Universal Fighting System

Today I would like to ask another question. Have you ever wondered who would win in a fight between Ryu and Nightmare, Siegfried and Ken, M. Bison and Cervantes? Well with Universal Fighting System (also known as UFS) you can finally find out the answers to these questions. In UFS you get to choose a character card and then make a deck around them using their trademark attacks, support items/weapons, and even their ultimate attacks.

Fire Fly the Boardgame

Today I'm going to talk about Firefly the Game, which is of course based off the universe created by Joss Whedon. In Firefly the game you play the role of a pilot in the verse, and your goal is simple, to hire a crew, take on jobs, and keep flying.

Carcassonne

I would like to tell everybody a little bit about the game Carcassonne. Carcassonne is a game about strategy in laying down floor tiles for the board, making the best use of your resources, and trying to outwit your opponents through the use of farming, churches, watch towers, and cities.

Steve Jackson Games part 4

The final section of the Steve Jackson Games Block is S.P.A.N.C. Just for the record S.P.A.N.C. stands for Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls, where you play a miscreant moving from caper to caper. Be careful though, it's not only the law who wants to take you down, but the other miscreants as well won't hesitate to stab you in the back. WARNING not for young players, discretion is advised.

Steve Jackson Games Part 3

Continuing full steam ahead with the Steve Jackson Games block I'm going to talk to you about Ninja Burger. A question for you, have you ever been out sky diving, mountain climbing, or even in outer space on a space shuttle and had a craving for a burger? In Ninja Burger you play a ninja who works in fast food delivery where thier moto is "30 minutes or less, or we commit sepuku". In Ninja Burger you are tasked with delivering food to customers by aquiring tools to help you (grappling hooks, hang gliders) and you must always be on the look out for the other ninjas trying to sabotage you, after all, all's fair in love and fast food delivery.

Steve Jackson Games Part 2

Moving right along with the Steven Jackson Games block, we're now going to discuss Chez-Geek. The premise behind the game is pretty simple, you and your friends share a house together and decide one day to see who is the best slacker. You do this by first picking a job card which tells you how much free time and income you have each turn. The object of the game is to collect slack points by buying recreational items, doing leisure things, and basically just wasting time. Beware though your house mates can sabotage your attempts at slacking off by making noise when your trying to sleep and interuppting all kinds of leisure time activities.

Steve Jackson Games Part 1

In this block of posts I am going to cover some games from a man who has become one of my favorite creators Steve Jackson. You can't talk about Steve Jackson Games without discussing Munchkin. Munchkin is one of Steve Jacksons most popular games, imagine if you will playing a role playing game using a deck of cards dealed out at random where the objective of the game is simple, kill monsters, pick up loot, stab your friends, and be the last munchkin standing. The first thing I will tell you is that this game is known for ending friendships. It also has the ability to turn around in the blink of an eye, you could be winning and also finish the game and instantly the other munchkins can turn it around on you.

Magic the Gathering Part 6

Today I will finish up my discussion about Magic, The last thing to discuss are Artifacts. Artifacts are NOT a faction on its own though it very easily CAN be. They have thier own land and creatures. They have the ability to boost stats as well as generate mana. That being said, what makes Artifacts so powerful is the fact that they can be used with any faction. Artifacts can be summed up in one word "VERSATILE". I have posted a picture below of an Artifact that people have dreamed of owning and is worth more than some used cars.

Magic the Gathering Part 5

I'm winding down the Magic discussion, the last faction in the game is the White Faction. In my oppinion this is one of the most underrated factions in the game. The White Faction is supplied with angels, knights, monks,clerics, and priests. These creatures are backed by an arsenal of spells that focus on damage negation, protection, life gaining, and if all else fails and you find your back against the wall you can always call on help from on high by using the great equalizer (see the below card). The White Faction can be summed up in a single word "Holy".

Magic the Gathering Part 4

To continue the discussion about Magic, we move on to the Red Faction. Red is all about chaos and destruction. The followers of chaos are goblins, barbarians, and dragons. The destructive side of things are powered by spells like fireball, incinerate, and destroy land. Whether you use the creatures or the spells they have the same strategy,to damage your opponent directly. The Red Faction is just like dealing with a real fire though, it's not always controllable and usually has some form of collatoral damage. Red can be summed up with a single word "BURN".

