Zombie Conspiracy – A D20 Special

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Events, Features, Game Guides, Magic

Zombie Conspiracy is A D20 homebrew special game. We took Conspiracy, Wizards special multiplayer drafting set, and blatantly messed with the rules to make a game that is perfect for 3-6 buddies who just want to spend a couple of hours cheerfully womping the heck out of each other without all the waiting between rounds and not getting to play with yer buddies of regular magic. Conspiracy was a cool idea, a draft format that not only was designed to play with 3-6 people all in one big group, but also had cards that messed around with the draft.

So here is the thing….We really liked the idea of Conspiracy…but when we played it there were a couple of things that just weren’t that much fun.

The first problem we found that was that as much fun as it was to play, if you spent all that time drafting a cool deck and got knocked out in the first ten minutes, it didn’t just make you “ah, I’ll get you back” mad, more the “don’t sleep with both eyes closed anymore, because I will kill you in your sleep” mad. Second was what we call in Commander, the Fluffy Bunny Syndrome….people tending to hang out, doing their best “Don’t mind me, I’m just a harmless little bunny” impressions, trying to be the least threatening person at the table while waiting for enough stuff to come out to do their alpha strike. Boring….

Enter Zombie Land—How our version works is that you get points for knocking out other players and if you are knocked out then, well, you rise from the dead and come back in. We’ve played it a bunch and it works great.

How it works

1 point for each other player you knock out. You get a bonus of one if you never get knocked out.
If you get knocked out, you pick 2 lands to put in play and then take 3 rebuilding (no attacking or interacting with other players) turns and come back in. (If your turn comes up before you are back to rebuild, skip it until it comes back to you so other players don’t have to wait.)
Being milled out does not count as a kill unless you directly force the player to draw that last card.
The game goes on for 1-1:30 hours, depending on players preference (and how long the store is open.) Players with the top half scores get bonus packs from a pool of 1 pack per player.

About Conspiracy.

Conspiracy Video

What are the Cards?

The Mechanics of the new set

You can’t have a good conspiracy on your own. And that is the secret sauce to the special Magic set , coming out on June 6th. This draft -centric, multi-player set is all about what we can do for, er, to each other. This is a special set, much like Modern Masters, with limited initial qualities, though they say that there will be some reprinting after (we are being wary..squirreling away our boxes to let people play with until we know the score.)

Messing with a Draft: Drafting is one of the most fun things you can do in magic. And this set takes the standard “get 3 packs, open 1, pick a card and pass to the left/right” and tosses it in the blender. One of our customers described it beautifully by saying that it “broke the 4th wall” of a draft, and I think that’s true. In this set, there are cards that start the game during the draft itself, letting people mess with each other as the draft is going on. (BTW…all Conspiracy drafts are casual format–will of WOTC.)

Tiny Leaders-A new Magic format….

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Game Guides, Magic

Welcome to Tiny Leaders. We will be playing the format during Tiny Leaders Thursdays.

This is a new format of magic created by Bramwell Tackaberry (who still maintains a Facebook group dedicated to the format… in the spirit of Commander, but designed as a 1 on 1 format instead of for group games.

Here is the summary of the big rules:

Uses Commander rules-except:

50 card decks (including a “commander”)
Cards must have converted mana cost (add up the total mana cost) of no more then 3.
Players start with 25 life.
10 card sideboard-decks must stay at exactly 50 cards
Best 2 of 3 game matches.
Ignore Commander Damage rules

The source website for all the Tiny Leader info….

