Week 17 (February 24th - March 2nd 2014): Castle Ravenloft - Vigorously Sharpening My Stake

Now just under a third of the way through this year of ludic self-abuse.  Anyway, continuing with the fantasy theme, this week I've had a crack at the D&D dungeoncrawl boardgame Castle Ravenloft. This is based on the classic and eponymous D&D module which pits the players against the spooky realm of the vampire Count Strahd von Starovich - so lots of Hammer Horror stakey anti-vampire action involved.

In theory the game ticks all the boxes that would normally satisfy my gaming requirements: a solitaire/co-operative dungenoncrawl, an undead/horror theme, and miniatures (which, I spent a shitload of time painting up in anticipation of the ultimate D&D boardgame experience). But sadly the game itself disappoints - at least as a solitaire experience: the rules are over-simplified, lack tactical depth, and overall it feels like Wizards of the Coast have tried unsuccessfully to package D&D in a manner that would appeal to a disparate audience of 7 year olds on the one hand, and adult gamers looking for the ultimate boardgame-based dungeoncrawler on the other.  That said, I've played this once before as a multiplayer co-operative, and it was a blast. Though perhaps my reasons for enjoying the game on that occasion was due to the fact that a) it was played in a pub and b) it was played in a pub. Otherwise, playing this sober in solitaire mode, my overall assessment is the following: this is a shit game.

 

This game is as shit as this picture. I spent a fucking shitload of time painting these miniatures, but couldn't be arsed setting them up so you could see them properly because the game is so shit.

On the Gaming Self-Abuse Gauge (tm), this scores a lowly 4/10.

Up next is the month of Lovecraft. March being the month during which all good gamers celebrate H.P. Lovecraft's Deathday (March 15th). So a bunch of Lovecraftian solitaire games to look forward to.

Nice