish never to be seen again. Will the heroes find wonders or Blight?

How to Play

The Paladin

At the beginning of each turn, a player rolls 3d6. One of the dice will be assigned to the color, one for time and one for growth.

Using the color selected, the players mark on the time track equal to the time die. For each section filled with the same color, player can mark sections on equipment or abilities. But each of those tracks can only eve have one color.

After that, one of the monster will have a boost for one attribute (chosen by the color) equal to the growth die. This can give the monsters more speed, range, attack, defense etc.

Finally, the player moves equal to the speed added to the time die. On the way, they can get treasures, gems to power up equipment, and face monsters.

When time reaches the last space, and if players managed to either damage all monsters or get all the treasure and get back to the exit, they win.

Rules and Components

Helper Sheet

In term of components, the game really tries to cram everything in one page, as per the name of the company. Well, sort of. The abilities of each adventurer is not referenced in any way on the main page, neither are monsters abilities. Those are relegated to a second helper page, and I’m honestly glad. It would be just too much. But, even with all the big elements and huge art, the sheet itself is functional and works well even later in the game.

Rules are well written, and quite extensive for a game that is not super complex. The game does have a few quirky characteristics, which makes the flow of the explanation a little off at times, but after playing the game it gets clearer. There are a couple of places where wording could be clearer, but nothing too egregious.

Score: 7.5/10

Gameplay

Running the Dungeon

This game’s quirky, as I mentioned, because there are a bunch of expectations with the theme and genre that are not met. You dont need to defeat enemies, and after a single hit they are out of the game. Also, they guard the treasure, but you can just grab that and speed out (a feat that is quite funny when you imagine a full plate wearing paladin doing it).

This game is not exactly a dungeon crawler, but a dungeon looter per se. But, honestly, once the flow clicks with you, it’s a dynamic and a bit frantic game where I had a lot of fun. Also, the characters and monsters feel well realized, even in their simplicity, and the leveling system is quite flexible.

Score: 7.5/10

Theme and Art

Cthulhu

This game has a very particular look and feel that I think people will either love for the gritty nostalgia or hate because it’s weird. Make that quadruple for the fully colored sheets, that are really funky. For me, it reminds me of very old school tabletop RPGs, sitting on my fiends table at midnight surrounded by junk food and colored dice.

As I mentioned on the gameplay, the individual characters and monsters have a lot of personality that, for the most part, shines through. There are spots where theme and gameplay disconnect, specially with leveling (defeating a monster does not actually give you anything in terms of treasure or experience). However, I do appreciate that those were done in order to keep the game simple and fluid.

Score: 7.5/10

Conclusion

Dicebound Heroes is a game made to itch that very specific scratch of just becoming going head first into a crazy adventure where every second counts. It’s frantic, non-stop and quick. And it last just as long as it needs to.

Every aspect of this game is fairly niche, to the look and feel to the rule set, but since I’m in that niche I cannot help but have a good time with it.

Rules and Components: 7.5

Gameplay: 7.5

Art and Theme: 7.5

Score: 7.5

PnP Review, Review

Let’s Review More: The Tracker

Luiz Gustavo Mendes

1 Player

Designer: Denis Kurdiukov

Artist: Denis Kurdiukov

Publisher: Nuka Zombee

The world outside is a horrible nightmare, full of zombies, mutated beasts, and horrible people just waiting to take you and everything you have. But you insist in going on and trying to find a way to save a little girl. But is your will strong enough or are you going to succumb along the way?

How To Play

Scouting

Setup is just getting the sheet, it already has all the resources and starting situation. You also need 8 dice, 4 of each color and a marker for your position. On each turn, you may do some trades with the locals for clues, but most often you will try to go to a new area for clues are resources.

To get into a dangerous area, first you spend a water roll your 4 dice to create your pool, and set one of the enemy dice as the danger of the area as stated on the map. One die at a time, you assign one die for the scout test, roll another for the enemy and assign a final one if needed. If you match or exceed, scout is successful and you proceed to battle. If not, you just lost time and a water.

Battle is similar, you assign your dice then roll two for the enemy. If it is enough, you win the loot, if not you lose a medpack and, if able, spend bullets to finish off or accept defeat.