The Banned List: Our list is still undergoing changes, but the cards currently present are:

Ancestral Recall
Balance
Black Lotus
Black Vise
Channel
Chaos Orb
Contract From Below
Counterbalance
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Demonic Tutor
Earthcraft
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Falling Star
Fastbond
Goblin Recruiter
Hermit Druid
Imperial Seal
Jeweled Bird
Karakas
Library of Alexandria
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Mana Vault
Metalworker
Mind Twist
Mishra’s Workshop
Mox Emerald, Jet, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire
Necropotence
Painter’s Servant
Shahrazad
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Survival of the Fittest
Sword of Body and Mind
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timetwister
Timmerian Fiends
Tolarian Academy
Umezawa’s Jitte
Vampiric Tutor
Yawgmoth’s Will

Additionally, these Legendary creatures cannot be used as Commanders:

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

Play Rules: There are no “free” mulligans. Tiny Leaders uses the standard “Pairs mulligan” rule: the player shuffles his or her hand into their library and draws one fewer card than their last hand, a player may not mulligan a hand with 0 cards

If a commander would be put into a graveyard from anywhere or exiled from anywhere (so long as it is face-up or a player can look at it face down,) it’s owner may choose to put it in the command zone.

Each time you cast your commander, the next time you cast it from your command zone, it will cost (2) colourless mana more to play.Format Exclusive Cards: Three generals are available for use, to fill the colour identity holes left by no legendary creature existing with that colour identity and mana cost.

1. Mardu [Legendary Creature] WBR (2/2)
2. Sultai [Legendary Creature] UBG (2/2)
3. Jeskai [Legendary Creature] WUR (2/2)

Parents back to school Guide for Trading Card Games

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Game Guides, Main Page

Or how to send your kid off to school with their beloved trading cards and get both back happy and whole…

Private Note to (fellow) Parents: Ok…now that school is back in session, a few parent to parent bits of advice about collectible card games during the school year.

First…what are TCG’s (Trading card games)? Imagine making a game with baseball cards, where the what’s on the card can affect the game. The games are played by putting together decks of cards to battle each other.

What is good about the games (from a parent standpoint?) If you strip down the fantasy elements and pictures, what you get is math, logic, motivated reading and a chance to get the kids face to face, not face to screen. They are also great motivators for getting homework, chores and other needed carrots to counterbalance our sticks. See our other post, the Guide to Trading Card Games, for the full skinny. But the rest of this is specifically to help us parents in understanding the deal, and getting ahead of potential issues that might come up. (You may notice that we don’t include Yugioh in our list of these games. Yugioh is a very popular game, but we do not encourage kids to play it, and in fact have banned it at D20 Games, something we did not do lightly.)

source chzbgr.com

Trading Issues: 80% of issues between kids that come up with kids at school regarding cards have to do with what end up being unfair (either intentional or unintentional) trades between the kids. Some of these cards can be worth real money, and nothing makes a kid feel worse then discovering that an older or more experience player took advantage of them. As we say to the kids: there is no piece of paper that is worth a friend.

We have three specific bits of advice for the kids regarding this:
- Trade-backs are ALWAYS ok.. Make sure that your kid understands to always make the agreement that it is ok to trade back cards within a week or so, provided that the cards are still in the same shape, This way, if they go back home and find out that it was a bad deal, like they got pressured, or if they just want their cards back, they can do it.
- Check prices if you aren’t sure; For Magic cards, we use Channelfireball.com for our pricing (though we do $1 min for rares and .50 for other cards). Or for Pokemon (and if you aren’t sure) you can always look on eBay. (BTW..always look at Sold listings, not regular. You can see what people really buy things for.) For Pokemon, we use the Sold listings on Ebay.
- If bad trades happen, remember the feeling, and be a good guy: No matter what you do, there will come a point where there is a rotten trade that will make your kid feel just horrible. Believe it or not, this is a key (and good) moment for them to have under your care. They have the choice next time to take advantage of someone like they were taken advantage of, or to make sure to never make someone else feel the way they felt.
Avoiding Stolen stuff at school: Kids will want to bring in their cards to both play with other kids and to show off their good cards. Inevitably, when they aren’t looking, something will disappear, and much badness and sadness will ensue. A few ways to avoid this are the following.
- Names in deck boxes….make sure to put enough info not only on the outside,but on the inside to make sure the decks can get back to you guys. (The outside tends to rub off)
- Card sleeves…These cost about $4 and not only protect the cards (and keep decks from disappearing into the big mush of cards back home) but keep kids cards from getting mixed up with the person they are playing with. It also provides quick identification if a card starts walking away.
- Side-Loading Binders: Lots of kids bring their good cards in the same box as their deck. What happens is that while they are playing a game, someone comes over to look at their trades, and while the kid is distracted, a card or two gains feet. Bringing in a small binder for the trades/show off cards is a better idea. We strongly advise getting binders that have what are called side-loading pages. Rather then putting in the cards in slots in the top, and having the turn it over, dump out problem, these go in from the sides in a way that doesn’t fall out. More importantly it is kind of tricky to get the cards out, making it MUCH more obvious if someone is being a little light fingered. Remember, just as with the deck boxes, make sure there is enough info somewhere inside the binder to get them back to you.
Keeping Score: A huge number of silly fights happen between kids because they try and keep the score for the games in their heads. At some point, inevitably, you will get the “but you are at 6! No, I’m at 13 argument that leaves each kid thinking the other is a lying jerk. Paper, Dice or even some special deckboxes with score wheels built in are a great solution to this.
Losing is just fine: Reminding kids that every time they lose, they learn something new is great. Kids will often get so tied up with the social value of winning that they get tempted to cheat, not really putting together how much worse the rep they will get for cheating.
Packs are great homework/housework motivators. Kids that are playing Pokemon or Magic are always seriously motivated by getting to open a new pack. While my own kids may hear me with the “wah-wah” sound of a Peanuts parent, for other people, I’m the guy behind the counter at D20, a bully pulpit if there ever was one. Give me a nod and I’m happy to back-up whatever you are working on. Tying a pack a week to getting the homework done is a great way to do some positive motivation. (We’re working on something more official as time goes on…keep tuned)

