Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of these products in exchange for an honest, unbiased preview. This preview is not intended to be an endorsement.

With Paizo's release of Player Core 2 for Pathfinder Second Edition, 8 more classes and Ancestries are now reworked to coincide with the Pathfinder Remaster Project. This also rounds out the original 'core' classes from the first Core Rulebook so that nobody is left behind any longer. It always seemed strange to me that some of those weren't remastered in the Player Core and instead put on the backburner until this installment. Nevertheless, the combination of Player Core and Player Core 2 exist as a sturdy base for this next era of Pathfinder Second Edition.

Pathfinder Player Core 2 Overview

Player Core 2 brings the total page count for the player resources to nearly 800 pages, which feels like a substantial barrier to entry for new players. Thankfully, there still exists a remastered version of the Pathfinder Beginner Box that cuts down the rules overhead substantially for those people who are just dipping their toes into the Pathfinder waters. If you want a bevy of character options as a player, however, the Player Core 2 is a must for the shelf.

The primary purpose of the Player Core…

The post Pathfinder Player Core 2 Preview appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Reclamation themes are commonly explored throughout the media we consume. Whether it is presented in a mysterious way like Lost, or through a lens of inevitability during a post-apocalyptic story like I am Legend, there's always a hearty contrast between the power of nature and the desire of humanity to endure. In Life in Reterra, the latest game from designers Ken Gruhl and Eric Lang, you are tasked with building up a community from the remnants of the past.

Life in Reterra Overview

There aren't any life-threatening zombies on Reterra, although the other players may serve as threats to the livability of your community. In Life in Reterra, players will be placing tiles in a 4x4 grid in order to line up gear symbols and match terrain types. Gear symbols allow you to place buildings, thus adding a means for scoring and areas of interest for your community's inhabitants.

Each game features 5 different building cards, which can be mixed and matched to foster a gaming experience that is suitable for your group. Since these are also double-sided, there are thousands of combinations of buildings to play with. Some of these buildings offer more take-that mechanics that impact other players, and some grant a more peaceful, solitaire-like experience.

After setting up the buildings and the public market of 5…

The post Life in Reterra Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Growing up in a family of six we basically had two staple board games: Pay Day and The Game of Life. The former instilled a vast distrust of the lottery in me at a young age and the latter taught me about the inevitability of taxes. Either way, I have a fondness for both games, even if they don't live up to modern board game expectations. Adulthood, Johnny O'Neal's latest offering from Brotherwise Games, does its best to capture the unexpectedness of life and those nostalgic vibes.

Adulthood Overview

Just like the real world, Adulthood is about investing your Time, Energy, and Money into various activities that will maximize your Happiness and Impact. Something new is always on the horizon whether it be a new love interest, exciting career, or worthwhile experiences that shape the path of your life's journey.

During a player's turn, they assign their purple Time tokens to any activities on their player board. Additionally, if any of the actions have other costs associated with them, they must also be paid at this time. Once actions are declared, each one is played out in whatever order the player sees fit, gaining any relevant resources or cards as indicated.

Once actions have been taken, the player drafts a card from the Market, representing their growth…

The post Adulthood Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Critical Role is the biggest name in the Dungeons & Dragons actual play scene, and Darrington Press is the publishing label for all their tabletop gaming offerings.The Uk'otoa board game was the first published game under this brand, named after the patron of one of Campaign Two's characters, Fjord. Although I haven't watched or listened to much of Critical Role—it's such a major time investment—I was still drawn towards Uk'otoa knowing how much effort and care goes into the production of their ventures.

Uk'otoa Overview

Uk'otoa, a monstrous beast of the sea, has obliterated your ship leaving all its sailors in a mad scramble to survive atop the floating wreckage. You will be affiliated with two factions, and if sailors of your faction(s) are the only sailors remaining, you win the game. In this semi-cooperative game, each player is sharing factions with their neighbors, but eventually there will be some level of mutiny amongst the group. It's only a matter of time.