Each time you get a clue from locals or secure an area, you mark the clue or number into the main quest grid. Your goal is to make a continuous path from the starting arrow to the finish where the girl is. If you are able to do that and defeat the final boss, you win. If you ever run out of resources, you lose.

Rules and Components

The mission

The iconography is pretty clear for the most part, and it may seem overwhelming at first it does make sense once you start playing the game. Even though there are a ton of icons, I never felt the game got too cramped or messy as I went along.

Rules are, as usual for Nuka Zombee, laid out nicely in a kind of a comic book flow type of way. Rules are organized progressively, as if you are playing the game and reading the rules along for the first time, explaining as they are needed in the play. It’s an interesting approach, but not the most friendly at times.

It takes a bit to really internalize everything, but this is a game with a fairly unique flow and I honestly don’t know if any other layout would be better beneficial. I do appreciate the lengths they go for different examples.

On the other hand, there are terms and functionalities there are left to be understood by context, and I usually prefer things clearly laid out, like spending bullets to adjust dice or finishing off enemies.

Score: 7.5/10

Gameplay

Rolls

Unlike many games within the genre of apocalyptic survival, this game never feels oppressive. Instead it takes the other common facet of such games, dwindling resources, and makes it the heart of the problem. You know what is your dice pool BEFORE deciding where to go, and it’s up to you to be open in terms of choices and how much you’re willing to spend to achieve a certain objective.

It is a slow and analytical game, where along with the resource management, luck mitigation is key. You will have to take risks, no questions, but it’s all about how and when. That being said, it is also a game of patience and repetition, and getting into the game knowing that it is not going to be an in and out situation. You will never win quickly, and very rarely will lose quickly either.

Score: 9/10

Theme and Art

Old Jo

The artwork is stark and evocative, and it does a great job in setting the mood. The muted color scheme also adds to the feel, while also helping the game sheet feel less overwhelming.

The setting is left vague, only with a brief explanation of what is the current situation and not how it got there. It is left to the player to fill in the gaps. But I didn’t feel that this stopped me from being immersed into the theme and caring for the characters around me.

Score: 7.5/10

Conclusion

Resources

The Tracker is a tense, methodical and analytical roll and write with a continuous sense of dread and slowly building up your path to the end. And I described this game as slow many times during this review, but yet not once I felt the game was sluggish. Instead, it is a game that takes its time in progressing, and encourages the player to do the same. It is also engaging for the whole duration, and the scouting and combat setup is both thinky and exciting.

In the PnP realm, this one for me easily stands out if you read the description and see yourself in this world and you understand the pace of the game you’re getting into. But, if those things are for you, you will find here a well crafted and well designed game that will reward smart plays and will engage your brain (or leave them on the floor if you’re not careful enough).

Rules and Components: 7.5/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Theme and Art: 7.5/10

Score: 8 / 10

PnP Review

PnP Review : Recycled

Luiz Gustavo Mendes

1 Player

Designer: Nuka Zombee

Artist: Nuka Zombee

Publisher: Nuka Zombee Games

In a distant future, you are a lone scientist left behind in a remote planet, where you have to use your wits and science to survive. But is game mechanically solid or does it make you feel like garbage?

How to Play

Action List

On each turn, you roll 3 dice. Two will be used to take actions, and the last one will be used to check for accidents.

For the action, each dice gives you action points to use for various actions, or you can combine both to take a single action. Excess action points are lost. The actions are basically build building, either directly or through multi phase for some of them, or to generate resources.

Most buildings generate resources locally, meaning that it will be marked and spent from the building itself, and each building has a maximum capacity, usually 6.

The left over dice is combined with another roll to check for accidents, which will usually drain some resources. The lower the roll the worst the loss.

You win the game if you manage to survive 75 rounds, or if you build and produce everything needed for the rescue. You lose if you ever spend your last food, oxygen, sanity or radiation.

Rules and Components

Buildings

While not being a rules heavy game, Recycled does have a lot of nuances to the game flow and actions. Luckily, the rule book does a good job in explaining everything and giving examples. The descriptions could be a little more xkmpl te and the examples a little more extensive, but they do good job.