Guide to Tabletop Games# 2 Deck Building Games

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Game Guides, Main Page

If games like Magic and Pokemon (Trading Card Games) are games where you build a deck to go and play each other, deck builders are games where you start with tiny decks, and part of playing the game is competing to acquire the cards to make your deck better. Most people who like the trading card games end up really liking deck building games, though they may not realize it. The other big difference with deck building games is that while there are usually expansions, there isn’t the collectible card component so when you buy the game, you are usually all set.

The standard mechanic in the game is to have a set of cards that are used to buy stuff(usually better cards that you then add to your deck) and another that are used to defeat stuff (usually to gain you points). A typical starting deck for these games is between 10-12, with have drawn and played each turn. As soon as you acquire a new card, it goes into your discard pile, and when you’ve used all the cards you have, that pile is shuffled up and becomes your new deck. The more cool stuff you acquire, the better your deck becomes. Another common feature of the games is that there tend to be factions of cards that help each other out, oh, and the really great cards tend to cost a lot more. It is almost always a strategic struggle between decking to add cards that give you more of the getting stuff power vs. the attacking power.

The first major deck building game was the medieval themed Dominion back in 2008

Other great deck building games include the Ascension series as well as the Marvel Legendary Deckbulder series.

The most recent (and store favorite) add to the game is Star Realms, which changes the attack stuff mechanic, to attack, well, the other players…very, very, very fun.

Guide to Tabletop Games: #1 TCG/CCG (Trading Card Games)–Magic/Pokemon/Yugioh etc…

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Game Guides, Magic, Main Page, Pokemon

Hey guys…I’ll keep adding to this as time goes on, but I get asked a lot (particularly by parents) about what games like Magic and Pokemon really are. Here’s a shot at doing geek to English translation.

Magic, Yugioh, and Pokemon are what are known as trading card games(TCG) or collectible card games(CCG). Basically imagine a game made up of collectible baseball cards, where the ability of the card actually comes into play in the game. Their big innovation was in creating a game where the cards that are added to the game can have rules or abilities on them that add to the game rules. Magic was the first game of this type and was created by Richard Garfield over 20 years ago in 1993. There have been billions of the cards printed and there currently over 12 million Magic players. When you strip the game down, it is a lot of math, logic and strategy, and tends to attract a fairly intelligent player base. There is even a college scholarship for magic players. 😉

The games are in their simplest form like the old card game War, where players put down two cards and the higher one wins. Each player has a starting amount of life (or in the case of Pokemon, a fixed number of “prize cards” that the players get to collect when they knock out an opponents Pokemon), and they cast cards in attack, defense and response to try and get the other player to zero.

