Mystery Box Friday (Ice Kingdoms Adventures)

Hey Game Fans, It’s friday so it’s time for us to dig into our Mystery Box and revisit one of our favorite publishers.  Mad Martian Games has created one of our favorite campaign Settings in the Ice Kingdoms.  A complex setting in a frozen land, Ice Kingdoms is Sword and Sorcery style adventures at their best.  If you’d like to take a look at our review of that setting, you can find it here.  Today we’re going to take a look at 3 of the adventures for that setting.  This is as Old School as it gets.  

Mystery Box Friday (The Minotaur's Bargain)

Hey Game Fans, It’s friday so it’s time for us to dig into our Mystery Box and revisit one of our favorite publishers.  Today we’re going to take a look at Minotaur’s Bargain, from P.B. Publishing.  Written by the wonderfully talented Phil Beckwith and JVC Parry, Minotaur’s Bargain is a standalone adventure for 5th level characters It’s an easy to incorporate adventure in your campaign or a fun one shot if your players are looking for a change of pace.  Let’s dig into the details, and we’ll give you our review, and our ratings (hopefully we can tell you where to find it while we’re at it).  

Mystery Box Friday (Incantris)

Hey Game Fans we’re back with another Mystery Box Friday review.  Today we’ve got something a little different, we have a copy of Incantris from Rainn Studios.  The folks at Rainn Studios were nice enough to send us a copy of the game and we’re going to do an article on the game, an unboxing video , and we might try to do a playthrough of at least one of the games versions.  Today we’re going to talk about Setting up your game and getting ready to play.  Let’s dig in and see what sort of neat things we can find.  

Mystery Box Friday (Fantastic Reality)

Hey Game Fans, It’s friday so it’s time for us to dig into our Mystery Box and see what goodies fall out this time.  Today we’re going to take a look at the Asatania Campaign Setting from Fantastic Reality.  Make sure you check out their website at https://www.fantastic-reality.com/ for more details and to take a closer look at what they are brewing.  Today we’re going to look at two specific pieces of the Asatania Campaign Setting, the Player’s Guide to the Crashing Chaos Campaign and the Crashing Chaos Campaign Guide v.101.  There are a lot of additional materials, resources and adventures that are built to work with this setting, so we’re going to start here and may eventually sweep up some of the additional materials.  

 

Mystery Box Friday (Greyed Out Productions)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another Mystery Box Friday Review for you.  Today we’re going to take a look at something that is near and dear to our hearts, dice bags.  Ever since we were wee little gamers using swiped Crown Royal bags all the way up to the modern leather bags and plastic cases we use today, we LOVE things to store dice in (it’s a neck and neck race to determine which we like more).  Today we’re going to show off a store we’re very interested in and some of the just astonishingly cool bags that they have.  Without any further ado, let’s take a hard look at Greyed Out Productions.  

 

Mystery Box Friday (Mortzengersturm the Mad Manticore of Prismatic Peak)

Hey Folks, we’re putting together another one of our mystery box series.  Today we’re looking at  an adventure from RPGnow, created by an independent publisher .  This adventure, written by Trey Causey and published by The Hydra Cooperative, features a wonderful departure from the norm and has such a wonderfully different style.  There’s a mansion in need of visiting, and the hijinks are just getting started as we explore Mortzengersturm the Mad Manticore of Prismatic Peak.

Mystery Box Friday (Boffin's Beneficial Battle Box)

All right folks, we’re back with another Mystery Box Friday.  If you’ve read the blog, you know we have a great affection for woodwork projects, and today we’re taking a look at Boffin’s Beneficial Battle Box from 3xoterric Designs, a workshop in Davenport, Iowa.  They’ve got an interesting product that’s getting ready to go live on Kickstarter on May 6th, and it’s something that I think the Gaming community has been looking for without realizing it.  Boffin’s Beneficial Battle Box is a fantastic woodcraft project for the gamer who’s looking for something a little different but doesn’t necessarily have the disposable cash to drop more than 100$ on an RPG gaming box.  Let’s take a look at what it provides, what the options for it are, and what they are going to run you.  Then let’s see what we can come up to do with them.  

Mystery Box Friday (Killer Kobolds)

Hey Folks, we’re putting together another one of our mystery box series.  Today we’re looking at a DM’s Guild adventure created by a community member.  This adventure, written by Tony Petrecca, features a fine lesson on underestimating monsters and how low level monsters can be a serious threat to mid-level characters..  The characters are drawn into a rescue mission to save some local townsfolk from some nefarious kobolds.  Let’s dive into Killer Kobolds, and see what sort of mischief these kobolds are up to.  

