LGM Launched its First ever marketing email tonight! Preparing to place a large Game Order LGM invited several of its existing customers to get their orders placed for a special discount. Customers were also encouraged to forward the email to their friends to get in on the discount and any further emails. Should you wish to receive these gems of information please email sales@lgmgamers.com.
Card Designs by Staphon Arnold
A new TCG comes to us by way of Azusa Pacific University’s Information & Media Technology department. A group of extremely talented students that make up what’s known as Student Services have developed, designed, and orchestrated their very own IT themed TCG. This group of 60 students is lead by 6 Student Managers, it is these Student Managers that have worked for 2 years now on their very own card game. Based on the daily functions and problems that consist of any IT department this card game reflects what it takes to work in IMT at APU.
Currently a standard base deck consists of over 40 cards each of which have their own unique graphics drawn by one of those 6 Student Managers. The mechanics of the game were thought up by another of the 6 Student Managers. These mechanics are quite simple; draw 2 cards per turn and complete everyday IT tasks with your Technicians as the cost of Tech Aura both good and bad. Better watch out though if you don’t have enough techs to complete a task, it fails and you have let the customer down, you have lost a point!! Each player starts with a mere 5 points. Ways to win include completing tasks to get to a total of 10 points or causing other players to fail their tasks using distractions dwindling them down to zero points.
Currently only the base deck is available for students working for Student Services in the IMT department of Azusa Pacific University. Many more cards have already been finished and are awaiting their chance to be printed and added to the game. With students arriving at IMT within days, these Managers hope that this card game will be a hit and successful tool in their employee incentive program. When Students return they will be put through their yearly training. Throughout this training they will receive their starter deck and slowly be introduced to the game. Upon successful completion of their training student will be given the change to use the “IMT Money” to purchase additional cards to boost their decks.
At this time the Students within Student Services have no intention of growing this game beyond their group. But it is only the first time its ever been out and they don’t know for sure what the future might bring. LGM Gamers wish to give its congratulations and praise to the talents of the 2 main students behind the card game, Timothy Magnuson & Staphon Arnold. Timothy is the brains behind the mechanics while Staphon’s tremendous talents reside in the design and the artwork of the cards themselves. Look out Fantasy Flight Games, Rio Grande Games, Days of Wonder, these students are the perfect picture of your future employees and the talents your companies need!
Galaxy Trucker
Published by Rio Grande Games and Czech Games Edition
2-4 players
Play time: About 60-90 minutes
About Galaxy Trucker:
Galaxy Trucker is a game about racing across the galaxy in the best-looking ship as quickly as possible. There are three rounds and in each round, there are multiple parts. The first, and, in my opinion, best part, is building your ship. The players race against each other to build the best ship the fastest using cabins, engines, cannons, batteries, shields, cargo holds, and alien life-support. Next the players move onto the actual purpose of the game: to get across the galaxy faster than the rest. Cards are randomly selected and then flipped over in order to create obstacles as the players make their way to their destination. Each card can take anywhere between thirty seconds to five minutes to complete.
The goal of the game is to have the most cosmic credits (money) at the end of Round 3. Players can receive cosmic credits from cargo goods, landing at their destination at the end of each round, having a well-built ship, and certain cards encountered during the race. Losing cosmic credits is also possible when players lose pieces of their ship in flight.
Playing Galaxy Trucker:
August 6, 2010: a party of gamers gathered together for a game night when it was decided Galaxy Trucker would be the best choice for the evening. I was the only one fairly familiar with the game, two others had played once before, and one player had never even heard of it. Set up took about five minutes and involved passing out each ship body, flipping over all the pieces, and placing out the galaxy map. Since the game is very confusing for first-timers, there is a section in the directions called “your first ship” where it is set up similarly to the normal first round, but building is not timed and there are no aliens. Explaining directions took another five minutes or so and I only explained the first part: building your ship. Tiles are flipped over one by one to reveal pieces you may or may not require to build your ship. The first ship is fairly small which makes it harder to fit in all the pieces you want, but easier to find the pieces you need without having one of your rivals snatch it up before you. Whomever finished the flight first takes the first place tile, followed by second, third, and fourth.
After the ship is completed, The Flight takes places. Since it was the first time for one player, we used the specially marked cards that had the easiest explanations for the flight. The person who receives the first place tile gets to put their ship on the first spot, followed by second 2 “flight days” behind them, and third and fourth each two days behind the last. The cards can look very confusing at first, but the directions have a couple of pages that explain each card very well and in great detail. The flight takes about fifteen minutes generally and well-built ships often have no trouble getting to the end, while ships with open connectors and little protection lose many pieces.