What is interesting about the game is that ability for cards themselves add and modify the rules of the game, creating an evolving set of game play where it is figuring out the cool combinations of different cards that is the most fun part of the game. Once they get past the pre-made starter decks, it’s all about learning the cards and trying to come up with new ideas for decks and seeing how well they do against other players.. (So yes, its normal for the kids to get excited about the new sets of cards as they come out, as each set adds new possibilities that they can puzzle out.)

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From the parents point of view, the positive aspects of the games are encouraging reading, math, and logic skills. It is also good for creating opportunities to learn fair play, though that benefits a lot from our guidance. Some of the rarest cards can end up being valuable ($100 or more), so talk to your kids about keeping them safe at school, as well as being both careful and fair in their trading with others. Keeping their cards in sleeves and in a deck box with their name on it will both keep the value of the cards intact and make it less likely for their cards to get mixed up with other kids by accident.
Common Questions

Big difference between Magic, Yugioh and Pokémon: The way things get into play…Magic uses land that gets reused every turn to put different cards in play, Pokémon has energy that attaches to the Pokémon and let them do what they need to do, and Yugioh lets the player give up some of their smaller creatures to get bigger ones, called tributing . Magic also lends itself to limited play like Drafts and Sealed events where everyone starts out even with new packs of cards and builds decks on the spot.
Do adults play these games too? Yep…there are lots of adults that play each of the games.We get most adults on the magic side, but quite a bit on the and Pokémon as well. For those who play, we see a lot of very nice connecting time with the kids.

For Parents:

Anything for parents to worry about? As a dad of a couple of 13 year olds and an 10 year old, here is my honest answer. There are terrific things about the games, (math, reading, logic, learning to play fair with other people, and in general not having their faces stuck into screens. However, there are a couple of things to that get brought to the surface by having access to things at a younger age that may be of value that provides so really important teachable moments for parents if they are aware of them.

Trading Fair: This is one of the first time that kids will get their hands on portable items that might be worth some money. It can bring out some strong desires that lead to some experiences with theft or making unfair deals on both sides. When this happens, and it likely will, it is a key parenting opportunity to make sure that they understand how that feels and become determined to never make anyone else feel bad, rather then deciding, “well, I got taken advantage of, I’ll do the same thing to the next person I trade with.
—Ben’s Advice—Make sure that they always agree to trade backs being ok (within a week or so and provided the cards are still in as good shape as when they were traded.) The standard thing that I say to kids is “there is no piece of paper that is worth losing a friend over.
One More Pack, just one more Pack… It’s super fun to open the packs…they could be anything until they are opened and the fun of opening and discovering a golden ticket of a card is a great feeling. But when the desire to open the packs completely eclipses the fun of playing the game or even sharing the cards with their friends, it can expose something that we, as parents, don’t usually get to see until much later (and usually when they are in the never listen to us phase.) If they keep wanting to trade all their good cards for a chance to open another pack, that is an impulse very akin to gambling, and one where I’ll have a chat with the kids to make sure they are more interested in playing the games that is an early version of being susceptible to gambling. Though both of these are a little scary, they are a great chance to get to work through these things at an age where the kids may still actually listen. 😉 On the other hand, the math, logic, reading and general sense of using their brains, combined with staying engaged with other people rather then computer or video screens makes it a great thing for kids to get into.

No more Adult Yugioh Tournaments or play at D20?!? Why…

By Ben Calica / 11 Comments / Features, News

Important announcement:
No more Adult Yugioh @ D20

We sincerely apologize to the majorly of Yugioh players who are lovely and respectful people that the continued tone set by the rest have forced us to this decision, but the persistent problems created by bad apples in the group (language, aggression, unfair trading, shoplifting) have reached a point to force us to decide to ban all adult Yugioh play at the store. We will continue to allow kid play only on Saturday from 1-4 for now and evaluate this as time goes on.

