Tricky Looters - Monday Gaming Recap

Last Monday (May 28th) was Memorial Day which meant I was able to leave work early thanks to holiday hours & so I actually made it to game night at the Atomic Empire for the first time in forever. I only played 2 different games but, in my defense, one of them, I did play 6 times.

When I arrived at the store, Daniel was already in a game of Trickster so I picked up my comics & grabbed a beer while they finished up. They then dealt me in on a 7-player game of Trickster: Fantasy to learn the game. This was then followed up with a game each of the Symbiosis & Tianxia sets, before we decided to test the modular aspect of the game by mashing together characters from all 3 decks.

With 7 players & 7 characters per game, we went around the table each selecting someone to include in our hybrid deck. After playing with this selection, we set those cards aside & played with choices from the rest. Since that left exactly 7 characters, we then played with what was affectionately being called the "dregs deck". Mixing decks worked really well, & all 3 hybrid decks were fun to play. In fact the "dregs deck", despite being cards nobody had chosen, ending up being the most fun of all, which speaks volumes for how well balanced the card abilities are not just within a set, but between the sets as well.

This was my first chance to actually play Trickster and I REALLY enjoyed it. In fact, this may well be my favourite of Daniel's games so far. It's really easy to grasp, but within the first few rounds, you quickly start to see increasing depth & some fun options for combining card powers to screw your opponents. The Symbiosis deck may well be my favourite by a hair, but all are solid & I can't wait to get my hands on them all.

If you're coming to Origins 2015 by the way, I'll have a copy of Trickster on me thanks to Daniel, so feel free to request a game. I'd be happy to oblige!

Terry, Daniel & I then sat down to learn Looting London, a Knizia game from Eagle-Gryphon. The rules were initially confusing, not because of complexity but because they referred to components that we didn't have due to the edition we were playing being entirely cards - presumably before, some of those cards were tiles/tokens & the rules weren't changed when the contents were altered. The game itself was really interesting & super quick with a lot of interesting decisions. Plus I won, so that always helps with creating a solid first impression! I'm not usually a fan of the good doctor's games, but this one I may keep an eye out for.

Games Played: Trickster: Fantasy, Trickster: Symbiosis, Trickster: Tianxia, Looting London
New to Me Games: all of the above