Jul 132011
 

“Seven Wonders” is a game published by Asmodee Games. In the game, two to seven players compete with each other to build up their own ancient wonders in order to become the greatest in history. The game takes place in three ages, and is played in the style of a draft, much akin to a collectible card game booster draft. Each player has a hand of cards, and they choose one to keep, passing the rest to the player next to them. Each card they keep can be used for one of three purposes: building it for the card’s listed effects, trashing it to gain more coins, or using it to build their wonder, which also earns the player added benefits. Once all cards have been drafted in an age, each player goes into combat with the players to their left and right. This process repeats through all three ages, and once the combat phase of the final age ends, the players tally up their scores, and whoever has the highest score — surprise, surprise — wins!

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Jul 052011
 
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As nerds, we’ve all been there before. We find ourselves engrossed in something — be it a television series, film franchise or comic book storyline — and it is fantastic! We enjoy every second of it, waiting with baited breath for the next installment. This joy, however, is short-lived. Maybe the network assigns a new executive producer to the project, someone with “exciting new ideas” about where the series should go. Maybe a writer comes on board who feels the need to raze the world his predecessors have so carefully created to the ground, so that he, in his infinite genius, can rebuild it by his own design. Whatever the cause, these awesome series turned into the ultimate disappointments, mere shadows of what they once were. In this episode, we tackle several of our favorite awesome disappointments, along with a brood of mind-controlling lava worms. So join the Rag-NERD-rok crew for a blitz expedition deep into the catacombs of good stories gone bad, where creative hijacking, network interference, and sometimes just plain hubris take the most excellently told tales and drive them face first into the ground!

(Show Notes after the break.)

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Jun 092011
 

Massive destruction. It’s something that every driver undoubtedly yearns for at least occasionally while they’re on the road. Whether it be the idiot who runs out into the street while your car is hurtling towards them or the fossil who decides that it’s prudent to attempt to merge lanes through your vehicle, every driver has briefly (or not-so-briefly) considered vehicular homicide. It’s basically an unwritten law at this point: Applejacks don’t taste like apples, nothing can kill the Grimace, and every driver secretly wants to brutally slaughter somebody who interferes with their driving. While we can’t do it in real life for very obvious reasons, “Road Kill Rally” gives players the opportunity to not only simulate it, but get rewarded for it.

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Jun 062011
 
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Welcome to Rag-NERD-rok, your home of the nerdpocalypse! In our first episode, we tackle the rising costs of being a nerd in the 21st century, and discuss the many different hobbies, pastimes and technological developments that make our money disappear. We also estimate just how much of our hard-earned cash we’ve spent to maintain our nerdy lifestyles, breaking down and analyzing our expenditures during 2010 for your amusement. Later, Erik presents a review of Roadkill Rally (Z-Man Games, 2010), and Ed and Meyer give the James Lipton treatment to our friend Will. So kick back, relax and ride out the nerdpocalypse in style, here with the Rag-NERD-rok crew!

(Show notes after the break.)

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