More than Nothing: Skydagger

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The squad remains at Hazelbrook for months until a message via raven suddenly arrives instructing them to destroy the Hazelbrook bridge that fords a deep and wide ravine. The get to it immediately, witnessing a small squad of crusaders fleeing from a massive dust cloud caused by a horde of cavalry of the Wang Dynasty. They get the squad across the bridge before collapsing it, dropping some of the pursuers to their deaths below. 

From across the chasm, general Wang Bang mocks them - showing off his coin-sword and the head of Ino Imzoro, promising to make their whole nation bow to the mighty Wang - the descendants of the Bhir'Beli Tigidig worshipers, before leading his horsemen away. The survivors tell them they are the last of Ino's crusaders, having been wiped out by the Wangs who were also purging the worm worshipers of El Kanadar from their end. 

At least there were survivors - which is more than nothing, but knowing they can't hope to survive against that number of enemies without a strategic advantage, the squad and their 35 allies quickly make their way back towards Skydagger - losing five to the giant cats in a rainy, red leaf forest as they opt to go fast instead of safe.

They then travel through a large underground cave of giant spiders but don't linger, also bypassing a supposedly abandoned prison but flickering lights in the windows and screams from within indicate otherwise. They deftly dodge pit traps around the facility, even pulling an escapee to freedom who joins them: the clockwork knight Kenrick! 

Finally they make it to the ruined Skydagger fortress and spend their time currency to train, rest up, and build walls and a siege engine just before the horde of horsemen arrive in waves. Moomba's archer team and Ughhh's siege weaponry hold most of the enemy at bay though the few that make it do kill some of the defenders. At the end, General Wang Bang himself appears and eliminates an ambush squad who waited the whole time for him (coin sword is a coin toss) but an arrow finally puts down the general ending the threat. Ever Worthlessman is among the 17 allies that died in battle.

Eventually they are reinforced by Aeternian's reserves and return to their homes as heroes. For a time.

[Inspiration from Band of Blades]

More than Nothing: Crusaders

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Ughhh's direct approach to the rescue attempt leads to a brief melee which involves Jerghon G pole vaulting over Walram's guards to hold the Lord at sword point, but the skirmish is interupted by the arrival of of a massive army of crusaders led by Yuno Imzoro and his nephew, the famously best swordsman in Aeternia who wields the magical coin-sword - Ino Imzoro.

By decree of the new Papa Smorfonof (aka Papa Smurf) all Aeternians from the lowest slaves to highest lords must join the holy crusade against the worm worshipers of El Kanadar to the East. Lord Teck tries to talk his way out of it and by doing so is found guilty of heresy and put to the stake (he is impaled upon it and set alight). No one else questions the order after that and our teenage heroes and their friends join as camp followers, doing menial tasks of cooking and cleaning while also receiving basic training as the massive host easily makes ground into heretic lands.

Only upon reaching the natural bottleneck between Aeternia and El Kanadar, the foolishly abandoned stone ruins of Skydagger fortress in a narrow mountain pass, do they receive their crusader mantle and are sent to into missions, the first being an easy one where Ughhh critically succeeds in convincing a village converted into a field hospital to basically convert religion and aid them.

Their next task is liberating the mining town of Karel where Jerghon G and Raah-Min sneak upon the fortress past inattentive guards and jam their gate, letting the others easily free the enslaved miners in the work site outside and with bolstered numbers the fortress soldiers surrender on the spot.

Finally they reach El Kanadar's Capital of Rakash where they are hand picked by Yuno Imzoro to join him in a heroic charge - just the five of them against the full enemy line - to prove the might of Numero Uno. It doesn't go well as their horses are brought low by enemy archers mere meters away from the enemy infantry and leaving them very far from support. Yuno is hurt severely but Ughhh goes out of his way to defend the man while Moomba takes out the enemy worm caster leader. 

