#97: Transylvania Curses and Traitors, Lords of Xidit and Let’s Build a Haunting
It's Halloween time again and the ghosts and goblins are out and looking for trouble. Today the gang takes ghoulish pleasure in reviewing Transylvania Curses and Traitors. Then the Founders look back a Lords of Xidit and give their thoughts a year later. Tony Topper gives you a terrifying look at all the news and updates from the gaming world in his news segment. Then the guys resurrect an old discussion topic in which they free form create stories in Tony's Topper's Let's Build a Haunting.
Invaders from Outer Space
Last Night on Earth: Timber Peak
Blood Rage
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small
Machi Koro
Bootleggers
Dragon’s Gold
Medina
La Granja
Eclipse
Transylvania Curses and Traitors
In the late 19th Century the land of Transylvania fell under a terrible curse allowing Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies to terrorize the citizens. The Governor issued a desperate plea for help. You play one of the best and bravest Adventurers in the world called to Transylvania to break the curse. Your goal is to find the Knowledge to break the curse over Transylvania but beware, the Knowledge you seek may just turn you into one of the terrible Monsters you have come to destroy. Transylvania: Curses & Traitors is a heavily themed adventure and exploration game utilizing a modular board, variable player powers, hand management, and dice rolling. Paths to victory include: 1. Solving the curse of Transylvania by finding the right combination of Knowledge cards and returning your pawn to the Church Tile. 2. Becoming a Monster (vampire, werewolf, or zombie) by collecting Transformation cards and then killing half the other players. 3. Killing a Monster as an Adventurer. Game play: The board consists of sixteen 6" x 6" tiles representing places in Transylvania such as the Church, Graveyard, and Castle. Adventurers start on the Church Tile and explore uncovering new tiles. Each tile contains token spaces which are opportunities to perform challenges of strength, mental acuity, and spiritual fortitude. A successful challenge results in the reward of a Quest card. The Quest deck contains the Knowledge cards needed to break the curse. While exploring Adventurers will also encounter Events. Failure of Events leads to injury and/or death while success leads to additional rewards. If Adventurers collect Transformation cards plus a card that activates the Transformation card, they become a Vampire, Werewolf, or Zombie. The goal of the game immediately changes from seeking Knowledge to eliminating the other players by attacking them.
Lords of Xidit
The Black Southern Host has arisen, corrupting the hearts of the indigenous creatures. Afflicted by a mysterious sickness, they are attacking human cities. The last remaining hope for restoring peace to Xidit lies with the Kingdom's noble heirs, the Idrakys. As one of them, you must roam the Kingdom recruiting brave soldiers and reclaiming threatened cities. Your bravery will not go unrewarded: accumulate wealth, send bards to sing your praises, and build Sorcerers' Guilds! Lords of Xidit features simultaneous programming and an elimination-based scoring system that leaves no room for complacency! In more detail, at the end of the game players compare their influence in one category and the player with the least influence is eliminated and his pieces removed from the board; players then compare influence in another category, with a player again being removed. The order of elimination is randomly determined at the start of play, forcing you to thinking in different ways each game. Prepare to ride out, Idrakys, and forge your legend!