Magic the Gathering Part 3

Today we will be continuing the discussion about Magic, the next part of the conversation is the Green Faction. In Magic the Green Faction is filled by those that revere nature elves, treants, centaurs, fairies, and dryads. Green cards focus on the powers of renewal and rebirth. No matter how many times your creatures or land are destroyed you can bring them back, this is the power of the Green Faction, the Power of Gaia itself.

Magic the Gathering Part 2

Today I'll be discussing another faction from Magic, the Blue faction. The Blue Faction represents mages, naiads, and counterspells. The abilities in the Blue Faction simulate the personality of the ocean still and tranquil one moment, a fierce instrument of destruction the next. It can either flow around your opponent and drag them down slowly, or it can turn into a tidal wave and crush your opponent beneath its waves. The Blue Faction can be summed up in one word "FLUID".

Magic the Gathring

Today I'm discussing a game called Magic the Gathering. It is an older game with a long and varied history. I will be discussing each of its components and colors in a different post each time. Today I will be discussing the Black faction which represents the powers of death and decay. It focuses a lot on demons, the undead and other creatures of the night. In the end it can be summed up with a single word unholy.

Yugioh Revisited Part 3

I'm going to discuss the final component of a Yugioh deck. I've discussed creatures so far which are basically the backbone of your deck. Then we discussed spell cards which are essential to augment your deck for different strategies. Last but not least I'm going to discuss the final key component of your deck which are traps. Traps can be the most important part of a deck, they can either seal the deal or turn an entire game around. My favorite trap card is mirror force which has the ability to destroy all monsters that your opponent controls in attack mode.

Yugioh Revisited Part 2

This time around we're going to discuss another aspect  of Yugioh. Today I would like to talk about spell cards, though not as flashy or cool looking as monster cards spell cards are a necessary part of any deck. Hands down my favorite spell card has got to be the equip spell card Mage Power.With the ability to add 500 attack and defense points to any monster for every card in your spell and trap card zone it can turn any monster into an instant beater.

Yugioh Revisited

Last time I spoke about Yugioh, I asked what everybodies favorite cards was. I have realized that this is a bit unfair because if you're all like me then you have many favorite cards. I have decided to ask about favorite cards again but this time taking a bit longer to do so. Today I want to know your favorite monster card. Post in comments and add a picture if you can. As we already discussed earlier my favorite monster card is Lava golem.

Support your Local Gamers

Today's fast-paced world doesn't always take into account real-world-face-time with the people we play games with. Video game often replace what used to be solid blocks of time that were spent sitting on the floor or around a table with friends and family and just being goofy and having a good time with each other. Too often we forget there's real humans on the other side of the controller and tangible board or card games give us that reminder.

The advent of the Internet allowed a proliferation of small, independent game designers to develop whole new worlds of tabletop and card games that are not found in most  "big box" stores. While games like Parcheesi, Monopoly, and Pictionary are easy staples to fall back on when dealing with groups that don't have established patterns already in place, these newer games allow for refined individuality within groups and a more customized bonding experience. 

The beauty of a small brick and mortar store dedicated to these types of games is that it allows people to try out many of these newer offerings to see if they even enjoy the games' themes and mechanics before committing hard earned dollars to obtain the games. It also allows people to develop local communities built around like-minded people who often become friends (and occasionally archenemies within in the world of the game, itself!) It also encourages audience participation, which leads to its own layer of complexity within the world of the game.

Support your local game store, independent game developers, and your local gaming community & friends!