They manage to hold until Ino brings up the infantry who then win the day with heavy losses, a result he squarely blames the party on. As such he stations them and a small squad at the seemingly insignificant hamlet with of Hazelbrook while he continues  the crusade to the East, but that location will soon prove to be more than nothing. 

[Inspiration from Darklands and  Lost Eidolons]

More than Nothing: The Artorias Interlude

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Praetor Artorias' campaign at Caphtor ended in disaster. Of the five ships he sent, only nine people returned - four of whom were prisoners and soldiers of his rival Empress Palisa, and one a foreign violet knight named Dorza. While they were sent to be reconditioned to serve in his army, he questioned the remaining survivors about the events that led to this loss, including the great beam of light shooting up from the island and making it vanish as well as what transpired to turn the sun into a cold, dull blue color...

After being separated by a thick fog, Rowina, Yuriet, Waywocket and Dorza managed to regroup - collecting four bound and sleeping prisoners on a hilltop, but with no initial sign of the others they decided to make their way back to the beach head camp being established by Eagley and Lord Moroney. 

Meanwhile Il'bakstabyo alone, witnessed the growing sun gain a horrific looking face, a huge humanoid body and began to start eating everything in its path. As his sanity slipped away Il'bakstabyo then heard a strange song, and witnessed what looked to be Jerghonson with a golden clarinet battle the sun using his music, causing the sun to scream in a beam of light into the heavens until it shriveled up, turning blue and retreated back into the sky. 

The others found Il'bakstabyo sometime later crying and curled into a ball and took him with them back to the landing site where they discovered the camp being annihilated by a hydra. Rowina the acrobat had come across a magical coin-sword in the fog, and managed to use it to slay the beast but not before it killed everyone else in camp. Fleeing on a small craft they set out into the misty waters but upon looking back the island had simply vanished...

After sending the insane Il'bakstabyo out into the wilderness as he had no more use for him, Artorias took the coin-sword from Rowina and made her as well as the other two survivors, Yuriet and Waywocket, generals in his small army to take Aeterna's throne in Crown City. To make up their weak numbers, Waywocket suggested legitimizing and joining the oppressed Numerologist religion whose hordes of practitioners made up the vast majority in the city (the slaves and servant population, who numbered vastly more than nothing).

The ploy worked and the city defenders couldn't win a battle from forces outside and within, and Artorias took the throne... but soon the Numerologists elected their own leader: "The Dos" who alone could hear the voice of Numero Uno. Papa Petrus was the first Dos and it quickly became clear that Artorias could not hold onto power without the Papa's say so. Over the next few years the Papa's power and influence grew while that of Artorias waned into comical relief as his own troops and generals had no control over the fervorous Numeroligist believers.

Years later we find our new heroes, a band of Aeternian teens: Raah-min the Great Grand Daughter of Aah (Rose), Moomba the grand daughter of Mamita (Mom), Ughhh the Great Grand son of Ughh (Juris), and Jerghon G the grandson of Jerghonson the Great (DL) following their friend, Ever Worthlessman, through the forest to the small wooden fortress of Walram Teck to free their other teenage friends Lord Teck has taken a fancy to.

[Inspired by Constantine the Great] 

Luftrausers and Rival Stars Horse Racing

Games that start strong.

Luftrausers

In this beautiful artistic sepia arcade bullet hell shooter, you fly your plane on a 2D plane to blast enemy air and sea craft to smithereens while also trying to evade their fire ALL to some super epic music which really gets the blood pumping. This is very much an achievement based game, as getting those goals unlocks more plane parts that give more goals - and despite the seemingly simplistic three part modular plane chassis,  you can get a ton of variety from the bits available. Very cool, but even with the epic handling and music the gameplay loop gets repetitive a few hours in. Still one of the better bullet hell things I've played for a while.

