GAME ON! - Rocky Mountain Retreat

I've just returned home from a 4 day gaming bonanza - aka - The Rocky Mountain Retreat.

I was first invited to attend this soire back in 2015....they have the photos to prove it! Thanks Brent for bringing me into the fold! This year we had a smaller gathering than normal, as the invites went out later than usual, & many folks had other plans (Hmm...the New Dungeons & Dragons Movie maybe?)

However we partied on, and here is the crew that attended this years event.

 

Brent even enticed a bunch of his gaming folks from the States to come join in & get some fresh Canadian Mountain Air!

Thursday Night Brent ran Rangers of Shadow Deep. We started the first scenario of the Tor Varden Missions ( we had played this one previously), & were hoping to do all 3 scenarios during the retreat...unfortunatly as often occurs, we get caught up in other events & that didn't happen

 

The Gnolls & Ogres guarding the crossing

 

I don't think crossing the bridge will be easy at this point.

 

We were able to lure the gnolls out & took many of them down piecemeal, usually swarming one with several members.

 

We successfully took the crossing & retrieved the treasure (which happened to be herbs).

Then it was onto Alien: Fate of the Nostromo, with a great group of gaming chums I always look forward to hanging with at this event. (Rob, Tim, DJ & Jordan). There are certainly some others, but they are not appearing in this game.

 

After a bit of confusion, we figured out how the morale worked on the encounter cards & got down to business...collecting or crafting the items needed to complete the various objectives before discovering the final objective.

 

Ripley comes face to face withe the Xenomorph......& runs! Which about sums up any encounter with it. There is nothing aboard the Nostromo that can kill it.

 

We set the self-destruct for the final objective & were able to all gather in the airlock with 1 turn to spare---then jettisoned away in the escape pod. Sadly Jones didn't make it aboard.

 

On Friday I got in a couple games of Bloodbourne the Card Game, which proved enjoyable with all involved. I also tried a couple of games I hadn't heard of before

Obsession & Its a Wonderful World,both of which were good though I thought Its a Wonderful World could be longer. I also played Everdell, my first time & thoroughly enjoyed it....it was impressive how much was in the core game, as that is all we played. I think I also played a couple of racing games (Flamme Rouge?) as well.

Saturday was certainly the busiest & longest day of the event (as it should be -  as by this time you would have expected to have met everyone & broken the ice, playing outside your comfort zone)

Brent was kind enough to bring ISS Vanguard with him. I wasn't sure what I was getting into, but there is a LOT to this game. We were only able to play the initial tutorial scenario, which I think is meant to mainly teach you the dice mechanics. We survived. Though I didn't take any photos of the gamne,  I really suggest you check this game out & read up on it....though you will really want a dedicated group to play through this massive campaign, where any/every action you take will have a cause & effect later throughout the campaign...so choose wisely!

Then Tim pulled out the newest iteration of 'The Thing'

When I first looked at the board, I immediately thought it was just like the Outpost 31 version that Evan had brought to the club. Apart from the visual layout of the outpost, & the handing of cards to the current 'leader' that is where any similarity ends!

We initially form up in the common room -  with 1 of us currently infected.

Then we all head off hoping to perform various tasks to repair the outpost & keep the lights & heat on. Oh, the helicopter needed some work too. Anytime more than 1 player entered a space, they had to inspect one of 2 tokens laid down by the other players to see if they were infected. This version of the game also had dogs running around, which you need to get people to return to the kennel. This of course required 2 people to do it, otherwise there was a chit drawn for the dog, to see if it was infected....oh the fun!

We have our first Thing revealed, though by this time, I had been the only person tested & shown to be human....there were a great many other Things running around uncovered at this point.

I finally entered the bedroom & stayed there, until frozen to death, there was no way I was getting out of there!

After a most excellent Roast Beef dinner, Tim set up Unfathomable. As you can see the usual cast of nere-do-well's is present.

This game came right down to the last ship movement where some lucky dice mod cards allowed the humans to defeat the hybrids & deep ones. For almost half the game I was both the Captain & the Keeper of the Tome after the original Captain revealed himself to be a hybrid! (Oh look its Jordan & DJ....go figure!)

I managed to get the 2nd Hybrid player into the brig, though it was on  more of a hunch & I had to put someone there due to a mythos card.

Things are looking quite hectic!

In hindsight I should have taken an image of the dials locations when we ended, but we were too excited just to have made it!

 Sunday morning I pulled out The Adventurers Temple of Horus & ran 2 games ( it plays quickly & isn't too onerous to set up & tear down. The first game saw everyone escape & Jeff won it with the most loot value.

The crew for the 2nd game.

 

After turn six, by this time, everyone was heading for the entrance

And.....just a couple turns later, the game ends with 4 players trapped inside!

 

So thus ends another great gaming weekend, now we look forward to next years event & the hope & cajoling of those stalwarts who were unable to attend this year to prepare now for the next!

Thanks for visiting.