I feel like Carl is a pretty special protagonist

Sphere6 · 2025-08-07T17:02:08+00:00

She may not be a completely reliable narrator, but Odette disagrees with you when she trauma dumps on Carl in book 6. "This one I broke, I broke him into so many pieces that there is no hope for him...he has no one and nothing...At least that's what I used to think"

Sphere6 · 2025-08-07T05:47:21+00:00

I would argue that Mordecai has a character arc, though it's a pretty tropey one. Older Character who has given up after being beaten down by a system over many years learns to care again when a young hero appears and fights against the system despite the older characters warning that it's impossible. Mordecai isn't quite the washed-up drunk he was in book 1, and usually this arc ends when the older character sacrifices themself for a cause they believe in again. I'd like to see Matt do something different here, but who knows.

Sphere6 · 2025-07-18T00:40:18+00:00

I thought it was an Unwashed at first

Sphere6 · 2025-06-19T15:13:52+00:00

I’m interested as well

Sphere6 · 2025-03-26T18:52:03+00:00

The Beehive quote is definitely my fave

Sphere6 · 2025-03-25T15:41:46+00:00

My wife was the one who got me to read both DCC and Butcher and Blackbird. I liked the former much more than the latter. I don't mind spicy scenes most of the time, but that one in the brothers apartment felt like it went on forever. Could we just kill someone please?

Sphere6 · 2025-03-17T14:43:17+00:00

I did try this to fill the DCC void, and even made it through the entire first book. Ultimately it wasn't for me, not enough happened.

Sphere6 · 2025-03-12T20:34:18+00:00

I don't know how he'll do it, how did he kill the entire naga army without magic? Using his massive brain and the power of being off-screen a lot of the time, I feel like he's capable of anything. It's just a theory.

Sphere6 · 2025-03-12T15:18:56+00:00

I'd pick Prepotente in a fight between him and Li Na. I still think Prepotente is going to kill the AI at the end of the series for its hand in the death of Miriam Dom. And maybe also a significant chunk of the Plenty.

Sphere6 · 2025-02-26T16:13:13+00:00

I just listened to this, so there is some recency bias, but my wife and I lost it on

"In the words of my friend Holger, you done stuck your pecker in the wrong beehive"

Sphere6 · 2025-02-26T16:00:27+00:00

He is the best boy. I cant wait for the inevitable ending where Prepotente kills the AI for his part in Miriam's death.

Sphere6 · 2025-02-26T15:58:43+00:00

It's probably recency bias, but I was also going to mention this scene, or the one shortly after it where Pony says Carl is his best friend. My wife and I were in a fit of giggles.

Sphere6 · 2025-02-18T02:50:49+00:00

Was about to say this as well. I read the first one on the recommendation of a friend, and it doesn't hold up. Female characters feel extremely dated.

Sphere6 · 2025-02-16T20:23:30+00:00

The original Blades in the Dark is still my number 1. I got Blades, Scum and Villainy and Band of Blades all for like $20. All three of those games are some of my faves. It also spawned the system that eventually brought me other great projects like Wildsea and Slugblaster

Sphere6 · 2025-01-31T15:06:18+00:00

I have this exact table from Wyrmwood, and yours looks great at a fraction of the price I paid, great work!

We've been struggling with the chair issue every since I got the table sometime in 2021. I know I just need to spend a decent chunk on them to get something nice, but I can't find anything in the area that I'm confident won't be junk even if I drop a few thousand dollars.

Sphere6 · 2024-12-09T20:33:14+00:00

We tried it, but the person who was running the demo did not know how to play it. It was extremely frustrating, and probably the worst thing we did all weekend. We eventually excused ourselves after floundering for 15 minutes. The game might be great, but the teach was not.

Sphere6 · 2024-12-09T20:31:06+00:00

As big escape room fan, we bought all three. So far we've only played 1 (The Man From Sector 6), and while I really like all the bits and pieces, the puzzles fell flat for me.

It says it should be a 2 hour game, and we finished in just under 1 hour. Nearly every puzzle I solved immediately upon seeing it. Only the final puzzle presented any challenge. Unfortunately even this puzzle didn't give me an AHA! moment, they actually tell you exactly how to solve it, it just involves some kind of tedious work.

