Panic Lab; Living up to it's name!

Sometimes I like to play lovely calm games like Tokaido and chill out, but sometimes I like to be toppled over and play games that get me all panicky and excited. Panic Lab definitely falls into the latter category. At the laboratory there has been an incident and all the amoebas have escaped, you must find them quickly before the other scientists (players). To do this, you shuffle the 25 square tiles and arrange them into a big circle. A randomly selected player rolls the four dice to determine which amoeba you must find first, then everyone plays simultaneously and the madness begins!

The dice represent the Shape of the amoeba, the Pattern of the amoeba, the Colour of the amoeba and the Labs. The Lab die shows which lab the amoeba escaped from and which direction it went, players start from there and have to identify the correct amoeba by touching it. If the correct one is found then that player gets a token. The winner is the first player to collect five tokens.

There are a few twists to the game, of course. These slippery little suckers can escape through air vents! If you come across a vent whilst tracking an amoeba then you must skip all squares until you reach the next vent. If you reach the third vent, you must ignore all tiles until you return to the first vent and then continue the search. That has not happened to us yet, they usually get caught after one vent or get mutated.

What is that, you ask? Mutated? Yes, that is exactly what you wanted to hear. What on earth are these scientists playing at, leaving hazardous mutation rooms open for anyone to waltz in? Amoebas can change colour, shape or pattern by passing through these squares. The delicate little amoebas will not survive four mutation rooms in a row, though, if that happens then they vanish. That does not mean the round is over, as the player who touches the last mutation room the little dude slithered through will win the token. This is when the game really kicks off and lives up to it's name of Panic, ensuing a frenzied hunt for the constantly changing amoebas against the greedy eyes of your opponents.     

For those of you with younger children or for the faint-hearted, there is the option of simplifying the game by removing the air vents and mutation rooms, making the game less frenetic. 

The amoebas are cute and colourful, even if they do put years on me. The components all fit neatly in an attractive little tin, so we tend to take it on holiday and end up playing it on the floor of the hotel room or a coffee table. Panic Lab is for 2 - 10 players, age 8+ and the gameplay can last for 10 -30 minutes depending on how many players you have. The set-up time is is short, and it is not a complicated game to learn. Throw in the bonus that it is an inexpensive game, and enjoyable too. A game of quick-thinking, good reflexes and very alert eyes!

Thanks for reading!

Marisa xx

      

Adventures in Dungeons & Dragons

This year I have broadened my horizons even further in the gaming world and have delved into the realms of role playing games and tabletop miniature wargames. So far, Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer 40k are the ones I play the most. I have even been trying to paint the miniatures for these games, as if I don't have enough things to do already!

I will be honest, prior to playing D&D I had very limited knowledge and little idea of what it actually entailed. I remember loving the 1980s cartoon Dungeons & Dragons, and wanting a short unicorn that sounded both squeaky and gruff, but that was probably the closest I got to any D&D action. One thing I knew for certain about this game was that there would be a lot of dice rolling, and rolling a natural one was bad! I am the expert when it comes to low rolls, so I knew from the start my characters would have a hard time.

When I asked about D&D I was told by many people that it is all about storytelling, that you and your companions are weaving a fantasy story together and none of you know what will happen in the unfolding chapters. Even the Dungeon Master (who controls and organises the game) will not know the outcome for definite, they have a plan but will keep that a closely guarded secret. In this sense, it feels like an incredibly unpredictable and compelling experience. Armed with a drawstring bag of colourful dice, slightly blunted pencils and some paper, I boldly marched into the scenario. I was introduced to the 5th edition D&D; a beautifully illustrated Player's Handbook and not as daunting as I thought it would be. I was also given a character sheet to fill out. Oh, the choices! I chose to go with a homebrew race; Merfolk Erectus. This could have been a very bad choice for my first character, but I went with it as I liked the idea of a Mer-person with legs who needs to consume gallons of water every day in order to stay alive. In a separate campaign at the local games shop I was given a pre-gen character sheet, so it has been fun playing in different ways.

Playing out these campaigns with a crowd of strangers is interesting, and it is funny how we know each other's character's names but perhaps not our real names! After a few sessions the true names are remembered a bit more. We all refer to the Dungeon Master as the DM, even though we've known his name for ages. I have been quite lucky with Dungeon Masters so far, they all possess a great depth of knowledge of the world, and they have played enough times to know what works and how to keep everyone stimulated. They have also been very versatile and patient with beginners, such as myself. No one in our campaigns has been stuck on a rigid quest or killed off for making a tiny mistake...yet. I must say, my characters have suffered many misfortunes for their poor life choices. The last campaign with my pre-gen character did not go too brilliantly. My bereaved halfling had just laid her husband to rest (he made a VERY poor life choice, bless him. Involving bandits, no useful weapons and no back-up) when she was attacked by a were-boar and started to show signs of changing. On that day, she ate a priest by accident, stole a lot of bread and copper coins, ate a goblin's face, conquered the thieve's guild and then got bitten by a vampire in the night. To their credit, her companions did not reject her or turn her in. They may have purchased some shackles and a muzzle, just in case.

My Merfolk Erectus guy, Merlot Von Whet, has had a bit more luck than my halfling. He was just a name and a few abilities in the beginning but now he is so familiar to me and has his own unique personality. He is rather flamboyant, as he is of royal blood, but was banished for inappropriate behaviour in the palace. He always seems to have a heavy purse, despite his banishment. He is a druid, and can use Wild Shape to shape shift into various animals. As he has levelled up, so has this spell, and it has gotten him and his companions into a few...situations. It is not entirely his fault, as I am still grasping when it is ideal to shift and when I should let him stay as he is. The occasion when Merlot was a mouse and shifted back to humanoid form whilst crawling in someone's trousers was a valuable lesson to learn. Rolling low for initiative meant that the man was wearing metal armour and Merlot was horribly wounded. Luckily he is a bit of a healer, and time heals all wounds, right?

The sheer amount of trouble my companions and I get into is insane, we are only trying to do good deeds and help local villages out but things do not always go to plan. I guess that is the beauty of the D&D experience, because things would never go smoothly in real life. The most recent 'mishap' in the campaign at the games shop involved the slaughter of what we thought were a group of bandits. It turned out they were not bandits at all, they were emissaries for the Royal Fleet, and we ended up feasting with one of their brothers! There was a lot of guilt at the table as we listened to him speak fondly of his noble brother and how eagerly he anticipated his arrival. Gulp! We still finished the banquet and stayed in their castle, though. it would be rude to decline such an invitation.    

My next campaign date is late April, which gives me plenty of time to paint up my halfling. I look forward to finding a cure for my vampirism and breaking the curse of the were-boar affliction, with the help of my D&D posse. As true in any quest, all you need are good companions and good (ish) ideals. But don't shape shift whilst messing about in someone's armour, it does not end well.           

Thanks for reading!

Marisa xx