Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins and Rise of Tribes.
Image Source: BGG
Image Source: BGG
D&D: AB was billed as an intro to D&D games. It was fun. It was my first exposure to any type of D&D game. But, one time I was supposed to make-up a riddle to which the answer would be 'darkness'. Make-up a riddle? Are you fuckin' kiddin' me? I can 'make-up' many questions, but not a whole lot of riddles. The only riddle I know is, 'What's black 'n white and read all over'? But me making-up a riddle wasn't gonna happen in any reasonable amount of time. But other than that, it was fun. I sometimes had to verbally describe how I was going to neutralize foes with what was in my backpack, which included: A Ball of Yarn, a Crowbar, a Grappling Hook, and Chains and a Lock. I was 'Dean Koontz' brutal in the description of my attacks, which delighted my GP (Gamin' Pal). 🙂
Rise of Tribes was more 'thinky', but not brain-burning. The dice-rollin' mechanism was quite interesting. We laughed a lot, and I think I only dropped 2-3 F-bombs during the game. I'm becoming so angelic. Hey, I went to an all-boys High School (~2,000 of us) then into to the Army a year later, so F-bombs are ingrained into my vocabulary. 😄
P.S. My high school was 'poly-technic'. Welding, aviation, building construction, automotive, even a foundry! It was a really cool High School. Having no girls helped me concentrate on academic studies, too, instead of animal husbandry thoughts. 😄
Rise of Tribes has everything to make me crazy:
- hex tiles with beautiful artwork (I'm just utterly fond of hex tiles in general)
- civ-like but very simple rules
- a prehistoric theme!!
- a dedicated solo mode!!!
- nice meeples
- custom die
I hope to speak highly of it in a few weeks when it will hit the table!
@Cadet Stompy, playing it, do you think it would lean well to solo?
This entire post and conversation from start to finish is just awesome! LOL I love it.
Mike, I'm like you, my D&D experience is nil. Having said that, I'm fascinated with the imagination aspect of RPG's (since many of us lack imagination today - I think it's a healthy way to play for the mind as well as fun). I've been looking into more solo RPG games and considering trying a few simple ones to start with.
Both of these games you played sound interesting for sure!
Both games are in my "to play as soon as possible" list! I was expecting to do a D&D Adventure Begins post this very month but I've had less time than I expected. Nice to hear about them from you!
That's an interesting background you have, Mike. I might expect these all-male environments to turn you into a wargamer but I'm stereotyping, of course. 🙂