The opening of the game consists of two preparatory phases. First, players will place the individual ship hexes to form the play area, with the main requirement being that each subsequent tile must point to the previously placed tile. This creates a variable board each time, although the recommended starting arrangement seems to balance the game well…

The post Uk’otoa Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

For decades, the Open Gaming License (OGL) had allowed people to use the framework of Dungeons & Dragons to make their own systems, content, and adaptations to the juggernaut of tabletop roleplaying games. Unfortunately, Wizards of the Coast decided to release an updated OGL in 2023 that removed references to versions 3.0, 3.5, and 5.0 from being listed under community use. As a result, Paizo pivoted to create their own Open RPG Creative License (ORC) and remaster Pathfinder Second Edition to remove itself from the legal thumb of Wizards.

This debacle introduced a slew of content from Paizo as a part of the Pathfinder Remaster Project, including the new set of Core books designed to get you into the game. Instead of a single Core Rulebook and a Bestiary, the new Pathfinder Core now consists of three books: Player Core, GM Core, and Monster Core.

Pathfinder Player Core

The Pathfinder Player Core rulebook is the direct replacement for the original Core Rulebook and remains the bread and butter of…

The post Pathfinder Core Primer appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

I'm largely unfamiliar with the Aviation Wargame genre of gaming, although not due to lack of interest. As much as I'd love to sink my teeth into something like Star Wars: X-Wing, I'm well-known for going all-in on miniatures games only to find myself lacking someone who would mirror the same investment. Therefore, I was intrigued to see Aerodome: Rising Horizons as a budget substitute for the sprawling miniature experience.

Aerodome: Rising Horizons Overview

The object of the game is aerial supremacy. Take down your opponent by reducing their Hit Points to 0 before they do the same to you.

When starting a new game of Aerodome: Rising Horizons, you need to select the Stadium that you'll be fighting in. It's called a Stadium as opposed to a Battleground or Location because you're playing as pilots of aircraft across time and dimensions. At least, that's what I was able to glean from the 'Story so Far' section of the rulebook that really just outlined the various factions battling in the game.

Each player hops into the proverbial cockpit of a fighter, assuming the role of a prodigious pilot like Alice Drummond or Van Vertigo. The pilot determines which types of cards—and how many of each—can be combined to make your Maneuver Hand. Think of the Maneuver Hand as…

The post Aerodome: Rising Horizons Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

There's one trope in gaming that I feel is severely underutilized: flipping the script. Typically, games put you in the shoes of the valiant heroes to slay beasts, collect treasures, and save the day. That's all well and good, but sometimes I want to play on the other side of the aisle and be the bad guy. Games like Evil Corp or Overboss immediately come to mind, offering a different perspective from the norm. When I saw Open Season for the first time, I was naturally drawn in simply on the premise of collecting heads from hapless heroes to put on my trophy room wall.

Open Season Overview

Gameplay in Open Season is very simple. Each turn starts with the Inn showing five potential People for the active player to take. Of these People, they'll choose two, placing one onto an available space on their Wall and the other into their Stock. Seems straightforward, right?

Where the game gets interesting is that your Wall restricts cards from being played in certain spaces. Usually this comes in the form of a row disallowing another of a previously played type of People card from being played in that row. A portion of the middle row is an exception, where playing three of the same kind of People card will…

The post Open Season Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Back in high school, countless lunch hours were spent huddling around our oblong tables with piles of playing cards as we repeatedly pounded the playing surface over and over again. Slapjack may be an early iteration of slapping card games, but it paved the way for a genre that gave us the magic of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. Now, other companies seek to emulate that game's success, with one of the latest being Cool Cool Cool, designed by Keith Baker and Jennifer Ellis of Twogether Studios.

Cool Cool Cool Overview

If you've played any slapping games in the past, you'll find plenty of familiarity with Cool Cool Cool. After evenly distributing the cards between all players, each person takes a turn flipping their top card over into the center of the table to form a communal pile, saying the name of the card in the process. If one of the active rules is triggered by this card, players try to be the first to slap the stack and collect all of the cards played in the round thus far.

