I alluded to this in several posts, but I found a Candela Obscura campaign group. I have been playing Candela with two other players since November and we had our last session to wrap up our circle, The Circle of the Serrated Hook. As a side note, our circle name rocks. I did not come up with this, one of the other players did, but I love it. As we wrapped up our session, I am happy and surprised to say that Dr. Vivienne Baker lives on.

Before getting into the session, I wanted to write a bit more detail on Dr. Baker. Dr. Vivienne Baker was a professor at a college university, but her focus was on providing affordable healthcare to all. She is someone who believes anyone of any status should be able to be seen. At some point, Dr. Baker partnered with Candela to continue her research, but also protect people from Bleed, the corruptive force left behind by Magick. She is not skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but makes up for it in her intelligence and being able to help others who have been injured.

Our circle has had so much happen! Our original lightkeeper was murdered because he was corrupt. It was revealed that he was using Candela to steal items and sell secrets. We got a new lightkeeper who was not well-liked which made for tough social situations for our characters to interact with. This led to the final showdown where our circle was tasked to go undercover in a prison. Once we arrived, our task was to find a secret vault beneath the prison and secure the artifacts or seal the vault permanently.

Horror TTRPGs are all about creating tense situations with players. Our group had to get climbing gear to go underneath the prison. As we tried to maneuver our way around, Dr. Baker got stuck! Talk about horrifying, I couldn’t imagine being pushed up against rocks and not being able to move my body. Thanks to the other players, they were able to pull me out and we came up with a new plan where we somewhat safely got through the claustrophobic-inducing rock tunnels.

We arrived at the vault and saw lights slowly coming on. There was messaging that we found earlier that indicated that light was lethal. As the room started getting brighter, me and one other player dove for cover. The other player tried to commune with the spirit in a glass tube. While he successfully was able to do that, the light shone and that player was incinerated. Uh oh. Now we are in this prison vault with an injured character. While I’m a doctor, I don’t have the medical equipment to treat this type of injury. The other player who dove for cover, he suggests finding a way to turn on the light and that’s how we seal the vault. Genius. Through some discussion, we found a well-wheel that could permanently turn on the light. While that’s happening, a team was sent down to dispatch us and one of their members was incinerated as well. Dr. Baker made it out along with the player who originally dove for cover, but unfortunately, the character that was incinerated did not make it out. RIP.

The Circle of the Serrated Hook has two surviving members and while Dr. Baker made it out alive, I’m sure her partnership with Candela is tarnished after this series of adventures. I am grateful that I was a part of this group. The more I have played Candela Obscura, the more I have enjoyed the system. I’d love to hear Critical Role announce another Candela Obscura live play soon. I’d like for other players to have a chance to play this game and see if they can survive till the end.

I received an email from Steam about a game demo that’s now available to play. I don’t pay much attention to these emails, but this game caught my eye. Best Served Cold is a visual novel game where players interact with patrons to solve a murder at a speakeasy. When I researched the game, I realized that Best Served Cold is being developed by the same developer that made Hidden Through Time which is another favorite game of mine. Once I knew that, I was intrigued and downloaded the demo of Best Served Cold. Best Served Cold is an entertaining game and the demo expertly gives players a first-hand look at what the game will be like.

Best Served Cold opens with the player being greeted by a detective. The detective offers the player a forced choice of helping to gather information to solve a murder. In turn, the detective won’t bust the speakeasy the player is working at. By mixing drinks, the player can gather more information from suspects. Some suspects open up more when the drink sucks or isn’t made right, so messing up drinks isn’t always a bad thing. At the end of the day, there’s an evidence board where evidence can be linked together. This reveals if the player caught a suspect in a lie or built a motive against a suspect as to why they would want that person dead. The demo ends after a few rounds with evidence collected leaving the player wanting more.

I was surprised at how long the demo was. According to Steam, I played the game for 86 minutes or an hour and twenty-six minutes. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I thought the demo would be a fifteen-minute experience and I was pleasantly surprised by how much gameplay was included. I felt the demo did a great job of showcasing what the game would look like. There is no doubt that I will be purchasing this game when it’s released.

In the demo, it shows how cocktails are made. There’s a cocktail list and once a cocktail is chosen, the player has to move their mouse along a series of lines. There’s a timer, so if the player doesn’t make the cocktail fast enough, the drink is ruined. This was a little clunky because you only have one shot to make the cocktail correctly. However, once I had a few tries, I found myself getting better at making the drinks. From talking to patrons, you can gather clues on what cocktail might be their favorite. Serving a patron their favorite cocktail allows the player to record clues and ask more personal questions. I liked how this came together especially when you could put the clues together on the evidence board.

