Hands on Impressions: Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan

One of the hot new games featured at AEG's booth this year was Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan.  Set in the world of L5R, this is the first in what the company hopes to be a series of lighter L5R board games.  Their hope is to create more titles, pitting different clans against one another.  I was personally excited to try this as I have been interested in L5R culture, but found breaking into the card game challenging to say the least.  With the lack of a good set of rules, it appears that only those who have friends already fluent in the language of L5R can really learn the ins and outs of the popular trading card game.  This new set of board games is perfect for entering the samurai world of L5R. 

I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to sit and play Ninja at Gen Con, but I had obtained a copy for review and I finally got it to the table during a recent Friday game night.  That evening Rob, our in-house expert on all things L5R, and I sat down to see what this game was all about.  Ninja is centered around the Lion and Scorpion Clans (both of which are Rob's preferred Clans).  The board features a map of a castle in the heart of the Lion Clan provinces.  It is a beautiful board, but I wish the walls were a bit more defined.  They tend to blend in with the surroundings making it a little confusing when trying to locate the boundaries.

The game supports 2-4 players.  One or two players can play as the Samurai Guards who stand, alert, around the grounds of the castle.  The other one or two players take on the role of the intruders who move secretly around the board.  One player plays as a Ninja and the other as a Traitor amongst the Lion Clan.  In a two or three player game one player handles both traitors.

The traitors are given different secret objectives that they must complete in order to win the game.  These could be anything from destroy the supplies to kill the honored guests.  Each intruder must navigate across the board, undetected, to locate their goals.  To do this, they chart their moves secretly on a map hidden from view.  While moving and searching around the grounds, the guard player(s) are given clues as to the where-a-bouts of the intruders.  The faster the intruders move, the more easily they are heard and possibly discovered.  Through deduction, and the help of some cards, the guards attempt to locate the intruders and remove the threat. 

The game suggests that play time is around an hour.  Do not expect this for your first game.  Like most games, expect to add at least an extra 1/2 hour, and in the case of our first game it was more like an extra hour.  We found the initial set up to be simple enough, but did have some trouble working out all the rules on our first run through.  We often found ourselves checking in with the rules for clarity and thought that some of the rules could have been clearer.  I do believe the game will run much quicker the next time we play though.  More in the realm of 60-75 minutes.

Despite the extra length of our initial game, I thought the game was enjoyable.  I am a fan of most deduction games and found great pleasure in sneaking around the board as a ninja.  Not so sure Rob was happy about the situation, though.  I lucked out and managed to find my two objectives rather quickly and escaped without a scratch by turn 11. Sorry Rob!  
 

Click Here for Rob's Review

Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan is set to reach your FLGS this October and would be a great holiday gift for anyone who loves deduction games. A beautiful game with solid game play, this is sure to to bring a smile to any Ninja fan!  

Interview with Reiner Knizia

Dr. Reiner Knizia is a master game designer, and we had the opportunity to speak with him during Gen Con 2011.  We met at the Lego booth to learn a little more about his involvement with Lego's new board games.

Listen to the whole interview HERE

 "What fascinates me the most is actually (Lego's) approach to say, uh, first of all we build the game, that's typical Lego. Now it's new, we play with the game. But then comes a very creative part, and then we change the game. So, there's always an invitation in each role of the game...because we are Lego you can rebuild the board you can rebuild the figures, you can redo the rules." -Reiner Knizia

 

"Of course it isn't a wooden die, it is a Lego die...In some of the games the die actually changes while you play." - Reiner Knizia

Dan: "So, they are encouraging future game designers. After they play, they can become the next Reiner Knizia."
Reiner: "Yes, why not?"


There is no doubt that Reiner is passionate about games.  His love for games and certain individual themes can be seen in many of his titles including, Star Trek Expeditions from Wizkids, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings board game from Fantasy Flight Games, and Ramses Pyramid and Ramses Return from Lego.  To hear more about Reiner and his games, stay tuned for the new Board Game Documentary: Going Cardboard coming soon from Lorien Green.


 

Role-play: Through the eyes of the child

Why do educators love games?

Games provide authentic experiences that reinforce learning. 

Oh, and they are a heck of a lot of FUN!

Meet Holly Booth, a Girl Guide from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and a gamer. I first met Holly at the Lesson Plans and Ideas seminar during Gen Con's Trade Day. Trade Day is a day set aside for retailers and educators to get together to share their experiences with games and to learn new and exciting ways of using them. After the first few minutes talking with Holly it became crystal clear that she had a passion for teaching kids to play games. Her most recent experience was with her brownie troop running, of all things, a D&D campaign. While the others played hide-and-seek, they were playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Camp is all about getting creative and learning new skills. Heroes of Hesoid, a D&D adventure for kids 6 years and older, was a new form of creativity. From the start, the kids were hooked and she found herself amazed at the results. “The quiet ones always picked the rogues.” she explained with a wide smile. She was astonished at how the girls seemed to blossom and take charge of their roles. “I was thinking to myself, you haven't said a word all week, but you just fried that entire hoard of pixies!” In fact, Ella, a very shy 7 year old in the group, got so into her role that she proclaimed “Can I do my sneak attack now?” 