Rival Stars Horse Racing

After inheriting a run down homestead it's up to you to restore it and regain its status by winning horse races! This super chillaxing game has two main sections - the racing and the upgrading bit. Racing is simpler so we'll start there: with minimalistic controls of left, right and sprint you really are at the mercy of your horses stats as an untrained one will simply have no chance on the harder tracks. Sprint is interesting in how it recharges: your horse has a preferred position and to regain sprint power faster you need to stay in that position - which can be a tricky proposition!

Upgrading the homestead simply requires resources you win or buy from gold (and also costs gold on top) which can let you keep more horses, foal more horses (breed champions bro), and improve training facilities to let you improve your animals even more. The part I don't like is that participating in races costs money, and if you are out of it you need to wait for your timed income to drop. Yep, its the "waiting to have fun" section of the game and that's what kills it for me. A simple fix is letting you race for free but alas, that was a lost opportunity. Otherwise, a pretty decent game for city bound horse lovers. You can even do free rides around your ranch just for fun.

Project First Contact and Targeted 10 Days

Games that are too simple?

Project First Contact

This feels like someone's early attempt at making a first person horror game, and with the vague explanation of an "alien invasion" you will be running down what is usually a single on the rails path to avoid some really bizarre enemies like cop clothes, floating heads, and burning corpses slithering on the ground? Then you get to the underground level and it becomes even more strange. Not recommended.

Targeted 10 Days

In this small game you must survive for 10 days until you can give evidence against a mafia don and the whole loop each day is going to the parking garage, looking to see if there's something out of place that could kill you, and then deciding if you are getting in your car or back in the elevator. If there's a trap, the elevator guarantees safety. If there's no trap, the elevator guarantees death. It's annoying at the start without knowing what to look for, but at least a map on the elevator shows where the last thing that killed you was hiding so you know to check there in the future. 

While the well hidden traps are annoying, it does make the super obvious traps very funny (like your car is COVERED in dynamite. LOL). And if you get too good at that you can switch it to anomaly mode which puts it very much into a Halloween style ghosts and goblins mode. It's polished enough to be a fun diversion for a few hours.

Foretales and Cardpocalypse

Games with card based mechanics!

Foretales

A simple job to steal a magic lyre very much goes sideways when the thief Volepain (that's you) starts getting visions of the future after touching it. From then on its a race to try beat the many "doom clocks" by undertaking story based missions and the way it works is really clever. Each party member has their own deck of cards and your hand is made up of a combination of them, and as they function both in combat and in exploration it becomes a balancing act of spending things to advance your mission or hanging on to others for upcoming fights (which you can often win without fighting - depending on your foe).

Nice bright art, nice tutorial, good characters, and interesting puzzles are a big draw for this one - but then they had to go ruin it. Instead of being a branching story based on your choices, you are eventually made to go back and repeat missions to... extend the game time? Sorry, that one design choice killed this for me - but I did enjoy it quite a lot before that point. Not sure if I would recommend...

Cardpocalypse

As a new student in school you quickly discover that all your peers play the uber popular Pokemon PowerPets card game that involves two players battling each other using an animal themed card deck with the objective of defeating the opponents "champion" card who always starts on the table. On each of your turns you can add minions with varying powers to the board (depending on the amount of pet food available). The tutorial is pretty good in this one too in introducing basic mechanics but the art style is weak compared to Foretales, and the main gameplay loop of constant battling gets tiring quickly.

More than Nothing: Total Party Wipe

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The boss battle ensues and its a long one because the current heroes have a dwindling supply of re-roll coins and gear while their opponents ALSO use plot armor to avoid damage. In the end, its almost plot armoring the whole way to see who runs out of it first! [GM Note: As fun as this was for me, it made the fight really drag out so I'm not doing that again :P]

Plot armor:

Master Miner Mama: remembered her neighbor Chitty Chatty noticed her try to hide the gem she found on her land (while helping her plant crops) and demanded to see it as it should be hers. Mama refused and kept the gem. She also had a knack for digging up things ever since she was little, always carrying an earth worm with her. Her past works in other mines didn't pay too well so she began digging into graves of the dead to fund her addiction of cocaine!