I mentioned how Best Served Cold was made by the same developer as Hidden Through Time. Rogueside is based out of Belgium and has a ton of interesting games. Hidden Through Time is one of them along with Warhammer 40,000 Shootas, Blood & Teef and Guns, Gore & Cannoli. I have never heard of those two games, but I’m more willing to check them out. As far as I’m aware, there isn’t a release date for Best Served Cold yet.

Best Served Cold was a fun game. I can’t wait to play it once it’s released. If you’re interested, the demo for Best Served Cold is available and I’d highly recommend downloading it and checking it out for yourself.

My friend introduced me to Doomlings after she backed the game on Kickstarter. When I visited her one weekend, we played several rounds of Doomlings and I loved it. I loved the art style, it feels similar to Unstable Unicorns or Exploding Kittens. The game is easy to learn and explain to someone else. Several weeks ago, I was contacted by someone from Doomlings asking if I would be willing to review the game. I was delighted! They were kind enough to send me a copy of the base game and their expansion, Doomlings: Imaginary Ends. I had already written my review of Doomlings three years ago, but because they were open to sending me the base game, I introduced my brother to the game. Doomlings: Imaginary Ends adds so much more to the base game.

If you’re new to Doomlings, I’d recommend checking out my original review of the base game here before continuing to read this review. In summary, Doomlings is a game where players collect trait cards before the world ends due to an apocalyptic event. The player with the highest number of points at the end of the game wins. Some trait cards have abilities while others are cute and add points. The base Doomlings game has a stack of trait cards and apocalypse cards that help keep the game interesting. This is where the Doomlings: Imaginary Ends expansion comes into play.

Doomlings: Imaginary Ends has five different expansions which add a twist to the game. The expansions are: Magical Merchants, Glitterlings, Moonlings, Deeplings, and Fuzelings. The Magical Merchants can sell players trinkets that may score extra points at the end of the world. Glitterlings are cards with abilities based on chance meaning playing them could benefit you or they could backfire. Moonlings allows players to give out unwanted cards and add rewards. Deeplings can give players a chance to suppress abilities. Finally, Fuzelings is a mix of the above expansions and can provide players with additional combos with other cards played. The amount of replay value in this expansion is wild! This expansion has five new additions for every game and that’s on top of all the cards from the base game.

Since I was introducing my brother to Doomlings, we played a few rounds of the base game before introducing the expansions. What worked well for us was that we played the expansions separately with the base game, so we could truly understand how they modified the game. I couldn’t choose a favorite expansion because they all added something to the game. With that said, the Glitterlings stood out the most to me. My brother was able to pull out some combos at the end of one of our games and I could not compete. The beauty of the expansion is that there’s still so much I haven’t played with yet. The expansion adds 127 new cards to the game and that takes time to see these cards pop up.

Doomlings: Imaginary Ends is $24.99 which is the same cost as the base game. In my reviews, I don’t usually bring up what something costs. Cost does matter though. If I’m going to invest in a board game, TTRPG, or a trading card game, I can’t always sink hundreds of dollars into that game. The fact that Doomlings costs $50 for both the base game and an expansion is a reasonable investment. I can see myself bringing out Doomlings at future board game nights along with Doomlings: Imaginary Ends.

In summary, Doomlings: Imaginary Ends was a fun and new addition to the base game. I was a Doomlings fan before playing the expansion and unsurprisingly, I’m still a fan of Doomlings. I am looking forward to seeing Doomlings dominating the board game market and if any expansions are released in the future.

Spoilers for Star Wars Outlaws

Last weekend, we had a snow day. I had nowhere to be and while I don’t always love snow this time of year, I like having relaxing days at home. It was the perfect time to sit and devote myself to finishing Star Wars Outlaws. I had been chipping away at the game for a month or so. I was distracted by all the side quests and other odds and ends. Star Wars Outlaws is an immensely fun game and while I have my grievances with the game, it’s worth playing.

