Best TTRPG Holiday Gift Guide 2023 | Lancer, Daggerheart & Dice!

Transcript

You're listening to No Plot, Only Lore, a podcast about games and the tables we play them at. Your DMs tonight and every

night are Josh and Chris. You can find us on all podcast platforms or check us out at noplotonly.com.

If you like what you hear today, please rate and review the show and share it with everyone you've ever met. Welcome

back to No Plot Only Lore. This week brought to you by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Josh, how do you feel

about the Jesus? I'm I'm pro- Jesus. I'm big on Jesus. Um

his uh his followers have had some missteps, but overall the message

remains uh clear and kind and unifying.

I'm kind of take it or leave it with the Jesus for the most part. It's like I wouldn't equate him to like a Christmas

cake like the the fruit cake cuz like a lot of people really hate the fruit cake. I I don't I don't hate the fruit

cake. I'm just I'm very ambivalent about the fruit cake. Seems fine.

It's, you know, it's around. It's available to everyone even if it's

not to your taste. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Um, I actually,

okay, this is maybe a little weird, but I actually kind of like going to church occasionally. Uhhuh.

Like with the understanding that I am a horrifying heathen pagan nonsensical

person. Every once in a while, it's nice to just kind of hang out at church. Yeah, church is a nice place to be. Um,

in general, I have found churches like except for like some of the kookier

exclusionary ones to be in general very like open, warm, and inviting place

regardless of your participation level.

Have you noticed that churches have a particular smell?

No. No, I have not. I have. Okay. I'm not going to elaborate

on that. Uh, we're going to talk about Christmas stuff today.

One of the weirdest intros we've done. Sure. Yeah. Christmas. Christ mass.

Christ mass. There there was there was a segue that had to be made here. Um,

yeah. As per our tradition, we're going to do a few episodes this year leading

up to Christmas. Um, and the first one this year is going to be our uh holiday

gift guide. Yes, our second annual holiday gift guide for fun and cool things.

And we we put this one a little earlier this year cuz last year we put it like a week before Christmas and that was a

mistake cuz like Yeah, zero time to go out and buy. You need time to shop for sure.

Yeah. Uh, what what are you hoping to get for Christmas this year, Josh? Uh, frankly, I'll well, okay, if I'm

honest, I just want a gift card for a store that I will go and buy my own gift

because I have had very limited success with my family actually just getting me

the things I put on my list. Um, for whatever reason, like we we use this app called Elfster and you can add items to

it. So, I'll add items and then you use a what called a what? My sister-in-laws have insisted on using

an app called Elfster where you build a I hate this so much.

Do you think I love it? I I hope you catch the derision in my voice when I say Elfster.

Uh yeah, so you build your your Christmas list on there and then people, you know,

you can use Amazon links and stuff and people will just can purchase it directly through the app or or get an

idea of what you want. Um, no one has ever gotten me anything even remotely

close to what I put on my list. Uh, what'll almost invariably happen is what's even the point?

I don't know. One of my brothers will get my name and just look at it and be

like, I don't know what that is. And instead of just following the link that I provided, uh, we'll just freestyle.

Um, it's even worse when my dad gets my name cuz like he

he just refuses to even look at the list. So, like was it last year? Last

year I was like, okay, I like I'm good at getting gifts for people and it

frustrates me when people don't just like do a basic thing that I said. Like, I know sometimes my things are like

weird or hard to find or whatever. Just don't do what you want. Uh, that's just

garbage that fills up my house. My dad got me a backup camera for my van that

looked to be about 30 years old. Um, and then said he would help me install it and just didn't. And it's just I I I

don't know if I've seen it since Christmas. It's just been floating around his house. I'm like, "All right, cool.

Thanks." Trouble backing up? Not even once. I used to be a professional driver. Like I spent

five or more years driving as a full-time job in much larger vehicles

than mine. I don't need a backup camera. The like if it was like one of those

dash cams, I might have been like, "Oh, okay. You know what? This is like kind of actually useful. I don't have one.

Maybe I should have. All right. Thanks." Yeah. But like this is a thing that I just double didn't need. Um, so yeah,

amazing. Um, I only ever get one or two

gifts a year. Yeah. Um, I get a gift from my son. Yeah.

Which awkwardly is mostly a gift from my ex-wife, right?

Um cuz like she's the one who helps him go out and like pick it out and stuff. Yeah.

And uh I reciprocate, so we always get a gift for her as well. And then uh I

often get a gift from my mom as well, but she sends it sometime in February.