Why Yugioh and not any of the other games? This has been puzzling us as well. While we have had a few incidents with other groups, about 95% of the issues at the store have come from the Yugioh days. This has been an issues with many of the other stores in the area, about half of which (such as Games of Berkeley have come to the same choice. While the majority of people who play any game are lovely, there were enough people who set the tone of the group in the wrong direction that in spite of a year and a half of gentle to more serious talks, and banning of several people, we were unable to get the group as a whole to understand that we are very serious about the store as family friendly and a “Safe” zone.

No swearing, aggressive or threatening comments
No anti-gay, racist, sexist or sexual inappropriate comments
No intimidating or shaming others

We have been successful at creating that in every other community, but a year+ of working between gentle and firm with the adult Yugioh community has been ultimately incompatible with what we are trying to have as the safe comfortable store we are working to create. A few weeks ago we installed some new security cameras and discovered a large amount of shoplifting happening within that group, much of it being observed by other members of the group.

Can Yugioh players come for other events or days?

Players are welcome to join the other communities of players, but there will be zero tolerance for the attitudes and behaviors that caused this problem.

We will be closed for free play on Sunday and Tuesday, and will restart with different tournament play in s (including Cardfight! and potentially Pokémon, Magic and/or chess and other game tournaments). Pack purchase will be required to be in the store on those days and there will be no Yugioh play or trading allowed in the store with the exception of those 14 and younger on Saturday’s between 2-4 for now..and hopefully in that group the good behaving kids can keep anyone who heads in the other direction in check so we don’t have to do the same thing for the kids.

UPDATE

Shortly after this was posted, the store was broken into and robbed of aprox $13,000 worth of product. What became clear in the investigation was that it had been people who had been regulars in the store and those people had been in the group of regular Yugioh players. (Among other things, the only accessories beyond a few binders that were stolen were an entire rack of Yugioh sized white Player’s Choice sleeves. Anyone who knew the Yugioh community well is nodding their heads in understanding how this is the equivalent of a big spray painted “it was Yugioh players that did this” on the wall.) The confirmation of this came the next Sunday, when I planned to announce to the Yugioh community that we had banned the game entirely from the store. I was unable to do so because of the 40+players who usually came, none showed up.

We banned Yugioh from the store in 2012, and two things happened. The tone of the store became, for lack of a better term, more gentle. And we started becoming profitable for the first time about 3 months later. It turned out, as we became better at tracking the inventory, that there had been much more shoplifting then we every imagined.

D20 Trading Card Gift guide/advice

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Game Guides, Game Reviews, Sale & Deals

D20 Holiday Gift Guide-Trading Card Games

This guide is our best, most honest recommendations for gifts for the Magic or Pokemon player in your life; based on interest, experience level/age (and budget).

Parents cheat sheet:

TCG or CCG (Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games)

Magic, Pokémon, h are all are what are known as collectible card games. (Think collecting baseball cards, where you could actually play those better cards in a game.) The games are in their simplest form like the old card game War, where players put down two cards and the higher one wins. Each player has a starting amount of life, and they play cards used to attack, defense and respond to try and get the other player to zero (or in the case of Pokémon, to get 6 of the other players Pokémon to get to sleep). What is interesting about the game is that the cards themselves add and modify the rules of the game, creating an evolving set of game play. (That’s why the kids get excited about the new set of cards as they come out, each set adds new possibilities that they can puzzle out.)

From the parent’s point of view, the aspects of the games that are good are encouraging reading, math, and logic skills. BTW…ignore the age recommendations on the boxes…Magic is listed as 13+ and Yugioh is 6+…whoever set those levels clearly had no clue about the reality of kids. Pokémon is the usual game that starts kids playing, and it is very common for them to just enjoy collecting the cards without having a clue how to play it. Don’t worry…very normal. We do a Pokémon League on Saturdays where the kids get points for playing and actually get double points for helping the younger/new players figure it out. It’s good to eventually get them to learn how to play the game, because that is when they will start reading the card for real and to start working on the math that is part of playing the game.