It is plain to see that games allow us to break out of our shells and experience the world in new and wonderful ways. Role-playing, in particular, give us the opportunity to step into someone else's shoes and try things we might not normally attempt. Cooperation, leadership skills, creative thinking, and problem-solving are just a few of the wonderful skills kids can gain through role-play. Make believe is a natural part of childhood, and dungeons and dragons as well as other role-playing experiences are the perfect vehicle to foster that type of play.

Yarr Con 2011

Our Awesome Travel Game Closet Filled to the Brim!

Group Camp Site - Check
Screen Tents with Picnic Tables - Check
Awesome New Travel Game Closet - Check
Games to fill said closet - Check
Friends to play games with - Check
9 Days in the woods playing games - Double Check!

July 12th marked our 8th annual Yarr Camping Trip and another great gamer gathering in the woods. Here's a break down of this year's gaming fun.

After the initial set up on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, it was time to get down to the good part - Playing Games!!

We kicked off the trip with our first ever play of Survive! Escape from Atlantis.  I had been looking forward to playing this since we interviewed Stephen Buonocore of Stronghold Games at the Alliance Open House last fall.  It did not disappoint!  In fact, it quickly became one of our favorites of the week and has now found a permanent place in our home game closet.

Glen arrived at the conclusion of Survive, so Dan, Jule Ann, and Valerie joined him in a few games of Eleminis.  I went to go get us some snacks.  Who knew an almost 3 year old would be so good at Eleminis!  Valerie loved the game so much that she asked to play multiple times during the rest of the trip.  I sense a birthday present for a lucky little girl!

Next, we climbed aboard our pirate ships and gathered doubloons, all the while racing to be the first ship around the island of Jamaica.  The winds were not in my favor as I came in third.

After our excursion we decided to go a little old-school and took a trip back to our humble gaming beginnings with the 10th anniversary edition of Carcassonne.  Those fields are still tricky, tricky, tricky.  Jule Ann beat us all easily with a whopping score of 101!  I was in a distant second with a score in the mere 70's.

At this point, we were feeling pretty good about our gaming success, especially us mommies.  With a ratio of 4 adults to 3 kids, we were getting steady game time in.  Some of us didn't even think we would be able to all sit and play a game until more adults arrived to lend a hand.  We broke for dinner and bedtime for the kiddos before our final game of the evening: Star Trek Expeditions. For some reason cooperative games just did not seem to be our forte this trip.  We did succeed in beating our mission on medium, but discovered we had forgotten a crucial rule by re-shuffling the energize cards when the pile was depleted.  For this reason, I do not think we should count it as a victory.

And thus began our mission to play as many games as possible.  Some of us had the luxury of being there the entire time, while others only managed half that time.  In any case, it was another successful Yarr Con and the following is a break-down of everyone's plays.

We played a total of 28 unique games, with a total of 72 plays all together.  Glen was the winner of the most games played.  He had an impressive grand total of 51 out of 72!  Tim came in a close second with 42.  Dan played 33.  Jule Ann and I both had a respectable 20 games each and agreed that we managed more than we expected.  Perhaps it was partially our use of Jule Ann's Crappy Housewives Tips that allowed us to gain more freedom, or the fact that the weather and our children cooperated with us this year.  In any case, our kids decided to nap at reasonably close times and for decent stretches of time making it far more feasible for us to get some games in uninterrupted.

Here are the rest of the groups recorded plays:

• Ali (15)
• Jeremy (10)
• Phil (7)
• Rachel (5)
• Valerie (5 - all Eleminis)
• Eppy (2)
• Emily (2)
• Mary Alice (1)

Other notable highlights from the weekend included:

Our terrible run of coop games:

• Star Trek Expeditions - Loss on Easy due to destruction by Klingon Battlecruiser.
• Witch of Salem - Really does anyone ever win this one???
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Buffy was turned and all hope was lost!
• Lord of the Rings LCG: Journey down the Anduin - Man you really need Gimli for that Scenario!  Big Trolls = FAIL!

Dan, Tim, and Glen's epic day of Star Wars Dueling! Seems the dark side was the winner in most matches.

A surprise visit from local friends (Eppy and Emily) on our last night.

And Glen and I managed a perfect tie in our first game of Nightfall: Martial Law!

In the end, the games that won our hearts and time this year were Star Wars - Epic Duels (with 15 plays), Quarriors (8 plays), Eleminis (6 recorded plays), and Survive! (4 plays with one or two other games started and not completed).  It was a load of fun and I can't wait till next year!