Mystery Box Part 2 (Ice Kingdoms Campaign Setting)

Hey Game Fans, today we’re going to be giving you a quick look at something new from Mad Martian Games.  They’re releasing a campaign setting that’s system friendly called Ice Kingdoms.  It’s a pulpy style Sword and Sorcery Vikings setting, with all the trimmings and things that make that a fun genre to play in.  This is my first looks article (which means that there are more coming), and today i’m going to talk about what i look for in a campaign setting, and the things that i think this publication does very well.

 

Mystery Box: 1/13/17

Hey Game Fans, today we’re back with another mysterious package on our desk, trying to figure out exactly what it is.  Today’s Mystery Box features Arcknight Games and their amazing product line.  The folks around the office know that i am an absolute sucker for things that i can touch and physically manipulate during a game, and Arcknight has some of the coolest, most brightly colored products that I’ve seen in quite some time.  Let’s take a closer look.

The neatest thing i see with this company is that while their products work extremely well together, they can be used as separate products.  Their maps are absolutely fabulous, but you can use any tokens, minis, or pawns from any manufacturer and they work just as well.  You can take any of the bits and bobs from their product catalog and use them in your game.  Their maps are neat.  The objects sheets are fantastic.  The flat plastic minis are bananas.  The Spell effects are astonishingly useful.  I like the whole thing, and it’s a neat approach to take with gaming accessories.  

Maps

The AKM series of gaming maps offers an interesting take on similar products like Dungeons Tiles.  Each map sheet is a double sided, laminated map with a surface that readily accepts Dry Erase markers.  Sold in thematic map packs like Graystone Castle, or Cobblestone City, each pack has 8 sheets, for a total of 16 maps that can be arranged to the DM’s desire.  For a DM looking for a generic castle, or city, or cavern system, these are hard to argue with.  Additionally, When ordering your maps, you can have grid maps added, either as square grids (the typical norm for most fantasy games in the last 10 years) or you can have hex grids.  If you change your mind later, you can also order map overlays in case you have a map you’re trying to add gridlines to later, or you want to make sure the furniture doesn’t move on an existing map.

Overall, i like these map sets.  With a price point of around $30 for a pack of maps, I can certainly justify spending the cash to pick up a pack.  Quality materials means that these maps are going to hold up with repeated use, and i personally like not having to draw maps for every tavern that the characters i play with are going to try to burn down.  Definitely a neat product, and you can slip a pack of these in a gaming bag without having to rearrange internal storage.  

Object Sheets

The only thing i can say that i don’t like about these is that i have to cut them out myself.  The Object sheets adds an essential range of scenic details and features to a variety of play areas.  Are you sick of drawing tables, chairs, and barrels?  Don’t want to draw in fissures or cracks, or trees?  These are the things you didn’t know you were looking for.  

Featuring a themed set of scenic details, each one of these double sided sheets is packed with accessories and dressing elements to help you stage your game encounters in a fun and enjoyable way.  Whether you’re packing a tavern, a home, the streets of a major city, or populating a dungeons, these object sheets have a lot to offer for $15 per sheet.  Like i said, the only thing i don’t like is having to cut them out myself, but that’s certainly not a deal breaker.

Flat Plastic Miniatures

These are an absolutely wonderful new addition to the miniatures available for fantasy gaming.  Made from the same high quality plastic as the object sheets, the Flat Plastic miniatures are incredibly thin, vivdly colored miniatures that are no thicker than a sheet of paper.  They store easily, accept a multitude of bases, and fit a wide range of potential needs. WIth variable price points ranging from $10 for a set of familiars, all the way up to $120 for the 310 piece Core set bundle, you can find the options you’re looking for with either a specific theme or just build up a collection.  

Spell Effects

The Spell Effects are actually the first product i saw from Arcknight Games.  A bundle of templates and tokens that help a Wizard maximize their spell effectiveness by letting them see the exact areas they are going to cover with their spells.  It’s incredibly useful for brand new spell casters tossing their first magic missiles, and adds more resources to the more practiced spell casters.  For a price point of around $40, this kit can save a lot of time for the particular spellcaster who needs to see all the angles before casting his or her spells.  This product works best with a map, but it can be used in more theater of the mind style games.  

Conclusions

Honestly, i like just about everything i see from Arcknight, and i hope they continue to have smashing success after smashing success.  They have a solid product family that both supports other internal components of the family while being usable with external options.  They’ve had a run of excellent customer support with their Kickstarter programs, and i hope they continue to run away with success.  

Make sure you find Arcknight Games on the internet at https://arcknight.squarespace.com/ and you can find them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ArcknightGames/

Let’s see what the Mystery Box reveals next week, and have a fun week of happy gaming.

Game On, Game Fans