Um because it's a combination birthday and Christmas gift

birthday is uh sometime near or in March, right? Um

so she's like we'll kind of split the difference does and then just like doubles up on it to make one bigger

gift. Yeah, she'll get like one bigger gift. Yeah. Uh I think

I can't recall if it was last year or the year before she got me an Instant

Pot. Oh, nice. Which was dope. Yeah, I have one of those. That thing is great.

Yeah. For what? For one year, all of the families got one of those for Christmas.

Just like the strangest thing that my parents ever did, but it was one of the most useful.

My parents did the same thing. They got all of the kids an Instant Pot.

Well, weird. Yeah, maybe it was the same year. That would be hilarious. So funny. I wonder if my parents and your parents

like colluding on gifts. No, but awkwardly, my uh ex-wife is

better about getting me things that are on my list than your family appears to be for you. Yeah. Yeah. It's honestly, it's like

it's a lifetime problem at this point. I have gotten like two gifts from my

family in my whole life that were like something that that were something that

I wanted that I didn't ask for. Um Wow.

Yeah. Uh there's one time my my youngest brother and his uh his wife took a swing

on and just freestyle bought me a board game. And I was like, "Oh, I don't have

this and I am curious about it and I like it." Okay, cool. They bought me uh King King of Tokyo like out of nowhere.

Um Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. And then there was one year, this is like over a decade ago uh that my

second youngest brother bought me a World of Warcraft figure print. Um

and I recall you talking about that. You really liked that. Yeah. Unfortunately, last year uh it got

destroyed. Uh it was so I have a a storage shed

right now that's got a bunch of my stuff while I'm like uh so like I I I moved

out of the the house that my kids and I were in and we're looking at buying a little townhouse. But like in the

meantime I've been staying uh elsewhere and had to put a bunch of my stuff in this little storage shed and it was in a

cabinet that was attached to the wall of it. uh uh that the person who put the cabinet up didn't realize that like

they were floor cabinets, not like mount on the wall cabinets.

And yeah, it came crashing down one day. Um

so yeah, I was I was pretty bummed about that to say the least. Um,

but yeah, that that sucks because that Yeah, like I said, I remember you telling me about

that figure. Yeah. Very happily when uh when you got it. Yeah.

Um, this year I think I'm pro like there are a few role playinging games that I

actually want to get in like a hard copy. Hm. So, um, none of them are on my best RPG

of the year list that I, um, stole from Reddit with zero guilt.

That's okay. They're probably wrong anyway. Somebody put up a Oh, they're almost definitely wrong. Yeah. Um,

somebody put up a a list of like the the best RPGs of the year, and there were definitely a few uh like strong mentions

there, but the one that I really want to get in like a a hardcover version is Lancer. Oh, yeah.

Um, yeah. Fourth edition style giant robot fight. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, like they're stealing the name Lance from like a a Battletech Lance.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, it's uh do you or have you read Kill Six Billion Demons?

No. Okay. Uh Kill Six Billion Demons is one of my favorite long-running web comics.

Okay. It's been going for like a dozen years now. Uh it's coming to an end soon. Oh. And

by soon, I mean probably like this year, next year. Um and the writer artist for that is one

of the creators of Lancer. Um, it is an absolutely beautiful book and it has

fourth edition style combat rules. Like it's very mini focused. It's very like tactical role playing game focused in

giant mechs kicking the crap out of other giant mechs. I actually really like the sound of this

and I would love to investigate this. It is so dope. I'm going to send you links

later. It is so [ __ ] cool. Um, so yeah, that one is the one that is

on my list cuz if it's more like starting from an RPG place and then you know building out

into like well just using like more RG RPGs RGB uh RPG sensibilities and then

putting everyone in a mech. I think that sounds like it'd be a lot more fun and interesting than like the battletech RPG

where it's like, "Hey, you're going to play battlette. You better love doing that." And then in between you can do some talking, you know. Um,

I really love the idea of an RGB that's just like done up like somebody's

computer case. It's just like thumping techno music while it's like switching colors. I mean, they've got giant cooling fans

anyways. Might as well make them RGB, right? And of course, every Mech I build is going to come with like a a Jamaican

dance hall air horn. [Laughter] Um, yeah. No, it's got a very similar

style to fourth edition, I feel, where like there's a a narrative layer to it

that is very important, and then the combat is [ __ ] combat. Yeah. Right.