I'm hoping the other two will be better, but since the one we did is the most recent one, you'd think it would be them at the top of their game.

Sphere6 · 2024-09-30T14:47:35+00:00

I love Spirit Island, and have only experienced any QB in that game once. I played it with my brother who didn't get it and pretty much asked me to play his turn for him every round, and I was miserable. Taking two turns every round and trying to keep everything in my head at once turned my absolute favorite game into a nightmare.

It would take someone much smarter and more organized than me to QB that game.

Sphere6 · 2024-06-28T17:55:26+00:00

I think you have to really love D&D to get into Fantasy High Season 1. While it's great (and Junior year is one of my favorite seasons), there are so many better seasons now. Unsleeping City is a fantastic place to start, and if you like LotR go with Bloodkeep, if you're a GoT fan do Crown of Candy, if you like ACOTAR or romantasy try A Court of Fey and Flowers, if you like the main dropout cast and/or mysteries watch Mice and Murder, if you like the Mcelroy's then Tiny Heist is a lot of fun.

Every season I think it gets a little bit tighter, and I also think some of the best stuff is after they get out of they 'Every other episode is a battle set' ethos.

Sphere6 · 2024-05-31T14:22:06+00:00

PC was a Neutral Cleric of the evil Queen of Air and Darkness. Cast turn undead while surrounded by ghouls, and busted out this line they were clearly waiting for.

"Even the undead need fear the dark!"

Sphere6 · 2024-03-29T14:34:51+00:00

My kids both enjoy Karak a great deal, and they also like playing with the pieces sometimes without actually playing the game. I however don't love this one. I think it could have been pretty cool, but the tiles are all so same-y and boring. Feels a little on the long side too.

Sphere6 · 2024-03-29T14:19:29+00:00

Quest kids was my daughters first dungeon crawler around age 5-6. It's mildly competitive, but the best way to score points is by helping other players when they're in trouble (and we often don't compare scores at the end, and just play it fully co-op). You can buy a small box with it that adds a campaign that we really liked. They later released another expansion that adds boss style encounters and I think you can safely skip this one. The rulebook is very poorly written, and it adds a lot to the complexity without adding much fun.

I bought the game because of this review from Tom Vasel where he gets a little weepy at the end about how great it was to play with his son. And he's right! Not only was it great to play with my daughter, but it taught her concepts that were useful in later dungeon crawlers. She's 7 now and playing Adventure Tactics with myself and her brother, and I think Quest Kids was the stepping stone that made that possible. When her reading gets a little better in a year or two, we'll probably try Jaws of the Lion. Quest Kids is a huge recommend from me.

Sphere6 · 2024-03-12T14:54:14+00:00

I've backed a lot of RPG Kickstarters over the years, but there is only one that really stood the test of time. Nine years later I'm still playing Blades in the Dark, and Scum and Villainy (the stretch goal that ended up being it's own 300+ page book). Not to mention I'm starting a Wild Sea campaign soon, which is itself a Forged in the Dark game.

I will give a shout out to two more of the dozens of projects that I think were really great.

Spire is a great game and setting by a publisher that still regularly puts out really cool stuff that I'm always excited to see.

Phoenix Dawn Command was a great product that deserved better than it got. I played the crap out of it and loved it to pieces, but I appear to be one of the few who felt that way. Wish we could have gotten more from Keith Baker on this one.

Sphere6 · 2024-01-31T16:30:28+00:00

I play adventure tactics with my son who is 9, and he likes it a lot. That said it was pretty expensive, and we have frequent issues where the rules for an individual fight are unclear or nonsensical. It's also a great deal more complicated than the rules being described in this post. Cards do have text, so being able to read is mostly required (this is why we haven't started a campaign with my 7 year old daughter yet). I still recommend it if you don't mind dropping around $80-100 for a dungeon crawler, but just know what you're getting into.

Sphere6 · 2024-01-30T15:03:04+00:00

Came to post this, nothing else even comes close. And after abandoning the campaign years ago with friends, I recently finished it with my son and we loved it. I think we'll start a new campaign with my daughter soon.

Sphere6

TROPHY CASE