The gimmick in this game, however, is that there are eight rules cards that will change the slapping conditions. For example, the base game plays with Pairs, Panini, and The Name of the Game. Pairs would mean that…

The post Cool Cool Cool Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Now that our in-house Arcs expert Andrew Lynch has shared his thoughts on Arcs, we thought it would be fun to have other Meeple Mountain contributors share their thoughts on the latest design from Cole Wehrle, in the form of our Quick Peaks roundups. Since Arcs has spent a stretch as what feels like the only tabletop game out there, let’s see what some of our other writers have to say about the hottest game in the world!

Arcs: That Campaign Was Something Else - Justin Bell

I have played Arcs eight times now—five plays of the base game, and a three-game series of “Acts” known as The Blighted Reach, the Arcs campaign expansion. The campaign is quite an investment, starting with a learning curve that I would describe as significant. The base game rules for Arcs can be taught to almost any gamer in about 15 minutes. The campaign rules might take you 30-40 minutes on their own. I did the five base game plays before trying to learn the campaign…and I was still checking the campaign rulebook by the end of the third and final Act. There are so many new rules that there is literally a second rules booklet that players build during the…

The post Arcs Round Table Talk appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Thomas Wells

What was your introduction to modern board games?

I grew up in rural Wyoming, so my access to gaming was filtered through my dad, who grew up playing games. I was dropped into Avalon Hill wargames by him when I was about 9 (which was not the most optimal experience--what 9-year-old relates to Afrika Korps?)

Then, later on, I found a group of fellow dorks in high school, and we went in on a web order of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition. We spent many weekends lasering and war-sunning each other into oblivion. For a long time, I thought that conflict-heavy games were the only types of games there were. There was no FLGS for me growing up, so BoardGameGeek became my portal to a mythical land of cardboard and bits.

What are your feelings on gateway games?

Board gaming has been a very lovely experience for me, and I enjoy games all across the spectrum. As a rabid fan and lover of games, I remind myself often that some people are just not interested in moving through the gateway to more complex stuff. With that in mind, I’ve never had a bad experience introducing someone to a Knizia game. High Society, Lost Cities, The…

The post On Gateway Games appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

The Meeple Mountain team is back in action on the tabletop convention circuit…this time in Indianapolis for Gen Con Indy 2024. Our team took on a different look for 2024’s visit–Justin made his fourth straight trip, Andy made his first trip in years, and our new team member Abram (a Gen Con veteran himself) joined the festivities as well.

Gen Con is all the way back, setting records with more than 70,000 attendees blah blah blah and selling out the show in advance for the first time ever. That meant the expo halls were packed, the hotels were packed, the food truck lines were packed, and the airport rideshare lines were packed as badly as maybe anything else. But that also means people were excited to come to Indy and see new games, and we will talk about some games for sure! (If you missed our pre-convention coverage of the 22 most anticipated games of the show, be sure to give that a look, too.)

In no particular order, here are some thoughts about Gen Con Indy 2024!

[caption id="attachment_303935" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Altered (Equinox/Asmodee)[/caption]

We’re Gonna Party Like I’m Not Staying for Gen Con (Andy)

It’s hard for me to make it to Gen Con. I’ve got 4 kids and school…

The post Meeple Mountain Goes to Gen Con 2024 appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

As I've become more cognizant of the size of my burgeoning board game collection, I often find myself culling games from the shelf that are replaced by better versions of a similar game. That meant that Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game finally found its way to the seller's block when Marvel Champions: The Card Game came home to roost. Saving the universe and the streets of Queens never looked so good.

Marvel Champions: The Card Game Overview

Marvel Champions: The Card Game (which, henceforth, I'll be simply calling Marvel Champions) is a living card game. This means that there is a core box designed to get you started and there are also new expansions of varying sizes to keep you coming back for more. For the sake of this review, I'll only focus on the core game, which contains five heroes and three villains.

The game starts with each player choosing which hero they want to use, along with the singular villain that the collective table wants to square off against. Marvel Champions designed their introduction well, packaging up prebuilt Spider-Man and Captain Marvel decks for a two-player game against Rhino. There's even a separate Learn to Play booklet that will walk you through the basics for your first game, which is most welcome.

If you've played…

The post Marvel Champions: The Card Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.