Star Wars Outlaws takes place after The Battle of Hoth in Episode V. Kay Vess is trying to survive in Canto Bight after her mother abandoned her when she was little. Kay agrees to break into crime lord, Sliro Barsha’s, vault. Kay is unfortunately betrayed after she learns that the crew is a part of The Rebel Alliance. Kay escapes with her companion, Nix, but Sliro puts a death mark on her meaning assassins from several of the crime factions are trying to hunt her down. After recovering from the failed job, Kay gets another shot at breaking into Sliro’s vault and she can’t pass up the opportunity of robbing Sliro and getting revenge.

There were several things I loved about the game. The first is the nostalgia I felt while playing the game. One of the planets Kay visits is Tattoine and I liked being able to roam around the planet on her speeder. Mos Eisley was realistic and it gave me flashbacks to playing Star Wars: Battlefront II with friends on Xbox. Another interesting planet choice was Akiva. I read Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath book which takes place on Akiva. It was neat to see the planet brought into more Star Wars lore. One of Kay’s contacts is Temmin Wexley who appears in the books and eventually flies with Poe Dameron. As a Star Wars fan who reads the books and comics, it’s cool to see so many references throughout the game.

I can’t write a review of Star Wars Outlaws without talking about Nix. Nix is adorable! There was a moment when Nix was kidnapped and sold to Jabba The Hut and I was enraged. It was sweet karma when the individual responsible for this was killed in the story. Besides being a cute companion, Nix is helpful to Kay. Nix can steal items while Kay is in a firefight. I unlocked an ability where Nix can pull the pin on a grenade if a Stormtrooper has one on their person. I started doing this all the time. There was one Imperial base where I ended up killing five Stormtroopers this way, it was satisfying.

I was honest when I said there were things about the game I didn’t enjoy. The first would be the lockpicking piece. Kay has a device that she uses to pick the locks on doors or containers. How this works is Kay pulls out the device and as the player, you have to listen to the beeps of the lock. From there, you click the button on the beat of the beep. This was aggravating. I had to turn on a feature in the game that provided a visual cue which made this easier, but still annoying. Kay picks a lot of locks, so this kept coming up time and time again. There were several moments where Kay had to pick a lock fast before she was discovered. I would have to repeat this multiple times because I could not figure out the sequence. The lockpicking aspect of the game could have been designed better as that was the worst part by far.

I wouldn’t call this a grievance, but a gameplay preference. Star Wars Outlaws is a primarily stealthy game. I don’t have the patience for stealth. This comes from my love of first-person shooters. I want to go in, kick ass and take names. In Star Wars Outlaws, you can’t go into the Imperial base guns blazing. Kay will get a Wanted status and be hunted down by The Empire. One thing other players pointed out that I also agree with is how stealth could be better. For example, when Kay hides behind cover, she never is fully hidden. I was discovered once by a Stormtrooper when Kay was hidden behind a crate because her head was poking out. Additionally, when Kay is in a firefight, she gets shot at because she isn’t fully behind cover. An easy fix for this would be to have a button to press on the controller when Kay approaches and when players press the button, Kay would fully get behind the cover and be hidden. For a game that’s primarily stealth-based, I think this could be improved.

Is Star Wars Outlaws a perfect game? No, but does every video game need to be the best game ever? I don’t believe Star Wars Outlaws deserves some of the harsh criticism I have seen online. If there’s ever Nix merchandise that is released, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

When Star Wars Outlaws was released last year, I didn’t hear much about the game. That’s usually not a great sign when a big video game developer releases the game and then there isn’t much discussion online. It indicates the game either didn’t sell well or was not well-made. This didn’t stop me from buying a copy of the game for myself as I wanted to see if the game was good. Star Wars Outlaws is not a perfect game, but I’m enjoying it a lot! I played for nine hours straight last weekend which is not something I do often. I’m saving most of my thoughts on this game for the review I intend to write. For this post, I wanted to scour the internet and read critiques of Star Wars Outlaws. From there, I wanted to share if I agree or disagree with them. This isn’t an all-encompassing list, but these critiques were said by multiple reviewers.

Too Much Stealth or The Stealth in Star Wars Outlaws Sucks

It’s funny, I hate being stealthy in video games. I would much rather go in guns blazing than hiding. Star Wars Outlaws is a stealth-heavy game, so you would think that I would hate this part of the game. I don’t mind the stealth in this game. For the most part, Kay can sneak her way through bases without getting caught. Have I gotten caught before? Sure, but then I either hide and the guards go back to what they were doing or Kay dies and I figure out a better way to sneak around. It does make completing missions longer, but I don’t mind it as much as others who have played the game.