Like the the game comes to a halt. You set up your minis, you come to tactical

decisions, you play a tiny tactical war game for a bit. Yeah. And then after that, you go back to the

narrative stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds right up my alley. Yeah. Yeah. So, I I really like it. I

have read um copies of it and it is brilliant. So,

okay. Um, but for the the top role playinging

games of the year as voted by Reddit, um, Mythic Bastion Land,

which we talked about briefly before the microphones went hot and uh,

yeah, hot mic time. This seems designed by committee at Reddit. everything that you said about the like just uh the the

the keywords that have been plugged into this like OSR, Arturion, procedurally

generated rulings, like solo

like this doesn't sound fun. This sounds like be pedantic in a group setting,

which you know would normally be right up my alley. Um, I I really love being pedantic and I

mean the bigger the audience the better, but this

I have read a bit of it and it lost me pretty much immediately. Yeah.

Um, so like I I can't judge this one unfortunately. Like Reddit says it's real good. If you're really into like

OSR type games, then absolutely give it a look because it's sounding like it is

very high quality. The art is beautiful. Sure, the book is gorgeous,

but nothing in there appeals to me. Yeah, that's the thing. I don't play

art, you know? Like the art's nice to flip through at home, but like at the

end of the day, you have to actually have a game there that I like.

There are game books that I have picked up primarily as art objects. Yeah, for sure. To work.

Thankfully, those ones also turned out to be great games like uh second edition

noilis. Absolutely beautiful book. Sure. Right. Like it's a a huge coffee tile style table book where it's got like um

the margins on it are a little too big. It's got like a beautiful white finish and then like gold inlay for part of the

the cover like a statue right part of the cover. Absolutely beautiful book. Um, thankfully the game also

rocks, but yeah, I I would have bought it anyway just because it's gorgeous. Yeah, I bet you would have.

Um, Dagger Hart. Dagger Heart. So, Dagger Heart is probably the biggest release this year in the RPG setting.

100%. Yeah. Yeah. I think like out of anything that could have shaken up the RPG sphere, this is the

one. Yeah. Right. like the Oh, I can't remember the initials. The MK2GSPR5

game that somebody's making um looks to be pretty good, but it isn't out yet.

So, yeah, Critical Role. And even then, like I I think just like the the juggernaut

that is Critical Role would push this to the forefront anyway. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they could put out an absolute trash game and it would sell gang busters for the first 6 weeks.

Yeah. They've got such an incredible reach. Like just about anything they do is going to be, you know, it's going to

sell incredibly well regardless of of quality. But luckily, apparently it's

pretty good. I really like Powered by the Apocalypse

games. Yeah. Um most of the ones that I have played have been very, very good. There are a couple

of others on this list. Um, and this is like powered by the

apocalypse in the classical fantasy setting. Yeah. So, you get the the most modern

game system that's currently very popular, plus the most popular

archetypes for role playing games that have ever existed. Yeah. And I think that's a a really solid and

smart match for it. Is there room for it? I don't know.

Yeah. Like the the thing that you kind of have to push against for any new role playing

game like this is that there's so much inertia behind Dn D.

Right. Right. So, when you're trying to get somebody to play a thing that isn't D and D, even

if it's very good, even if it's D and D adjacent, even if it's got like one of

the biggest D and D crews ever behind it, you've still got to push against that inertia to get it played. So,

yeah, I don't know how relevant that's going to be for most tables. Well, it's it's

you got to make this effort to like a concerted effort to turn someone from like a dner into like a role playing

gamer, you know, and that Yeah, I don't know if that's necessarily

possible all the time. I mean, there's some people who just Yeah, like you've done it, but I'm just saying like there's a

lot of people who consider themselves role players who don't touch anything but D and D and don't know the difference, right? Um

So, I mean, good luck. Yeah. Yeah. And I think like the biggest

thing running against Daggerheart is exactly that, right? Like the fact that it is so close and it's meant to be like

a D and D killer, right? Like it's supposed to be the thing that like shows up and undercuts D and D. It's like D and D but better.

Yeah. And I don't know if it can compete on DN D but better without that brand name.

Yeah, the only like well the name it has to trade on is the Critical Role name,

right? So, I mean, good luck. I I hope I hope they

succeed in whatever it is they're actually trying to do over there. I'm I'm just kind of imagining like Brennan

Lee Mulligan holding up a copy of Daggerheart in a D20 episode the same way that like Gar and Wayne are doing

product placement in the middle of Wayne's world. I mean, that's kind of what they have to

do. I don't know what to tell you. Like, that's honestly what it's going to take.