Warhammer

So today I want to discuss a bit of an older title called Warhammer Fantasy, it was the very first large army collectible miniatures game that I got introduced to. I want to hear from you guys if you used to play and what army you chose to go into combat with. Just in case you're curious my army was the dwarven military. Talk to you soon

Collectible Card Games

I was just curious how the rest of you got started playing CCGs. I started off my gaming lifestyle with videogames, but was then introduced to CCG's and I instantly fell in love with them. I have always been the player who goes out of my way to try and break games. With videogames even using cheats/hacks you can only do so much, with CCG's however you get to go above and beyond the normal limits. To this day there are players who keep coming up with strategies so broken that the game companies have to change the rules in order to stop them. So again let me hear from you, tell me what game it is and what the most broken combo you have ever come up with is. for example mine for Yugioh is 1)Macro Cosmos,2)Gravekeepers Servant,3)Vanity's Emptiness, 4) Mask of Restrict, and 5) Imperial Custom. When all out on the field together it basically shuts the entire game down, of course you need to be prepared for other strategies and have multiples of most of these cards.

Malifaux

Malifaux is a game based around small squad combat. The best way I could describe the lore is steam punk combined with magic. It's played on a 3' x 3' square with whatever terrain you want scattered about. It is a highly strategic game that combines miniature figures as well as decks of cards. It's not a cheap game to get into, but it's also not ridiculously expensive. You could spend around $100 and never have to buy anything again which is why it appeals to some gamers, who are tired of the TCG model and having to spend sometimes 1000's of dollars to get specific cards that they want. I have enclosed a link to both a video of the game play mechanics, as well as the main page for the game.

Main site and Video

Yugioh TCG

As you can tell by the title today I will be talking about Yugioh. It's one of the only games I still actively play. I was thinking everybody must have their own favorite card, so I would like to hear from everybody out there what is your favorite card in the game? Please post in the comments below and tell me your favorite card and send a link or post a picture if you can. Thanks everybody and talk to you next time.

Card Games

I thought today we would talk specifically about card games, trading card games to be precise. Trading Card Games, or TCGs for short, are card games that require each player to construct a deck in order to accomplish an objective. The most common way to collect the cards is to buy them as a starter deck (usually 40-60 cards), and then upgrade the deck by buying booster packs ( usually 9-15 cards). TCGs have been around for a while now and in many iterations, some are commonly seen today like Pokemon, Yugioh, and  UFS. One of the longest running card games out there is Magic the Gathering, commonly known as Magic, it has been around since 1994 and is just as popular today as it was back then.

I've told you about my card gaming history, comment and tell me about some TCGs that you have played.

Missed Introduction

I realized that I didn't really introduce myself in my first post. So I am going to rectify the situation. First thing I need to point out is that the name Quentarian has a history behind it. During each phase of my life I have picked up a name from somebody/somewhere. I have been known as Q, Q ball, Q-105, and Quinn. My latest title came from a very unlikely source, my Introduction to Computing instructor, Mr. Coopey. My first day of class when he took roll call, he mispronounced my name and called me Quentarian, and some of my class mates just ran with it. So I decided to go ahead and just adopt it.

Now that you know the name let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a 35 year old male who lives in State College, PA. I have been a gamer for as far back as I can remember starting on an early Commodore system. Eventually working my way up through the Nintendo era, into the Genesis era, past the original Playstation era, and finally on through to the next gen systems. I have gamed my entire life as a way to cope with my life at the time. I came from an abusive life and games literally changed my life, they allowed me to escape my situation by leading many other lives that I had full control over.

The Idea

I have had this idea knocking around in my head for a while now, and I figured it was about time I submitted it to the ether to get some feedback. I have been a gamer for as far back as I can remember, I have played all genres in the world of gaming. I was introduced to video games by playing a cheap knock off of Pac-Man, called Cosmic Cruncher on a Commodore computer. Throughout my life I have played Collectible Card Games (http://www.yugioh-card.com/), (http://magic.wizards.com/) , Role Playing Games (table top)(http://dnd.wizards.com/), Role Playing Games (video game), Collectible Miniatures Games(http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Home?_requestid=2440432), and of course Board Games.

The area where I live at has a pretty abundant gaming community, but areas to game at or purchase supplies are pretty sparse. My idea is to start up a game store that has a little bit of everything. Tables with chairs for the card game players, and the table top role playing game players. Large tables in the back with built in terrain for collectible miniatures combat. My goal for this first post is to hear from people about what they would like to see in a gaming store. Please leave your comments and feedback, and I will be posting more information in the future ( i.e. graphs,statistics,surveys,polls,etc...)