Jerghon the Great: was once a decorated and faithful warrior but was no longer fit for the field after developing blood lust!

Mamita: remembered her child hood friend "a bird" who she could finally be around and got into all sorts of fun and trouble with them, finding a feather of a raven together and apparently getting into trouble for painting "a bird", which "a bird" somehow escaped. This is because Mamita realized that "a bird" was just a figment of her imagination and she was alone the whole time. Later on though she befriended Bob the Blacksmith who had a shared interest in birds.

Ughh: remembered his time as a Partopian police with recruit Joseph the Unfair where the team crashed a fireman's protection racket, let go a perfumer whose crime was fleeing from an arranged marriage with an ill-reputable whore monger, and let Joseph kill a thief who suggested he might have information about Joseph the Unfair he wanted to trade for his freedom. Joseph later admits that he was a horse breeder whose prized stallions were seized by the torturous Aeternan cavalry without payment and he enlisted to get them back, planning to desert with his entire herd at an opportune moment. Despite knowing this treason is punishable by death Ughh helped him.

Ughh then recalled the last party he got absolutely drunk / wasted in, apparently it was in a high tree with plenty of his favorite addiction to partake in: nuts. He also hit it off well with "a bird".

Aah: remembered when she learned a market vendor owed her caretaker Governor Quintus some money, and one day saw said vendor leave a bag of money at the market when packing up. She gave the bag to the vendor but reminded them of the debt owed, it was more than nothing. Later she learned Quintus was regularly stealing from the people and she testified against him to be free of him.

Then during her time as Partopian police she arrested a merchant trying to be "helpful" by sending poisoned food parcels to a plagued village as well as his poison supplier, a doctor trying to cure the plague who was stealing bodies from a graveyard and created the poison as a byproduct of her research.

When she was sent to clear out some "demons" in the sewers that just turned out to be narcotic indulging squatters, she gave them a warning to move on before the next one sent in would come to kill them. One of the squatters was Suri, an eight year old girl who wanted vengeance on a silk merchant she claimed killed her family. Aah tried to dissuade her but later found the silk merchant dead and witnesses reporting that they saw a giant spider transform back into a little girl fleeing from the scene. Aah secretly helped Suri and kept her this whole time (in small spider form in her pack) and unleashed her into battle!

Jerghonson: remembered his sibling rival Jimgon died saving his life against a mighty demon and then during his time as Partopian police investigated a stone mason carving cursed runes into the foundations of a number of villas, causing giant rats to appear within. He let the man go in exchange for being introduced to someone with greater power - a toweringly tall man with rotting skin and a horrifying mask who granted him his magical desire: a golden clarinet of sleep, which he had kept hidden all this time because of his uncontrollable urge to keep playing it if he started.

The End Result...

With things going poorly Jerghonson pulled out the golden clarinet and put everyone to sleep, tying up the four champions of the Empress. Then, he wandered towards the city as did his companions (when they awoke) but thanks to the thick magical fog found themselves each arriving alone...

Mamita found herself on an open plain where she was utterly certain that was where the City would be built, and would grow with the right rulers. She stayed to become a founder.

Aah made it to a city of colored lights, strange machines, and discordant music of the future.

Jerghonson found himself underneath a roaring liquid light (space shuttle / missile about to take off) so he fled to continue playing his golden clarinet. Forever.

Ughh saw the city vanish like a mirage and clearly saw the truth that the City was a lie. Then he put on the cursed crown of headsplosions and killed himself.

[Inspired by Mythic Bastionland]  

More than Nothing: At the Edge of the City

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Traveling away from Highthrone the company come across a giant wall at the border of Ruskyn's territory under attack by the Boulder Knight (he's the basically the Juggernaut) who breaches it while backed by the horde knight Valamonde whose clones make up the bulk of the rest of the attacking force. Jerghonson trips the boulder knight and Aah smashes his face in with the dust knight's old hammer, killing the brute. Most of the Valamondes are slain as well, at the cost of Orwan and the soldier Crixus. 