Yeah, cuz um Yeah, they're going to get run over otherwise.

for sure. And I mean like I'm sure they're doing very well. I'm sure that they are probably eating Pathfinder's

lunch right now. Yeah. But I don't know how much lunch

Pathfinder still had. Yeah. It seems like the second edition kind of bit them in the dingus

to put it to put it nicely. When your entire brand is we didn't move to fourth edition.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Contrarianism is just not the this

draw that it was, you know, a while ago, right? Um, okay. Honorable mentions. Uh,

draw steel. If you want to do um mech game but sad. Uhhuh. That is a very good one. Uh, Legend in

the Mist is a very cute low crunch cozy fantasy game.

Okay. Uh, His Majesty the Worm is for those OSR nerds that I guess might still

be listening to us. I assume it's a hate listen at this point. Yeah. Um, and Age of Vikings, mostly because

it does Vikings real good. So, uh, I wanted to add a couple of RPG

type things that I thought were worth mentioning. Yeah. And I'm surprised you didn't bring this up yet because it was worked on by a

mutual acquaintance of ours. Uh oh, is this the uh the Sanderson?

Yes, the Cosmir RPG, the Stormlight Starter Set is out now. Uh our buddy Merrick worked on this. Uh

and he came by the store the other day to do some demo stuff for people. Um how's Merrick doing?

He's he's doing these this I mean he seems to be doing well. They got the wife and kids and making RPGs. It's kind

of Yeah. So, this is uh this set was not available during their Kickstarter campaign, but it comes with a a a

condensed rule book um and then a little uh adventure for

first level characters uh with some battle maps and tokens and creatures,

etc. Uh, it's got some pregen character sheets, some dice, uh, and it has, uh,

so they're using like standard RPG dice, plus something they call a plot die, but

I won't get into the details too much of that. Uh, but yeah, I think it's a a cool little starter set if you want to

explore the world of one of the biggestselling

fantasy series of all time. Uh,

it's interesting too because like there are so many systems within the cosmir. Like

I I haven't had a chance to take a look at the cosmir role playing game yet. Yeah. But like

even if you just boil down the magic systems to pure investature,

it's still like 75 different magic systems within the same goddamn magic

system. like trying to encompass all of that. It's tough. Don't get me wrong. It's

tough. Yeah. I mean, God bless Merrick for

tackling that cuz I I [ __ ] wouldn't. Yeah. Yeah. I'm over here struggling with like one

page of role playing game rules. Come on now. Uh, okay. So, the second one that I

wanted to bring up is one that I have purchased myself this year. Uh, and it

is a small goofball RPG called Pigeons 11. Uh,

okay. Pigeons 11. You are role playinging as birds who are professional con artists.

Uh, you have to conduct a heist to steal some tasty food.

Uh, so who wrote it? Uh, let me see here.

It's a polymorph game by Arbitrio. [Music]

Uh, I don't actually know who wrote it. I'd have to go get it off the shelf to take

a look. Uh, okay. Cuz that sounds so much like the

guy who wrote Spire and Heart. Okay. Um,

sorry, give me one sec to bring his name up because it's escaping me. Uh,

actually, let me see if I can pull this. Grant Howit. Okay, so Grant Howitt is the the guy who uh

came up with Honey Heist. Okay. Which is you're a bunch of bears trying

to steal some honey from a local honey convention. Yeah. And th this Yeah, this sounds exactly

like him. So, as soon as you said like pigeons, I was like, "Oh [ __ ] is this a is this a Grand How game?" But no.

Yeah. I can't find the information online. It's uh they're calling it an

RPG funshot. Uh but yeah, you are act you're actual physical birds but are

also crafty thieves who can like pick locks and stuff uh and talk. Um so yeah,

it's just a little goofball thing. Yeah, exactly. Uh it's just a goofball thing to run

with your friends. Uh, and you know, it's it's not it's

definitely not meant to be like, hey, this is going to be our thing for the next 6 months, but it's one of those things where it's like you do have one

you do one of these as at like a holiday party or something. Um, and just kind of smash it together and

run with it and and be dumb. Um, the the classic beer and pretzels role

playing game space that like old my baby lives in. Yeah. Okay, let's uh let's get to some

of these other things on here because we have been talking for a long time and I got stuff I want to advertise, but uh

Okay, accessories. You you have some accessories. Yeah. So, uh for dice this year, my two

favorites are the Hexbound aluminum series, which feels an awful lot like uh

rolling a battery. Okay. It's just a a big heavy chunk of

metal. And then the uh the Dispels uh astral thread collection is absolutely

gorgeous. It's got like tiny stars and moons etched into it. They're not like

the the aluminum dice are kind of on the pricey side. The astral collection is a little more on like the the affordable

side, but if you're looking for something that's like really pretty but affordable, that that would be a solid choice.

Sure. Uh I would Do you have any like favorite dice sets that have come through?