It is also good for creating opportunities to learn fair play, though that benefits a lot from our help. Some of the rarest cards can end up being valuable ($100 or more), so talk to your kids about keeping them safe at school, as well as being both careful and fair in their trading with others. Keeping their cards in sleeves (usually between $3.5-$5 a pack) and in a deck box with their name on it ($3-5) will both keep the value of the cards intact and make it less likely for their cards to get mixed up with other kids by accident.

Players (kids and others) love opening up the packs, with that anticipation of finding some treasure within. The individual packs are very fun as stocking suffers or small gifts, but have the possibility of being a disappointing choice as a primary gift, particularly on the Yugioh side where a box of 24 packs only comes with 9 of the “super” and above cards that the players get excited about. See the list below for better choices.

The recommendations below are from our staff (and me) and are our best, most honest advice.

Pokémon (age 6-up)

	Item Name			Cost			Description/comment
Just Collecting for fun
Good		Bundle boxes			$10-20 each					These have a number of booster packs and either a full art cool card, little Album or toy figure that matches the cool card. These are great for little kids…lot of “oh, ahh” per inch and there is at least one great card in each. For little girls, the Keldeo box will make their heads explode from the sheer cuteness of it. (this from the dad of an 8 year old girl)
New/learning players (6 and up)
Good		Pokémon Intro decks			$12.99-13.99				When they first start to play, they really need a deck that has been built for them that works together well. If you want to play with them (which is actually pretty fun), get a second one. (Dad advice…get a set of sleeves for each deck so when the cards get spilled all over, it’s easier to get them back to be usable.)
Knows how to play
Better		Hidden Fates Pin packs			$21.99				These big stocking stuffers have 3 packs and a bonus card. The Hidden Fates is a more rare set that has been hard to find.
Best		Hidden Fates Collections			$79.99-120				These boxes have special rare promo cards and sets of the Hidden Fates Packs. We have about 10 in stock.
Intermediate-Advanced Players
Better			Pokemon Tins-boxes		$21.99-27.99				These latest tin’s contain Ex (really good) versions of some of the best cards as well as a number of booster packs.
Better			Ultropro Premium Side loading binders		$24-29				These binders load the cards from the sides instead of the tops. Because of that, the cards don’t fall out and it is much harder for other light fingers to take things out without being noticed
Best			Full art Single cards or Ex-Cards or a box of boosters		$15-50 for the singles, $110 for the booster box (36 boosters)				If you know the cool card they are looking for, we can usually help. Otherwise, get them a gift certificate so they can come in and really trick out their decks. Or get them a full box of boosters. While no one really knows what is in each booster, generally each box has a few of the prized full art cards and they WILL be happy. Let us know if you want these since we don’t always have a lot in stock.
Stocking Stuffers
			Single Packs.			$ 4 each		More fun for new players or kid collectors then advanced players. The more advanced the player the more they will be happy if the pack has good stuff and otherwise it’s a scratcher. Good for stocking stuffers only.
			Card Protectors (Sleeves)			$3.50-$5		Price is based on style and maker. Keep cards protected and from getting mixed up with other players-They come in units of 50 which is dumb since the decks are 60. (We try and keep extra sleeves to make up for this…)
			Pokémon Binders			$4-9		Either smaller 4 card per page or larger 9 card per page binders, always a good choice, particularly for younger players.
			Deck boxes			$3-5		Available with lots of colors and styles, pick their favorite

Magic The Gathering

Background: There is a new set of Magic cards printed every 3 months, with some special sets printed in between. They are all still part of the same game.