They follow the fleeing Valamonde's back to the Ridgeline outpost expecting a fight but the leader there, Lady Dorza the Violet Knight lets them in to rest on the condition she can go with them to find the city and get rid of her seemingly useless (but also more than nothing) ultra-violet light powers that only she and a few animals like bees can detect. They agree to these terms. 

Once on the road again they meet another knight going the opposite way telling them to turn back as the city is just going to deny them as it did her with a great fog. She continues that its just around the corner before sulking off before a flying fortress arrives in the sky, broadcasting the message "do not interfere with the destiny of the realm" before bombing the entire region!

Lucky Wazzletard covers the company from and damage and while the landscape is destroyed, they see a long dark tunnel on the other side of which looks like the city as Dorza remembers it. As Wazzletard cannot fit within, they let the bird go before proceeding inside and half way through it fills with smoke and a small light appears in the distance as well as a loud "CHOO CHOO" sound. 

They quickly press themselves against a wall and let the train pass before running for the exit. In the thick smoke they lose track of all their companions and instead find themselves on a hill - beyond which is a city of colored lights and brick towers. Four other individuals who look like themselves, just older, block the way. They are Ugh, Sith, Mama, and Jerghon the Great (the previous player characters) who have been sent here to secure the source of magic for Empress Palisa of Goatgetterville, rival of Praetor Artorias! With similar orders neither group can leave the other alive!

[Inspired by Mythic Bastionland]  

More than Nothing: Highthrone

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Resting up again at the Temple of Stillness, Mirror Knight Gowere lets the party meet a hologram of Halo Knight Ruskyn who offers them paid mercenary work (in the form of reroll coins) for keeping peace on the island - telling them of the secret signal his allies will use to indicate such (by touching their nose twice). This meeting is interrupted by the Bell Knight Dame Dellakar seeking aid against a mushroom uprising and they assist, losing two soldiers to the cordyceps mummies before dousing their source, a death-farting candleshroom. 

They proceed onto the now empty Echo cave save for the guardian wraith within, which has no chance against Jergonson's god spear, to retrieve an indigo tapestry for Dellakar. She claims she was getting visions that the tapestry would take her to the city and upon wearing it she vanishes! This doesn't help our heroes though who continue on the road and accept a job from the pillar wielding rune knight Myghal to defend Highthrone against a number of beasts sent by the dust knight - one of Ruskyn's enemies who seeks throne. 

The first is a gargoyle who manages to petrify Orwan so they spend some time getting him unstoned which involves burying his statue then putting a chicken egg on it, waiting 24 hours without looking at it for it to hatch a brand new Orwan, albeit more chickeny. The next beast is a Wyvern who is easily baited and slain, then a lion that can shoot lazers that kills four more soldiers, and shortly after a great flaming eagle but "I am bright!" from Aah blinds it and a critical arrow from Mamita finishes it before they reach the dust knight's garbage fortress. This lone enemy manages to magically force all the fluids out of one more soldier (yeah, that's fatal) before he is slain by overwhelming numbers. 

Myghal leaves the party at Highthrone where they rest up and Mamita collects the handsome reward from Ruskyn while Aah and Jerghonson  participate in a tourney against some clockwork knights. The last surviving robot, Kenrick, surrenders against its master tinkerer's wishes. It then kills its cruel creator to prove it's more than nothing and begs to join the team, which Jerghonson and Aah accept.

Meanwhile Ughh assists the pigeon knight Jacobin look for a cursed crown which turns out to be easy to find. He lets Jacobin put it on which instantly drives him insane, making him mutter "the city is a lie" over and over before his head explodes. Ughh takes the crown and passes a will check to resist the temptaion to put it on. He then also befriends a mistreated giant worker bird called Wazzletard (because that's the only sound it makes), and buys it from its cruel boss to join the party.