I have one. Hold on. I got to find it. Um, what are they called? Ember Forge. Uh,

Ember Forge makes handcrafted metal dice. Uh, you've probably seen them.

They they've been on Critical Role. They've been on Wormwood on the Worm

Life show. Uh, but they are like very very pimp supreme dice. Um, I don't love

all of their designs, but I could appreciate that they are quality. The problem that I have run into with metal

dice in the past is that they are just like cheaply tossed together and they kind of feel like it. Um, these ones do

not. Uh, so yeah, check out Ember Forge Dice on uh uh Instagram.

Okay, cool. Um, Rook and Raven makes some absolutely gorgeous notebooks and

character sheets and character trackers and NPC trackers and like all of the um

the fiddly bits that you would want to have on paper. Yeah. So, if you're running a pretty analog

game, uh, it's gorgeous. And it's also just like showing up with a beautiful

perfectbound notebook that has like gorgeous RPG style art on the front. And

sometimes it's even branded for specific games. Yeah. So like um if you have a game that

you're running that they are supporting, then you could just grab a notebook that's like for that class and you just have your class on the front of the

[ __ ] notebook. It's gorgeous. Yeah. Um, also the interiors, like I I don't

think the topography design gets enough love kind of in general, but like the way that they've laid out the individual

pages of their notebooks for like the character sheets has all of the uh the

attributes along the top with like the bonuses immediately below them and like all of the the equipment information is

all on like one page. It's it's absolutely fantastic. Sick. Um, I will say uh just in general

the idea of picking up like a character uh book off of like because I just

bought something off Amazon, but like taking the those books and having the

the uh your character creation sheet in there like the one I bought has like

five or six of them and then they've got space for, you know, spells and notes and all sorts of stuff like that. I

found has really changed my relationship with like role playing in general where I've got multiple characters with me and

and sort of keeps me more present in the game by having like almost like a physical little spell book in front of

me. So, um yeah, I I second that idea.

Well, and it also gives you like at the end of the game you have an object,

right? Like you have an art object that is a remnant of that game, a remnant of the character. that is like a physical

representation of the thing that happened which I think is really important sometimes. Yeah.

Uh Arch Villain Games. Never heard of them.

Okay. Uh you need to search for them right now because the minis that they are putting out are next [ __ ] level.

Okay. They are absolutely gorgeous. Um, the

level of detail on them is kind of insane. And they're doing stuff that is

ready for 5D and D. They're doing stuff for their own games. They're kind of throwing their own spin on classic

monsters. And they are absolutely fantastic. Oh, are these Okay, I'm looking now. Uh,

so you can subscribe and get the STLs for these and print them yourself or Yeah,

or will they do it for you? They will do it for you as well. You can

purchase them. Um, and I think you can also purchase them painted, but that's a premium.

Okay. Uh, I looked at the sci-fi ones. These sons of Helis, the black failanks.

Uh they've got a bunch of what the 40k people call baby carrier robots. Uh

where where the character is basically baby bejorned on the front of them. Uh except these ones are pretty freaking

cool. Yeah. No, it's uh I I have been

consistently impressed with the level of quality that is coming out of their minis and like in multiple sizes too.

Like even their their smallest minis because I find that with the uh the D&D

branded minis, the bigger they are, the more impressive they are both in like level of detail and like construction,

right? But the smaller ones really fall apart, right? like you you have like bent swords and like characters that are like

leaning weird and it's just like part of the the problem of having small plastic in a package. Um but everything that I've

seen from Arch Villain has been absolutely gorgeous. Um regardless of size. That's good because their website is

kind of ass. But their website is ass. Yes. But

also just like okay I'm not like subscription guy. Yeah. I hate that everything is turning

into a subscription, but the idea of getting like a little gift box every week or like every month that has

like minis in it. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, just a little surprise that shows up.

Yeah, I Yeah, I like that you can just go buy this whole army for like 10 bucks. Like here, take the files, just do it. I

think that's neat. Mhm. Um, so for accessories,

uh, I originally didn't have anything in my mind, but I did want to shout out, uh, a company called Knowledge's Tower.