I can’t speak to the critique of whether the stealth in Star Wars Outlaws sucks. I don’t play a lot of stealth video games as I tend to avoid them. This critique can be broken down into Kay not being able to fully hide behind the cover or Kay not having a lot of armor, so when she is caught, it’s going to hurt. My thoughts on this is comparing Kay Vess to Han Solo. Would Han Solo be able to take on waves and waves of Hutt enforcers or Stormtroopers? I’m sure he could, but eventually, he would be overwhelmed. The last thing I would add to this; I think for those who want more of a Star Wars gun-blazing type of game, I’d recommend Star Wars Battlefront II. Iden Versio is equipped to run out and kill everybody and Kay Vess simply is not built for that type of gameplay.

Lockpicking is Tedious

I absolutely agree with this. The lockpicking mini-game in Star Wars Outlaws is one of my least favorite parts of the game. I’m going to save most of this for my full review of the game because there is so much I want to say about this.

How Can Kay Punch Stormtroopers helmets and not break her hand after?

This critique is hilarious to me. When Kay sneaks up behind enemies or specifically Stormtroopers in this case, she punches them in the face and then drags their bodies behind cover. How can Kay not break her hand over and over again doing this? I would have liked to see more takedown options for Kay. Stealthy takedowns are crucial for Kay and for Kay to succeed in her missions, but punching Stormtroopers in the helmet over and over again? That must get tiring.

It’s misleading to call Star Wars Outlaws an Open World Game

I think this critique is valid even though it doesn’t play into my opinions about the game. Star Wars Outlaws specifically on Wikipedia lists the game as being “Open World”. I don’t have an exact definition of Open World when it comes to video games, but if I’m describing a game as Open World, it would be a game where I could explore the entire galaxy and do what I want when I want. There is a point in the game where Kay has the chance to explore three planets in any order the player chooses. That’s not Open World. Open World would be giving Kay access to the entire Outer Rim. I don’t want to reveal which planets Kay gets to explore, but I like the planets that were chosen for the game. I don’t mind that the game isn’t Open World, I mean Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor wasn’t Open World and I didn’t mind them. I think fans are yearning for an Open World game and when Star Wars Outlaws was described as Oepn World and it isn’t, fans were left to be disappointed.

As I was reading reviews, some gamers described this game as trash or rotten. I think that’s harsh. Star Wars Outlaws isn’t perfect, but it’s fun. I wasn’t expecting to love this game as much as I have. There needs to be Nix merch soon because I would buy it in a heartbeat. Once I complete the game, I’m going to write my in-depth review where I will dive into everything I love and everything I didn’t about Star Wars Outlaws.

A few weekends ago, me and my family got together for a board game day. Through our text chat, we were throwing out ideas on what game we wanted to play, and Arkham Horror was brought up. It’s been a hot minute since I have played Arkham Horror. I have written about Arkham Horror before on BizarreBrunette as it’s a game I first played back in college. During our gaming day, we played two different rounds of Arkham Horror where we won once against Cthulhu and then we were decimated by Ithaqua in our second game.

Before getting into Arkham Horror further, I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and detail why this game holds such a special place in my heart. I was first introduced to Arkham Horror at my local board game store in my college town. This was the first game I played which was a cooperative board game. I loved how each of the pre-made characters had its specialties and as a group, we could discuss who would play which character. Once playing Arkham Horror, I began my descent into learning and playing more board games. Arguably without Arkham Horror amongst other board games, I wouldn’t be as into them as I am today.

In the first game, I chose Mandy Thompson, the researcher. I played Mandy before in other games. Mandy can cause a re-roll for herself or other players if the roll isn’t a success. It’s such a good ability and I find that in most games of Arkham Horror I play, Mandy is a character that’s chosen frequently. In our second game, I played Sister Mary, the nun. I can’t recall a time I played as Sister Mary and I don’t know why. She starts the game blessed (meaning that she rolls a success on a four, five, or a six, not just a five or a six) which is so good. The trade-off is she starts with no money which can be tough since money is used to buy items including weapons, spells, or other miscellaneous items. This is where it helps to have a variety of different characters at the table since they have their resources and weaknesses.

For those who haven’t read my other Arkham Horror posts, I will describe a bit of the game. The goal of Arkham Horror is to work together to close portals that pop up in the town of Arkham. To win the game, the players have to permanently close six gates before the entity is released. If the players don’t do this, they can fight the entity, but if the entity kills the players, the players lose the game. In our first game, we had an advantage because we started with two elder signs which can help close gates in the place of clue tokens. In our second game, we didn’t have as useful of items, and Ithaqua came out sooner than Cthulhu did. It was the perfect storm that led to us losing the second game.