I am not a big fan of the layout, though. While it looks great and it does use the same style of the components, it is organized in diagrams and tables instead of a regular sequential rule book. That might be a personal issue, but to. my neurodivergent brain it’s just a bit too busy.

The components are great. Both sheets are not only well illustrated, but they are easy to consult, and have all the information needed readily. All resources in this game are circles, and the circles mean something different in each building. However, the building symbols are distinguished enough that you can internalize quickly their meanings.

Score: 8/10

Gameplay

Buildings and resources

Recycled feels very different from most PnP roll and writes. It’s a continuous slow burn where you need to be methodical in your approach and assess the areas of risk and work towards them. Nothing is done quickly and you can’t just turn around and solve an issue in a turn.

The dice mechanism is really interesting. You can either use your big dice to get a lot done, and risk worst accidents, or you can do less actions and be safer. And, what’s best, it’s not a constant choice, it’s all about timing and reading the situation.

This game, interestingly, does not have mitigation. You have to make due with whatever you have. However, double or triple 1s are a safe turn, at least. But that also. mean that you really have to look ahead and plan for worst case scenarios.

The one thing is that 75 turns is quite a lot, and unless I’m required to play for it, like with the pioneer expansion where you cannot build the shuttle, surviving that long does not feel like a good path when compared to the shuttle.

Score: 8.5/10

Theme and Art

Turn tally

Recycled uses a retro-futuristic aesthetic, full of nobs and dials and switches. It has a very grim, mechanic and barren look, which works perfectly with the theme. Even the tjr a are marked with tallies as if written on a wall. Honestly, you could not read a single. line of description and get exactly what is going on.

One thing that is not an issue so much as it is a missed opportunity, but the additional planets have different setup and different starting resources, but they don’t have particular mechanisms. Infected planet does not feel particularly infected or hot planet does not feel particularly hot. 

Score: 9/10

Conclusion

Shuttle launch

Recycled really stands out from other print and play games. The word that defines this game is methodical, and it wears it on its sleeves the entire time. Despite being just two pages, it fills its longer playtime with meaningful decisions and a intensity thinky game arc that requires attention and planing.

And that whole feel ties with its theme. It is deliberately desolate and scenario scientific, and it reminds me so much of many sci-fi books that go to this more realistic approach.

It is not, I believe, a game for everyone, specially on the PnP realm. It’s slow and long, contrary to the norm. But it is smartly designed and it shows from the first play. It is also tough and quite the nail biter.

Rules and Components: 8/10

Gameplay: 8.5/10

Theme and Art: 9/10

Score: 8.5/10

PnP Review

PnP Review : Treasures Lost

Luiz Gustavo Mendes

1-99 Players

Designer: Nuka Zombee

Artist: Nuka Zombee

Publisher: Nuka Zombee Games

Another print and play roll and write, this time all about managing time and finding valuable treasures. But are those treasures found or is the value forever lost?

Gameplay

Movement Table

Turns are shared, and on players’ turns, first someone roll a single d6. Players move according to the table, that involve some orthogonal steps, and depending on the roll some diagonal or passing easier through traps.

Things on this game don’t really hurt you. You don’t even have a health bar or something similar. Everything affects your time. Warps halt you in place, enemies get you stuck until you beat them, traps cost you extra movement.

Players go until they run out of turns on the day track on each of three stages of the scenario. There are also a few spots that are for the night that players can extend to, but at the cost of time on the next map.

The goal is to go around collecting coins and treasure. Gems go on their on tracks, chests must be paired with keys, and coins go in a grid to collect resources when rows and columns are complete. However, how each one work varies by character. The apothecary favours blood gems, the Explorer likes the artifact, and the rascal doesn’t even need keys for chests. It’s all very thematic.

Solo Gameplay

There are no differences between the multiplayer and single player game, aside from beating your own score or beating your opponent’s. The track itself has bronze, silver and gold crowns to mark your score for a quick reference.

Components

Character Sheets

The game really looks gorgeous. All the dungeons are thematic to their region and have details on their specific version. The characters are also well illustrated and have tons of thematic touches. I mentioned before, each track is different, but also each ability has a name and adds to the personality.