Uh, you can find them on Instagram and Etsy. And basically what they do is they take, uh, secondhand books and then

carve them into dice towers. Um, so

yeah, I wish I liked dice towers. Yeah, these ones are pretty neat in that like

it's a big hardcover book. They carve like a unique little path down the

middle of it and then they'll also carve a little receptacle in it to hold your dice. Um, and then it can just stand

vertically and and roll your dice for you. Um, if I ever go back to the extreme library

as a thing, I kind of need one of those. Yeah. Yeah, they're pretty dope. They And they

do them by commission, so you can even like if you have a favorite book, you

can like send it to them and have it made into a Dice Tower. Um, so I just

thought that was pretty neat. I wonder if there's limitations on that. Oh, certainly. But yeah,

like I I wonder if you have like somebody who has a particularly valuable

like first or second printing of Janeire or something. Um, send it in. If they would like carve

that up that I I've not seen anything on there that indicates that they care at all

what you send. It's all on you. Um, okay. But that would be disrespectful

and hilarious and I think you should do it.

I do not care at all about classic classic literature. I hate it all. So carve it up.

I like classic books, but I think that um information is generally free and the

object of a book is pretty much useless. Yeah. Okay. Stocky stuffers.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so there are always new

innovations happening in like smallcale bits of stuff for role playing games.

And my favorite this year is the dry erase condition rings. Okay. Um,

so it's just like a little ring that you can put on the bottom of a a character, like a the bottom of a mini that like

indicates a a status. You can wipe it off, write another one next time. So I did kind of the opposite. I bought

condition rings that um have like an internal spinning wheel that I could just like turn to select whichever

condition I want. Uh or I could flip it over and it's got numbers. Uh

nice. So yeah, there they're like they're I think from like Ultra Pro or something and there's a pack of like 20 of them

for like 10 bucks. Uh yeah,

I'm a big fan of um like metal

initiative trackers, like basically an abacus for characters in like which order they're going to go.

Um I don't have any links to them like written down or anything, but I do know

that they exist. And if you just look up metal initiative tracker, um they usually look like a bookmark or like a a

small card. Yeah, that you can uh put stuff together with. So, those are pretty great. And then uh

sometimes you just like get a metal bookmark. Yeah, I've actually seen metal initiative trackers that are in the form of a

bookmark. Yeah. And that is just doing double duty. Yeah, a metal bookmark goes hard.

Okay. It also suggests that you are very like into reading.

Right. Right. It's definitely a virtue signal for the literate.

Okay. Uh, so I had I had three other stocking stuffers uh with with an

honorable mention. Uh, so first of all, uh, this one I didn't want to count it

as an RPG, even though it kind of is an RPG. Um, but it is insurgent which is a

like it's basically another oneshot type thing except it's also like so small you

can do it solo. Um, it's just like right basically no character creation. It's

just a you're you're a member of a group of rebels fighting against random oppressive forces and it's a little

missionbased thing. uh that like you kind of build the setting as you go. Uh

deciding whether it's like fantasy or modern or futuristic. Um and

it really just encourages like imagination and and just vivid descriptions.

Um Okay. So yeah, and it's it's one of the games that we didn't talk about earlier. Uh we just kind of

skipped over the the great games that didn't come out this year, but uh Spire and Heart. um both by the guy that I was

uh talking about with the uh onepage RPGs. Um they have a very similar setting.

They're uh the heart in particular is uh dark elves that have been oppressed

fighting against the light elves that have been oppressing them. Uh and has very similar themes to

insurgent. So something that uh kind of echoes there. Nice. Uh so the second thing is actually

a book. It's an omnibus. Uh it's called the Twice Dead King. Uh but it collects

a bunch of stories from the 40k world about uh the Necrons and uh Ceseric the

Silent King. Um they I don't want to say they retconed, but

they fleshed out the Nekron lore a lot more in the last few years. Um, when

they first reintroduced them, they were just like silent, unknowable, implacable, vaguely Egyptian bad guys.

And they're still vaguely Egyptian, except now that they've now they've fleshed out like a dynasties and what

these different powerful people are. And then you can now they actually start talking about the leaders of them and

they have motivations and they've introduced some cool characters that um

are super powerful but doing weird things. um like Tres and the Infinite. So, yeah, I think it's it's a cool set

and a great way to uh just have a good old holiday, you know, fireside read. Um

I feel like this is one step away from making the bugs smart.