Arkham Horror is a game I will continue to play and will always be in the mood to play. I like how players have to work together and there’s a dice-rolling element to the game, so it feels like a mix between playing a board game and a table-top roleplaying game. It’s a game that never gets old no matter how many times I get to play.

In my 2024 – Pop Culture Year in Review post, I mentioned being a part of a Candela Obscura campaign. This was completely unexpected because, at the time I joined this campaign, I was already in two other campaigns. I was under the impression that this would be a one-shot. Our group had a blast, so now this has turned into several sessions. I’m unsure how long this will last, but I’m happy to see this through. I wanted to share how I found my group and what has transpired in our sessions.

If there’s anything I can suggest to new players looking for a TTRPG group, it’s to join a local community. This can be through Facebook, Discord, or another social media platform, but it has worked wonders for me. I was browsing through a TTRPG Facebook group and someone had posted looking for players to play Candela. Candela Obscura is Critical Role’s horror tabletop game that they have created. I have played Candela Obscura several times and I have come to enjoy it. I like how there’s already a world established, so there isn’t a lot of world-building that needs to be done. It’s easy to pick up the book, page through it, and be ready to launch into a game. I had commented that I was interested and after conversing with the other players, we settled on meeting for our game.

With horror games, I approach them differently than I would with Dungeons & Dragons. I don’t focus as much on the character’s backstory, instead, I like to figure out what my character will do to help herself and the group survive. Horror TTRPGs can be unforgiving in that aspect, so I don’t get attached to my characters like I would in a Fantasy setting. During character creation, I decided to play a Doctor with a focus on examining items that come from supernatural means. My main skills are in Intuition which emphasizes investigating and piecing the story together. Dr. Vivienne Baker is my character’s name and I have grown fond of her the more I play her. She works as a Doctor at an academic university and she is someone who fights for the lower class.

Our first session took place on a train where our circle had to protect magical furniture. Rumors were circulating that this set of furniture was cursed in some fashion. When I say that our plan crumbled, I mean it. One of the players had to fight off four enemies at once, I was cornered by some henchmen, and another player was transported to another dimension. In one encounter, I rolled a six which was a critical success, and ended up breaking free from the henchmen and escaping. With all of that said, our group ended up escaping somewhat. The session was intense and our DM did an amazing job of creating conflict for us.

As far as what is to come in the future sessions, I have no clue. There’s a mysterious healthcare company that is trying to collaborate with us. I have no doubt that our deal with them will backfire miraculously. Will Dr. Vivienne Baker survive? Or will she suffer a scar and be forced to retire from Candela Obscura for good. I will be happy with the outcome either way. No matter what, I will keep you all posted on Vivienne’s fate.

I haven’t played Magic: The Gathering in a long time. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, but I consider myself a casual fan. I will play when the opportunity arises, but I won’t go out of my way to find a game to play. My uncle surprised our board game group with the Commander Decks from Bloomburrow, the Magic: set with a cute animal theme. I haven’t had a chance to play any cards out of Bloomburrow, so it was a nice surprise. I wanted to share my chosen Commander Deck and how the deck worked.

Honestly, I did not choose a deck based on that deck’s ability. I saw the Racoon on the box and snatched it before anyone else could claim it. The commander in this deck is “Bello, Bard of the Brambles”. He’s a 3/3 for 3 mana. His creature type is a Racoon Bard. Look at how adorable this card is! This trash panda is casting spells like nobody’s business. Bello’s ability allows players to turn their artifacts into indestructible elementals to swing at opponents. Another portion of this ability that I like is that it’s only on your turn. This is neat because it makes it difficult to target the stuff on my board since my artifacts are creatures at some point and flip back to artifacts. Certain cards in Magic: are written to target certain card types, so it made it more difficult for my opponents to destroy my stuff.

While I did not win this game, I had a blast. I had Bello out on the field including a vehicle that’s basically the Magic: version of a hamster ball. I would attack my opponents and create hamsters. It was awesome. I think I had close to 10 hamsters on my side of the board. I told everyone at the table that all I wanted to do was see my commander’s ability work and it definitely did.

I loved this deck! It’s been a while since I played a game of Commander where I had this much fun. I may try the other Bloomburrow decks, but this one will forever be my favorite.