But absolutely none of this interferes with the usability of the game. Icons are clear, things are easy to manage on the gameplay, and nothing adds complexity. This is, after all, a simple game.

But, even though the game is simple, the rules could have been a little clearer. There are some instances that something is implied and can be understood, specially around movement, but I would prefer it to be spelled out.

Conclusion

Treasures Lost is easy to pick and play and very dynamic. I like the fact that they simplified the risks on just time, and everything is about efficiency. Do you risk fighting that monster and getting stuck, or is the way around more guaranteed? Do you count on that movement that leaves you needing a diagonal step to be worth it? I also love how thematic it feels. Each scenario has its own quirks, each character does truly feel unique on its own, but it never gets too complex. Over the first couple of turns you already got what the game is about. But every second I spend on it I feel the tension and the excitement of treasure hunting.

Score: 8.5/10

PnP Review

PnP Review: Dreamscape Kingdoms

Luiz Gustavo Mendes

1-4 players

Designer: Kamil Sklorz

Artist: DicePen Studios

Publisher: DiceTiki

Besides the gorgeous map, I was attracted to Dreamscape Kingdoms for a good area majority one page game with good solo support. Does it deliver or does it become a nightmare?

Gameplay

Map

On each turn, a player rolls dice equal to the number of players plus one, than each one drafts one to place. The dice indicates either the column or row to place their minions and the player decides from their available groups which value to write on the chosen spot. Then the player spreads to the same number of adjacent spots. Then the first player passes to the right and another turn begins. When players place all their 8 groups, game is over.

Scoring is about majority counting the number in each section plus one for each marked area adjacent. Players count majorities on each row, column, area, and terrain type.

Solo Gameplay

Nightmare Machine

The automated player, called nightmare machine, can be included in any count but 4, with one being mandatory for 2 players and 2 for solo.

The machines act after the players, but can have multiple turns in a row. You roll two dice for roll and column, then two more for starting position and subsequent spread, and the machines always place 3 strength groups, which makes things easier. The scoring works mostly the same, but your trying to get a certain amount of points more than the highest scoring machine.

Components

Scoring sheet

My printer will need to forgive me, but I had to print this full color. The style of the sheet is gorgeous, and iconography is clear and the layout is well done. It is very colorful and ink consuming, but that is forgivable S it is one sheet for all players.

There are multiple additional maps that offer variety not only on layout, but add in more aspects, like new scoring conditions, goals and such.

Conclusion

There are two aspects of this game that really elevate it from a simple area majority to something great. First is the variable power placement. It adds a lot of thought on each individual placement and how it will interact with each scoring opportunity. Second is the spread. Not only it keeps the game quicker by filling up more map, but also allows tactic reaches and blocks.

In addition, the solo mode is well thought. It feels alive and competitive, and the point adjustment helps bridge the needed gap.

Overall, it’s a great package. It’s a well thought well balanced endeavor that offers a ton of interesting decision space.

Score: 8.5/10

PnP Review

PnP Review: Evil Lab

Luiz Gustavo Mendes

1-99 Players

Designer: Kristopher Lagarto

Publisher: Polterdice

Link: https://shop.dicepen.pl/shp/products/details/prd:471

The premise is simple. Be evil, do evil manipulations of genes. But, actually, fill up coloured shapes and try to get formations. Evil-y, of course!

Components

Play area

Evil Lab just need one sheet per player. There also many variation sheets available, each need to be printed separately. Aside from that, you just need two d6s and writing utensils.

Gameplay

Evil Lab is actually a very simple game. Someone rolls two dice, and each player uses one to chose a shape and the other for option between two colours. The caveat is that no shape can be placed besides the same shape. At the end of the game, you get point for each shape, shapes that you have one of every color, and for sequences of shapes of the same color.

Solo Gameplay

No change, it’s a high score deal, with each sheet having its own specific chart.

Conclusion

If you are just foraging in the PnP world, this is a great start. Evil Lab is simple, but intriguing and fun. I also enjoy each variation, though I think it could have been implemented in a different manner, more printer friendly, but that’s a minor quibble.

Score: 7.5