[Inspired by Mythic Bastionland]  

More than Nothing: The Dead Lands

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Exiled from the village the company marches on and witnesses a strange sight in that the sun begins to glow extra bright and stays in the sky for a really long time. Suddenly a trio of law sergeants appear and hand Mamita a warning that she is to be called for judgement for the crime of "existence" when the time is right, and briefly abduct Jerghonson (via teleportation cloud) to their master, the giant robed judge Ambrageft who tasks him as being witness and answer a single question: "Does Mamita exist?". Jergonson says yes, and is returned to his team instantly.

Unnerved at all the strangeness they push on to an area of giant mausoleums and graves where they get temporarily trapped in a section of huge flagstones with weeping, salty rain and intense depression that's more than nothing. The weeping knight Orwan, who has been stuck there for a long time, tells them that they have stumbled into the realm of the shadow seer who rejoices in misery. Jerghonson takes it upon himself to find said seer and despite bad odds slays him with the god spear, burning many of the teams "reroll coins" to do so. Freed from the endless rain zone, Orwan joins them as he too seeks to find the city to gain magical powers.

Further in the dead zone they find bone knight Ezter whom they assist in fighting a moving river of bones that form into skeletons. A pair of scout sisters arrive after the battle to warn them more undead are being released from Echo cave and request help but as the company is very beat at this point and unable to rest due to the island's oppressive fog and endless sun light, refuse - leaving Ezter as their only volunteer as they part ways.

The company finally make it to the Temple of Stillness where they meet Gowere the mirror knight, lord of the dead lands who claims to be able to speak with the dead and lets them rest under his protection. He also gives directions to Highthrone, the richest part of the island but they don't get far before finding the scout sisters arguing heatedly between themselves, believing that the other is a shapeshifter from the stars. While Jerghonson talks them out of it (and learns Ezter has perished), Mamita almost has her club stolen from her by a goofy fungus shroom man. 

After she hits it, it runs off with its friends but Ughh and the three Pale-dogs give chase - catching up after running a good distance. Destroying the creatures causes an earthquake that summons a fungus tower from which emerges a Fungal Knight who slays the three Pale-dogs and nearly kills Ughh as well before he manages to use his "colony of possums" ability to tear the knight into pieces. With him nearly dead, they retreat to back to the Temple of Stillness to recover once again.

Ughh needed to use plot armor in this battle: recalling he was previously assigned with a rooking guardsman "Joseph the Unfair" to arrest a fraudster artisan making poor quality gear he was trying to pass off as "magical".

[Inspired by Mythic Bastionland]  

More than Nothing: In Search of Magic

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Praetor Artorias arrives at Drystan with a few more troops including horny priest Carpef, three Pale-dogs gang members and Il'bakstabyo to join the PC's regiment who are then free to load up with any gear before they want (as well as eight "coins" from their collection travels which serve as free rerolls) before being sent as part of five boat load of troops to the island of Caphtor, rumored to be a source of magic, the type of rumors that have to be more than nothing. Their mission is to claim this magic power for Praetor Artorias' cause and more importantly stop others (mainly his rivals for the still empty throne of Aeternia) from gaining it.

The fleet navigates through the misty waters just fine and upon arrival Eagley and Lord Jhonen start setting up a base camp on the beach with majority of the troops while Mamita leads her twenty two man squad to start exploration, defeating a strange and hostile puddle jumping knight and receiving an ominous warning about a Hydra rising that only "the coin knight" might have a chance of slaying before she dies.

As dusk falls they enter some woods and assist a small forest village defeat a vampire attack but the cowardly villagers have no answers for them in regards to their quest, other than "the magic knights come from the city", so they push onto some farmland destroyed by a huge crater, within which a pair of giant tigers tied to a chariot munch on farm animals. The charioteer challenges them to combat but a low initiative draw for him sees his tigers easily dispatched by the soldiers while Jerghonson himself uses the god spear to shatter through the chariot and the charioteer in one powerful thrust, killing him.

