Articles – Page 5 – Thomas P. King, author and game designer

The Unseen World Playtest Report

Here’s a look at The Unseen World, a solitaire gamebook of paranormal investigation and horror set in modern-day Japan. Full system overview here. The gist of it is you travel from town to town, research haunted locations, then investigate those locations, resolving a series of encounters. Almost everything in the game is randomly generated usingContinue reading “The Unseen World Playtest Report”

The Unseen World Preview

Halloween soon approaches, and like last year, I’ve been working on a special holiday project! The Unseen World is a solitaire gamebook of paranormal investigation and horror set in modern-day Japan. You play as a paranormal investigator traveling to many towns across Japan, investigating haunted locations in order to collect evidence. You’ll spend evidence toContinue reading “The Unseen World Preview”

Winds of the North v0.8.3 Release

It took a while to compile the feedback and implement the changes (also interrupted by a much-needed break), but the next update is here. It’s primarily small tweaks and balance changes with a couple of revised systems to help streamline the game. Here’s a look at the bigger and more notable changes/fixes/additions in 0.8.3. LearnContinue reading “Winds of the North v0.8.3 Release”

A Return to Valheim

Since it came out in early access, Valheim has become comfort-food gaming for me. I’m not usually into these types of survival/crafting/building games, but Valheim does things just right for me (and it started with a healthy amount of content and was remarkably stable for early access). I was getting burned out recently and neededContinue reading “A Return to Valheim”

A Week of Gaming

We had an opportunity to play a few days of gaming this week. It was going to be three days but then turned into four. Here’s a look at what we played. Stroganov This was the third play of Stroganov for me and our first 3-player game. I’m really enjoying the gameplay and how smoothContinue reading “A Week of Gaming”

Board Game Session Report: Warhammer Quest The Adventure Card Game (part 1)

I’ve been meaning to get this to the table for a while. Haven’t played in years and never actually finished the campaign. Boy, I forgot how dreadful the rules are. Utterly disorganized, often vague, and sometimes just neglectful. And some rules only appear in the learn-to-play guide, not the reference book! And a typical, poorContinue reading “Board Game Session Report: Warhammer Quest The Adventure Card Game (part 1)”

Recent Solo Board Games

I haven’t really had time to write up a lot of session reports lately, so here’s a quick look at some recent solo plays I’ve had. Vindication I actually played solitaire before playing multiplayer (didn’t have patience to wait!). I stuck to the simpler solo mode, one of two available in the first expansion. IContinue reading “Recent Solo Board Games”

Board Game First Impressions: Maracaibo & Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles (episode 2)

Maracaibo I’ve never really been drawn to Alexander Pfister games, they always seemed like super dry Euros. Even though they had interesting themes, they didn’t seem to capitalize on those themes. And I was pretty lukewarm on Great Western Trail when we played it, so I hadn’t ever really looked at Maracaibo. But after watchingContinue reading “Board Game First Impressions: Maracaibo & Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles (episode 2)”

Board Game First Impressions: Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles (Episode 1)

When this was originally on crowdfunding, I wasn’t particularly excited by what I saw in episode 1. The theme is cool, but parts of the game are more abstracted than others, and I’ve not been really drawn to Mindlcash before. Their games always seem slightly over-designed and in need of more streamlining. But my friendContinue reading “Board Game First Impressions: Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles (Episode 1)”

Catching up on board games

Though I’ve been playing games, I haven’t had much time to get into impressions, session reports, or reviews. Here are some of the games I’ve been playing. Caverna I’ve played Uwe Rosenberg games before, including Agricola, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to play Caverna (in part because of the high price tag). We’ve playedContinue reading “Catching up on board games”