The Concept

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, would have been a sight to see. We can only imagine now what they would have looked like. I like to picture lush, green rain forests on top of all the roofs, and vines stretching between the buildings. I picture birds of different varieties, a multitude of colorful insects and flowers, waterfalls and mosses dotting all the great pillars and walls. I imagine it would have been the sort of place one could lose themself in, and that would be perfectly okay.

When Geek Attitude Games introduced Babylon, designed by Olivier Grégoire, and Board Game Geek’s summary was “Build a three-dimensional version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,” I knew I had to play this game. When images were released of beautifully flowered tiles stacked on pillars, with fountains, bridges, statues, and stairs, my mouth watered. This game sounded cool and looked cool. I didn’t even have to walk by a table to see the table presence this would have.

[caption id="attachment_310489" align="aligncenter" width="881"] Though, seeing this would definitely make me want to play.[/caption]

The game, as it was summarized, has you building your own 3D Hanging Gardens. To do that, you’ll be selecting flower…

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For all the wonderful things that this hobby brings to the table (yes, that was intended), there are some rather less-than-savory ingredients mixed in as well. I'm about to discuss my six most frustrating, annoying, and sometimes painful, things I've encountered in gaming.

Spoiler Warning

This is a rant. It's a big, fat, slimy, whiny rant that I'm not ashamed about because this stuff needs to be said. Now that that is out of the way, I'm about to rally some people, offend others, make some people laugh, and maybe even some others cry, but it's all in good fun kind of, because I'm going to be quite subjective here since these are all my experiences (in no particular order).

So, feel free to laugh and get angry with me and agree and disagree and agree to disagree and leave comments and suggest other things that should have been mentioned. This is literally your chance to get a glimpse into what my bugbears are, so enjoy it. Or don't. It's really up to you. You've been warned.

Mini Cards

I have guitar player's fingers. This means they're long and dexterous and should be able to deal in the small and precise as easily as the large and cumbersome. But believe me, when I say I struggle with handling…

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Why Music?

At my job, we have this room called the Clean Room. It’s basically a closed off room, separated from the rest of the dusty shop, and primarily used for deep cleaning and preparing parts which will be used with liquid oxygen or nitrogen. It’s quiet in there, air-conditioned, and there are generally only one or two people in there at a time. Mindlessly scrubbing pump parts with isopropyl alcohol could make for a very long day. So I like to pop in my earbuds and turn on some music.

Music helps me focus. But at the same time it also provides just enough of a distraction so that I don’t have to think about how long the day is or how mind-numbing the work I’m doing can get. It’s almost like grease on a machine. It helps remove the friction of what I’m doing and allows me to do the job easier. Music during a task has a tendency to heighten one’s awareness of the task. It also provides just enough entertainment to keep the task from becoming monotonous while not being overly distracting.

It would make sense, then, that providing music for gaming would make the experience better. Music can help pass the time between turns, it can help one focus better on strategizing and planning, it…

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What’s That Sound?

As you slowly regain consciousness, you become aware of a red glow enveloping you. You begin to recollect things. You're on a ship. You're part of a crew. You were in hibernation. But that sound is deafening. Is that the alarm?

As you step out of your stasis pod into the hibernatorium, you become even more aware of your surroundings. You're now sure that's the alarm. The red emergency lights bathing everything in crimson are a definite tell. Your crew mates are also emerging from their pods. But, wait. Is that?

One of your crew mates has been removed from their pod, and their body lies cold, lifeless, and mangled on the metal floor. Your mind is suffering from short-term amnesia from the deep sleep, so when one of your crew suggests that you all should investigate, this comes with some pangs of anxiety. You're not even sure you remember these hallways.

The engine room and bridge are simple enough, since one is always in the back, and the other is always in the front. But the locations of the rest of the rooms are fuzzy right now. Everyone else is already going their separate ways, so you pick a dark hallway and move forward.

It was a short trip before you reached the armory. While…

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What is Kingdom Death: Monster?

Kingdom Death: Monster is, more than any other board game I’ve played, difficult to describe. Designed by Adam Poots and published by his miniatures company, Kingdom Death, this game is better described by what it’s not. Kingdom Death: Monster is not a role-playing game, but has some role-playing elements. It isn’t a dungeon crawl, but has some dungeon crawl elements. It’s not a boss battler, but has boss battling elements.

I could keep going, but you get the idea. Kingdom Death: Monster is a little bit of so many things, that it’s sort of a Frankenstein’s Monster. In the game, you’ll be making decisions that affect your character, the group as a whole, and future story events. You’ll be managing resources, crafting and upgrading, fighting, managing your inventory, rolling dice, having random encounters, gathering loot, and much, much more

So what is Kingdom Death: Monster? Let’s dive in and have a bit of a look. DISCLAIMER: This is a campaign-style game. There are some minor spoilers, and some content in this game is definitely for a mature audience. While I’m trying to not mention specifics or get too in depth, just the nature of this game alone makes it difficult to keep everything that follows spoiler free and rated PG, but I’ll do my…

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The Introduction

Good grief, I was a nerdy kid. All my friends, all the neighbor kids, they were always outside, riding bikes, playing football or basketball, getting dirty or into trouble, wrestling around in the grass, dirt, and sometimes mud, or whatever else they found entertaining. I was inside, building castles and spaceships with my legos, playing video games, setting my G.I. Joes up on their headquarters and shooting them down with their provided spring-loaded missile launchers, or watching any number of sci-fi and/or fantasy movies. When all the other guys in fourth grade were trading baseball, football, and basketball cards, I was bringing my entire collection of Marvel trading cards to school to show them off. I had no one to trade with. Where they had the Beckett price guide, I poured my attention into the only copy of Wizard I would ever have (issue #038, if you’re asking). It would only make sense, then, that for Christmas one year, my parents got me my very first unconventional board game.

Dragon Strike, designed by Bruce Nesmith, published by TSR, Inc., and released in 1993, was meant to be a sort of introductory game in order to bring people into the tabletop RPG hobby. TSR was also the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, so it seemed fitting they…

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