Continuing towards a main farming village there is a minor altercation where the squad is accused of slaying a celebrated green bull, but upon explaining to their ultra muscular leader Hyga that it was the work of winged fiends (who no one else has seen) and showing the claw marks she believes them and invites them to stay, provided one of the males of their number spend the night with her. Horny priest Carpef eagerly volunteers.

In the early hours of the morning Mamita, standing watch, sees a pair of winged fiends - the same type that killed the green bull - fly to Hyga's house so she wakes her companions and investigates, finding that Hyga is feasting on Carpef's naked corpse with the two demon like creatures! She and Jerghonson take down the demons while Ughh stabs Hyga through the neck, breaking his sword in the process but it isn't enough to kill her so Aah sets her and her house on fire, which finishes the job. It also gets them banished from the place by the remaining villagers, as again they have no proof of their monstrous claims. They accept this decision and move on.

[Inspired by Mythic Bastionland] 

Person of Interest

You are being watched.

In the wake of 9/11 the US government paid for a machine that could watch everyone at "all times" (not really, but close enough) to alert them of potential future terrorist threats. The machine saw everything though and since the government was only interested in relevant threats, potential crimes deemed "irrelevant" fell through the cracks until a small group of vigilantes (our protagonists, primarily played by Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson) decided to change that.

This sci-fi crime drama spans spans five seasons and while it starts out as a crime of the week sort of deal is quickly weaves in major story threads to give it backbone as well as impressive character growth for all the cast. With a good premise, interesting stories and likeable characters, I don't mind that the action bits are a bit clunky at times: at least these protagonists aren't bullet immune. It's worth the watch - recommended!

Bullfighter Board Game

A boardgame where the board has most of the game time!

This four player competitive kids game has a simple premise: on your turn you roll some dice, move some spaces and hopefully you're the first to cross the "finish line". The track happens to just be the exterior of the arena (which is cleverly built into the storage box itself), and the die pair have symbols other than numbers as well: maybe you'll be drawing some cards, putting on some temporary armor, or most likely - activating the large battery powered toy bull in the center of the stage.

This mini red roomba then randomly moves across the arena for 15 seconds while playing some themed bull fighting music and making everyone pray that it doesn't trigger their spring loaded character clip. If it does, your character is sent flying and basically have to go back to the start unless you've got a resurrect card.

Quick to learn but a little long to set up the first time as you need to put all the stickers on, including the die faces. The best component is no doubt the bull, but it's not so much Bull fighting as it is trying to sneak around the arena hoping it doesn't spot you! Also, given the number of times its going to activate - it sure feels like the bull gets more game time than the players do. 

Theoretically it can be a quick game if the beast misses you each time but really its the bull who is going to decide if and when someone is going to win. All up an amusing distraction but not something that you'll want to play over and over.

Voidwrought and Citizen Sleeper

Games of the void. In this case, void of interest for me.

Voidwrought

This platformer is functionally ok though it does feel from the little I played like the protagonist has the strength of a wet noodle - and that's already following the quest marker! While I'm not usually into this type of game due to backtracking, I have managed to stick with and finish the few whose stories managed to grab my attention. Alas, this isn't the case here giving a very alien sort of protagonist who I didn't care much about. Story is important! If you like platformers this might interest you, otherwise stay away.

Citizen Sleeper

This heavy reading game has you playing in an artificial body in space, and surprisingly has many mechanics similar to Blades in the Dark including die rolls and clocks but excluding an important one: death. It seems you can just hobble along badly impaired as much as you like, but not really a spoiler: its not fun. 

The lower quality art and game play that sees you taking less and less actions doesn't do it any favors. It's like those stupidly designed board and card games that tell a player to "miss a turn" or "lose half a turn", which basically tells people to play it less. You can do yourself a favor and just not play it at all.