Greetings and salutation friend! Welcome back to the Monday Blog! I reckon you’re here for some news!
Another weekend has come and gone, including another Sunday which I had earmarked for some writing only to forget and do no writing whatsoever. I need to program some kind of pop-up reminder to go off on Sunday morning.
My bi-weekly gaming nights have come to a close. We were cancelling more than we were playing and the situation wasn’t looking to get any better so I decided to pull out. I’m disappointed because I really enjoyed getting to get some more game time in there. I could have kept trying to schedule, but I just don’t have the stomach for being cancelled on anymore. For now I need to find something else to occupy my Saturday nights.
Fortunately I’m still getting a little gaming in. Every other week, my mom and I get together for a game or three of Elder Sign. This past weekend we tried out the Gates of Arkham expansion and it really changes things up.
Elder Sign already has an element of uncertainty because you never know what you’re going to roll. You might get lucky and complete several difficult tasks without losing a die, just like you might lose all your dice on what was supposed to be an easy roll.
In Gates of Arkham, the uncertainty is ramped up because now adventures come out face down. The card back tells you the suggested difficulty at least, but some of the effects on the card backs are so bad you’ll want to get rid of them as soon as possible, meaning you might have to try that difficult adventure anyway. As always, it’s a question of the lesser of evils and trying to give yourself the best chance for success possible.
We started off strong with several successes in a row, then things took a sharp turn for the worse. Things just kept piling on against us (which is thematic considering the source material the game is based on). Even though I was sure we were doomed, I wanted to see how close to our objective we could get. I was amazed we were able to get 10 out of the 12 Elder Signs we needed before the Ancient One awoke.
Most of the times we’ve played, we haven’t gone on to the end battle with the Ancient One. Either we didn’t have the elements we needed to survive the first attack or I just plain forgot there was supposed to be an end battle and declared the game a loss. This time, we played through the end battle and were able to win. Full disclosure, we were facing the Ancient One that the expansion notes stated was the easiest. Given how many other new things I knew there were to overcome, I figured I’d give us a little chance. Next time, we’ll be going back to a random selection.
Speaking of Arkham, I finished the main story of Batman: Arkham Origins on Sunday. The game lets you go back to complete the side missions when you’re done with the main story so I spent most of the rest of my day toiling to complete the Enigma side mission. I’m at 85% completion. I think I might get through it next time I play or the time after that at the latest.
Well, that wraps up the blogginess for this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do it all again next Monday. Carja V.