Uh or are we going to suddenly start seeing

smart tyrannids? Is that coming? So, people have have been of that

opinion. Uh they like when the Nekrons were just, you know, faceless robots. Um

I I'm in the minority, but I kind of like this version of the Nekrons where they're a little like there were, don't

get me wrong, there was good things about the first version where it was like, hey, they just do [ __ ] up things. Like there was these things

called flade ones that just had knives for hands and wore the skin of things they had peeled. Um and then they would

just show up on the battlefield. And like I think it was kind of cool that like there was no explanation for their

motivation. They just did it. You're like, "Wow, is this like weird like AI machine learning gone [ __ ] up like um

but I feel like that doesn't really need a lot of explanation." Like that that feels very like berserker to

me, right? Like you just have a a huge dude who starts hitting himself and then his friends and now he's coming at you.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean these guys would just like sneak into a camp, fle the whole camp, and then put on their skins and

then like tunnel underground and show up somewhere else wearing the skin of things that they had killed that Oh, I

recognize that face. That was Jeff. Like multiple things that they had

skinned cuz I don't know which one I like better of the like them kind of trying to look like they're wearing a a

person's suit versus like they're wearing a cloak that is made of six dudes. Uh, more the cloak thing, but

maybe not six dudes. Maybe like one dude. Um, because it's fresh. It's fresh and wet.

Uh, and then, uh, I like how it flaps.

The last thing is, uh, so Hot Ones exists. It's existed for a long time. I used to be a a very regular viewer, but

they have gone ahead and made a full-blown press your luck board game called Hot Ones Roulette that comes with

a bottle of the last dab. And uh you use a combination of dice and cards played

from hand to uh push the it's essentially a game of hot potato on

who's going to have to take the dab. Um so I thought that was just the bag Sean Evans. Yeah, it's it's a fun party thing. Um,

and then the final one, I didn't put it on our list, but uh the big hit for this year for party games that now come in uh

stocking stuffer size is Flip Seven. Another press your luck game with some gambling elements. Um, I' I've played

it. It's fine. It's 10 bucks. You can teach it to your grandma in 2 minutes. Um, it's like

half as complicated as playing blackjack. It's just hit or don't. Okay.

Uh, okay. Yeah. So, that's one to check out. So, what if I have like four stacks

burning a hole in my pocket? Uh, put them into a tax-free savings

account and start building towards your down payment on a townhouse. No, I I I need to spend them on one

particularly nerdy gift. Oh. Oh, well then perhaps something in

the like heirloom furniture uh realm. Yeah, I I threw Wormwood T tabletop desk

on the list as like I I know that there are some people who

need those like premium gifts. Like what do you get for the nerd who has everything? And like I've got $4,000 in my savings

specifically for that nerd. Yeah. But ain't nobody ever bought me one. So

yeah, it's one of those things where like if you've got the money, you should probably just go buy Wormwood stuff in general. I mean, I'm going to

Yeah, after after moving, I'm going to buy a table. Like that's my next goal is to

save for a table. Um even the modular one, I'm probably going to spend two grand on it. Um

you know, it is what it is. Uh, I I've tried to stop gap it with various

goofball accessories to make my table more functional, and none feel as good as when I was playing on my friend's

sunken gaming table. It's just Yeah, it's just a a unique feel to everything.

And the feeling is very, very good. It's a It's a singular kind of luxury to

have Yeah. your board games living in something that is that high quality. Um,

not a thing that I have had a chance to experience of my own, but uh, someday.

Someday. All right. Someday I will convince you to buy me one of these tables, Joe.

Well, we'll just hope that the pod eventually makes enough money to do that for us, right?

Go buy all of our onepage RPGs and get a cool table.

Okay. Are you ready for the final category, which is the only one that matters because it's about stuff I care about.

Uh yeah. So, I'm just going to mute my mic and uh let you do your thing. No. No. All right. Okay. So, uh final

category, board games and tabletop games. Uh number one, I am an absolute

shill for Stonem and Jamie Stagmire. And Jamie Stagmire has designed another game. It's called Origin Story. Uh

so uh it's a small box game but uh big play within it. It has multiplayer and

solo up to five players. Uh it is a competitive tableau building trick

taking game played in five rounds and each round is a chapter in your character development and gives you a

new card to add to your mat. Uh so you you charge your cards and use their abilities to score more points. Uh

basically you are revealing your character's backstory. gathering gadgets and allies to develop a grudge against

an arch enemy and then unleash an ultimate as you transform. Uh so you are

speedr runninging your character design progress uh into unleashing yourself on

your your super villain. Um and when I'm done, does it give me D&D

stats that I can just plug in or I wish it did. It does not. But you probably could.

Somebody should put out like a little addendum book or something that's just like this is how to convert everything

to D and D stats. Yeah, it's it's a lot more superhero based, so that might be tough to translate. Uh

okay, but still superhero games we could do that. Yeah, I think it's a nifty nifty little development. Uh and the other one is it

is as of last week, we are now officially in the third season of Blood

Bowl. Bloodbull has released their third season box set which adds two new teams,

the Brettonians and the Tomb Kings. I I'm a big fan of Blood Bowl. Bloodb is

what British people think American football is played with fantasy races. Um I got into it because of

Do you remember when the WWE tried to get into football for a minute? Yes. Yeah. Arena football.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I can't remember what it was called, but it was dumb. And I liked

the XFL. Yeah, the XFL has failed twice.