Beginning Players
Good	Intro Packs	$15	60 card pre-made, ready to play decks and a booster pack. The decks are good for playing with other players, but not good for learning from scratch.
Better	Deck Builder’s Toolkit	$20	A great mini-collection for new players (and one that kids particularly love). Contains 125 semi-random cards good for building decks, 4 booster packs from recent Magic sets, 100 basic land cards, deck-builder’s guide and learn to lay guide, and a storage box.
Very cool	Holiday Gift Box	$20-25	4 Return to packspacks, a special bonus card and the coolest storage box we’ve ever seen. This is a great goodie for any Magic player.
Beginners and Intermediate Players
Best	Fat-Pack Buldles	$42.99-54.99	Special box with 9 booster-packs, land, life counting die, and most fun for the kids, a full color booklet that shows all the cards in the set as well as having the backstory for the series and some special hints and combinations. (Unfortunately most of these were lost in the theft so we won’t have as many as usual.)
Intermediate Players
Good	Draft Gift Certificate	$15	Gift certificate for one of our Draft events. Good for Friday Night Magic or the kid’s Date Night Magic, these events include three packs of cards and an evening playing with the decks built from them. Lots of fun for kids from 9-14 or for experienced players ready for the big time on Fridays.
Better	Izzet vs. Golgari dual decks	$30	Two great decks in one package. We only have a few left
Better	Magic Event Decks	$20-40	These are interesting collections of competitive cards. We have these from a number of sets.
Stocking Stuffers/Small Gift ideas
	Single Packs.	$ 4 each	Always fun to open, Return to Ravnica is the latest, M13 is a good staple and there are great cards in the Innistrad set.
	Card Protectors (Sleeves)	$3.50-$5	Price is based on style and maker. Keep cards protected and from getting mixed up with other players
	Deck boxes	$3-5	Available with lots of colors and styles, pick their favorite
	HUGE D20 Life counting dice	$8	An oversized 20 sided die used to keep count of life totals. Available in the 5 different magic colors.
	Box of Mini-dice	$7-12	These mini-dice are loved by experienced player to use for counters on the cards
	Play-mats	$16-20	Providing a great surface to play on, these mats come in a number of great designs.

Cover Your Assets Review, D20 Games Alameda

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Game Reviews

Cover Your Assets by Grampa Beck Games..

Ben’s Review: (Store owner Guy)

Summery: Deceptively great game in a goofy box. Great for virtually all player levels, and good social fun. Best played with 3-6 players. Extremely easy to learn, but stays fun for a long time. Play time, 20-30 minutes a round, usually needs two rounds to get to a winner.

There is no way, looking at the box to have even the vaguest clue how fun this game is. The first time I saw it was at a special game store owners game night. All the heavy hitters were there, and one look at the goofy guy in his bowler hat and my nose went up in the air and I walked right past. After an hour, I realized that all the laughter in the room was coming from that table, so finally I went over. There were a ton of the game makers there, so I was spending 10-15 minutes just to get the feel of each game. So imagine my surprise when I realized I’d been playing the game for an hour and a half. Since then, we’ve played the game probably over a hundred times in the store.

How to play: The game play is simple, and works for ALL levels of players above 8 or so. It’s like a stealing version of Gin Rummy. Each player puts down matching pairs of cards (Jewels, Cars, Homes, Baseball Cards, Cash Under the Mattress) worth a fixed amount of $$ (The Assets), and works to build up a $1,00,000 to win the game. The twist is that there are about 10 of each type of card, and once you put down that $20,000 pair of homes, anyone else who has a single card that matches it can steal it on their turn, (grrr). BUT..if you have another copy in your hand (hand size is always 4 and your redraw to fill your hand whenever it gets below that) you can slap that card down and say “I don’t THINK so, buddy” and than not only do you get to keep your Homes in the family, but you get to add their card, and the card you defended with to that same pile (now worth 4x$20,000). Yay…you are the happy winner of that raid on your assets—oh damn, they have ANOTHER Homes in their hand to answer your defense, and now the steal is successful. UNLESS…look in your hand…that $25,000 Silver wild card (or $50,000 Gold), is itching to come out and play, and it stays yours…now a big fat $125,000 pile. (Why are all the other players looking at my stack with such “gimmie” in their eyes?) Until it gets to be my turn again, and I can put a different pair crossways on top of it to keep it safe (Covering your Assets…hence the name of the game) everybody else gets their shot at taking it, and they will. Once a stack is covered, it can’t be gone after until someone else steals off the covering stacks.