Each round becomes more difficult than the last with timed ship building, aliens, more brutal cards that destroy ships, pirates, smugglers, etc. The rule book is very helpful and answers any question you may have. The board is straightforward as well and with a good crew like I had, game play was very fun. “I like it because there are multiple parts involved that keep everyone on their toes.” – R. “One thing that bothers me about the game is that it all depends on who finishes their ship first because they fly first and all the cards go through them first.” – J. While some cards coming to the first player first is very helpful, other cards hurt when they go through you first so it’s a win-lose to be first.
Galaxy Trucker is a very fun game for people who like puzzles and fairly easy board games. This game has a lot of parts to benefit all gamers who have specific game interests. I would recommend this game to all gamers with shorter attention spans because each part is short and simple and the entire game doesn’t take that long.
Through Twitter LGM Gamers will starting issuing challenges to its followers and fellow gamers. through completion of these challenges points will be awarded for the first successful person who completes the challenge. Points will be useful in purchasing games from LGM Gamers. Points will also be given for approved reviews of Games played. Other ways to obtain points will be released at a future time.
Points:
Points will be awarded through the possible events listed below. Points will be posted Monthly on the 15th of every month on the LGM blog site. Points can be used to obtain vouchers usable at the LGM store.
Challenges:
Challenges will only be posted once through Twitter. Entries will be accepted within 48 hours of time when challenge was issued. One entry per person will be accepted. First qualifying entry will be declared the winner and points will be awarded.
Reviews:
LGM will accept reviews from all gamers. All reviews will go through an approval process with the LGM administrative body. Approved reviews will be allowed to be posted by the author. Points will be awarded based on the length and content of the review, to be determined by the LGM administrative body. LGM reserves the right to deny any review for any reason at any time. Users must have an account on the LGM blog in order to post. After creating an account on the LGM blog, please contact sales@lgmgmaers to let us know you would like to contribute.
Referrals:
Referrals are granted based on Orders completed. Upon referring someone to the LGM store, simply have them place your twitter handle in the comments section during checkout. Referral point are granted on orders totaling $100 or more before tax.
Descent: Journeys in the Dark
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
2 – 5 Players
Play Time: About 240 Minutes
The Low Down on Descent:
Descent: Journeys in the Dark is a cooperative game where adventurers take on the role of Heroes and an Overlord. In this D&D–like game, adventurers explore the unknown of massive dungeons on epic quests to kill the beast, rescue that distressed figure of humanity, and acquire great treasures and riches. One player will take on the role of the Overlord and will control the dungeon’s many traps, puzzles, and monsters.
To win, players must battle against the will of the overlord to conquer the dungeon and claim its rewards. The game is equipped with several different objectives depending on the quest chosen. Should the players fail, the Overlord achieves victory. Certain activities in the game give the adventurers any number of conquest tokens. Only through death are they lost; should they be completely depleted, the game is over.
LGM Plays Descent:
June 26, 2010: a party of gamers under the LGM flag enter into the world of Descent. Setup took about 20 minutes due to all the pieces being placed in one bag during the last time it was played. Characters were randomly selected, and the board layout began. The first part of the dungeon was small enough that the players were excited and eager to dive right in. As the map was revealed, more and more monsters appeared, forcing the players to rethink their strategy. Toward the end of the game, ‘K’ noted, “Having the map revealed in sections was nice because it kept the game from being overwhelming. I would have been discouraged from the get-go had I known there were that many monsters on the board.” Descent has two things over most monster-laden games: you never know what’s coming, and the numbers are scaled just right so you never get overwhelmed. Regardless of this planned and well-thought-out game design, there are always flaws. One major flaw that counters this design are large maps. We played a larger map that was divided into two sections by design. Our players kept mostly to one side. Once all sections were revealed, the feeling of being overwhelmed reared its ugly head. “The board is so big, I don’t see how having four players would make it any easier to play both sides of the board. I suppose it might be easier if it were on a more sparsely populated map”—observation made by ‘J’ toward the end of our game.
Game play was fairly simple and easy to learn. “It’s a lot easier than most games because you have the Overlord player to keep track of all the rules and little things; this allows the adventurers to focus on the strategy and just outright enjoy the story and gameplay”—‘C’. Descent is straightforward: you move, you attack; rinse and repeat. Even with straightforward gameplay, some elements of the game are a little off, though. “The story line does not fit the monsters on the board or available for play”—‘J’. This is a difficulty any game designer would encounter when creating a game with multiple quests while using plastic figures. However, even with all the plastic figures and small game pieces, this game does one thing well, and that is making the game easy to learn. “The icons are fairly interpretable; it’s easy to guess what things mean. It makes it a lot easier to focus on playing the part of the adventurer in the game”—‘J’.
Descent is a fantastic game for those just getting into role playing and D&D–type games. Though every games has flaws, this one does a great job at compensating for them. Its easy to play and easy to learn.
Welcome to LGM Gamers, not just a convenient website filled with information of board and card games and a nifty little place to purchase your favorite game; we are a group of gamers dedicated to the enthusiasm and energy that comes with playing board and card games with fellow like minded friends!
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