Uh, but what a what a terribly wonderful idea. Well, what it was is like, hey, what if we took that NFL Blitz game and tried to

make it real life? Um, yeah. So, loved it. Uh,

Blood Bull is that but with more murder. Yeah. I got into Blood Bull because we had a staff league that we started and

everyone got a free team. So, I chose Lizard Men. Um, and it turns out that the Lizard Men are really solid because

they're just like essentially a rugby team. Half your team is like big, burly dudes who just have

good stat blocks and tough armor and just kind of push people around. The other half is fast little lizards that

squirt by and score touchdowns. Um, but uh, every team has unique flavors. They

like elves are a lot more nimble and can do a lot more throwing plays. Uh the

orcs spend the first half of the game just trying to violently foul half of

your team and then the second half just sort of trudging by because all of your guys are injured and on the ground. Um

so this is where I would make some sort of sports joke about a particularly violent

actual sports team, but I don't actually know anything about that.

You could you could reference the Broad Street Bullies. How's that? Okay. It's like the Broad Street

Bullies. There you go. More orcish. Yeah. You don't know what any of that is, do you?

Oh, that's fine. And then the final one that I want to throw out there uh is again another Jamie Stagmire game, but

uh it came out a little about six months ago. It's Vantage. Advantage is

uh a cooperative exploratory game. It's essentially like a big choose your own

adventure. Um it is played so the the thing that makes it I think kind of neat

and similar to more role playing type stuff is that it's all played firsterson. You get these vantage cards

that tell you what you see in front of you and you have to describe that to the other players at the table. um they

don't get to actually see what's happening until they go to that location. Um you are given so everyone

is as uh uh explorers out in space. You crash land on this planet and then you

are given a vague job to try to complete. Um you are all working together spending each other's resources

assisting each other. Even though you're not in the same physical location, if you you if you make a considered effort,

you can get your characters to the same spot and then start traveling together and working even more together, but you are still utilizing your skills and your

tools and your abilities from your board on other players turns. It's never like a I do my own thing and then now you do

your own thing. It's hey, I'm going to try to do this. Some other person might assist me with these roles. We suffer

the consequences, find the rewards, etc., etc., and then I'm still paying attention on your turn because I have

things on my board that I can do to mitigate consequences of your actions. Um, so neat.

It's it's yeah, it's very much a a no downtime type of game.

Um, I have played it a half dozen times now and I might have touched 10% of the

content in the in the box. There are literally thousands of cards featuring

900 different locations and another 400 500 different like items and things to

find. Um there's even I'm not going to spoil it, but the game has a twist that

I think is a a mark of brilliant design that

other people I know haven't found yet in the game and they've been playing as much as I have.

So yeah, I think I don't know why, but everything you've just said makes me really want somebody

to take those design aesthetics and apply it to Twilight Imperium, right?

Yeah. Make a game fun that you can play in one night. Who' have thought? Oh, no. No. If if if you make changes to

Twilight Imperium that makes it take any less than 12 hours to play, you [ __ ] it up. But I mean, they tried with Twilight

Inscription, and you're right, it definitely just [ __ ] it up.

All right. Um, any last shout outs? Anything else that uh we want to do

before we wrap this up for the the holiday Christmas gift guide? Um,

I you know, obviously there's the big releases that are out right now are the new uh Avatar the Last Airbender Magic

Set and Riftbound for the League of Legends players. Both are fine games. I

would encourage you try something else. Try something new and different.

Star Wars Unlimited just put out a new set, Secrets of Power, that revolves around the Senate and and political

minations. It's actually super fun. Um, try try a lesserk known game. You know,

there's so many card games out there that are trying their darnest and get

lost in the absolute title wave of Magic seven releases next year or the cultural

juggernaut of League of Legends. They don't need your money. These other games do. These other smaller designers do.

So, search for something off the beaten path. And because you haven't said it, I'm

gonna uh if you happen to be in and around Edmonton and you're looking for gifts for nerds in your life, hit up

Taps Games. That's us. Um buy stuff from possibly even Josh and

uh have yourself a merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you as well.

Hey, thanks for making it all the way through this episode of No Plot Only Lore. If you're looking for more, you

can always find us at noplotonlore.com and on all the very best podcast platforms. If you like what you heard

today, please share, rate, and review the show to feed my never- ending need for attention and validation.

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