Two things: Because the game is all about stealing, it removes the feeling of “getting picked on” that can happen with games like Risk and Sorry. The only group I wouldn’t suggest this game for are kids who really get sore when things get taken from them in games. You can’t count your chickens in this game, and I’ve often gone from the big pile to stripped down to my card shaped undies, and little kids who are learning to handle that kind of stuff may have problems with that. (On the other hand, I just played with a 5 year old who had more fun taking stuff away from his dad’s pile then I’ve ever seen.) Second, the game is virtually impossible to get to the required $1,00,000 in the first round. That turns out to be a very good feature, because the first time around, people are figuring out the game, and their fortunes, so to speak, are never the same in the second game so by the time the two rounds are done, everyone had had a good time.

Games tend to appeal differently to different types of players and a big part of my job is helping people figure out which of the games they will like. This is one of the cheapest games I sell, and the only game I feel utterly confident in recommending to everyone (except for the tykes as listed above). I feel strongly enough about this game that it is the only one in the store that I’ve given an unconditional “fun” guarantee to bring it back. So far, lots of takers, and zero returners.

-Ben

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The following is a review from an 11 year old player in the store. Name is being kept private for kid safety reasons.

29/7/12

Cover Your A$$ETS

Cover Your Assets is a game slightly like gin rummy but with stealing or Go Fish where you can take from your opponents. The object of the game is to get $1,000,000 dollars’ worth of Assets (cards) by making pairs of cards and putting them on your Stack (a stack of cards.(OMG)) You can also steal cards from your opponents by making groups if you have a card that matches using their top pair or threesome or foursome. The twist is that you can counter or defend cards by playing another match. There are also Gold and Silver cards, which are wild and are worth $50,000 and $25,000, respectively. It seems to work best for kids of 10 and up, in terms of maturity. It has surprising strategy and depth for a game that’s object is to steal people’s stuff to become a millionaire. This game is no fun for poor sports and hard losers, but is probably for the whole family if Junior is mature enough. This is a very good game with a singular way to win but many ways to achieve victory and many more ways to fail. It is very hard to win and equally easy to win for grizzled veterans of card games as it is for wet-eared novices of card games. It is for 2-4 players, so it allows for a reasonable amount of unstable alliances. The estimated time is around half an hour to 45 minutes, so it takes fairly long to play.

FINAL RATING: 5!

Its fast and simple gameplay, easy-to-understand rules, complex strategy and depth earn an A+ in game design, although it is not for the whole family. Its estimated average time of gameplay also helped it earn the A+.

Board Games at D20 Alameda

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Events, Games

Welcome to the Board Game Report at D20 Alameda. We’ve been working hard to cherry pick the best and most interesting board games we can find, games that are goods for lots of different mixes of players, from families trying to balance ages and temperaments, to serious table top gamers looking for some major engaging fun. :

Thursday…Board Game Night Starts!!!

So we’re working on finding the most fun board and card games we can sniff out. 🙂 On Thursday Nights we are cracking them open and bringing them out for people to give them a test play. Check out Will Weaton’s Tabletop web series to see some of these games in action.

New (for Us) Forbidden Island. Team game to get all the idols and safely off before the island sinks from under you.
Munchkin Apocalypse!! Just released post apocalyptic version of the favorite help/mess with your friends game with jsut the right amount of wrong for the 9-13 set (and those who still feel like that when they looking the mirror)
Marvel Legendary: A great superhero deck building game that not only plays well from 2-5 players, but can be played with 1 (very rare)
Star Fluxx-The rules are …well, don’t worry…they’re going to change anyway. 😉
Set Jr.-A simplified version of the wonderful pattern matching game.
Timeline-Inventions, Discoveries and Events…what came before what? Can you get them in the right order? (Great for 8 and up)
Bang!-Spaghetti Western game of who (will or wants to) shoot the Sheriff. Any game where a card called Bang! can be countered by a card called Missed! has got to be (and is) a ton of fun.
Ascension–We have all the versions of this staple of deck building games (what are deck building games? Head over to the board game section to find out.)
Ticket to Ride-Wonderful game for 7 and up..get tickets and claim the tracks to get there…good family fun.
Castle Panic!-back in Stock after selling out…Let the conflict be with the game, not the kids in this tower defense style board game where the players team up to beat the game. (6 and up)
And of course…our favorite: Cover Your Assets.