Alrightreads Special: Red Dwarf – Titan

Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall, Red Dwarf: Titan

2026 / Hardback / 406 pages

****

Red Dwarf fans had clamoured for Rob Grant's return for decades, but I wasn't especially thrilled when the Titan prequel project was first touted as a recast reboot (and even a cartoon at one point). But when network disinterest led to it morphing into a novel, where I can imagine the characters looking and sounding like they should, it became much more up my dingy alley. Like its predecessors (most of them, anyway), it'll be a book that's with me for the long run, with, hopefully, many return journeys to appreciate its uniqueness, pontificate pointlessly on forums and recreationally nitpick all those cute flaws. The first visit was a real good treat. RIP Rob.

Alrightgames: Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon SuperS: All Members!! Championship Contest

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon SuperS: All Members!! Championship Contest

1996 / Super Nintendo emulator game / 1-2 players

**

Choose best girl in worst season and beating shit out friends but don't special power not work.

Alrightgames: Basic Fantasy Adventure – The Lost Tome (Adapted)

Basic Fantasy Adventure: The Lost Tome Teddy (Adapted)

2012 / Roleplaying game adventure / 2+ players

****

Dusting off some previously stalled characters – practical handypony Lillie Roase and scruffy alchemist Tatty Bogle – for their first thinly-disguised dungeon delve (this one's a musty occult library with traps and monsters; totally different), which was easily repopulated with established baddies and new allies, culminating in an annoying logic problem of my own invention that I helped her along with to ease the tedium. I should probably put more effort into developing our characters and their talents than just letting us find relevant power-ups in chests, but sometimes you just want the simplicity of Diablo.

Junior Gamesmaster: Tails of Equestria – Shiva

My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – Shiva

DIY roleplaying game adventure

Besides some plot holes I didn't poke into, there's now little difference between this six-year-old's semi-planned RPG sandbox challenges and my own, to the extent that she preempted the specific plot point of finding a password in a book in a library that was going to feature in my follow-up. She pointed out that we were both nicking it from Final Fantasy VII anyway.

Alrightgames: SpaceShipped expansions

SpaceShipped expansions

As with Anthelion before it, the expansions for the 18-card interstellar trade simulator are small themed decks that replace rather than supplement other cards. One difference is you have the freedom to mix and match sets at your leisure this time, unless you prefer to set the theme for today's episode.

Expansion Collection: Debts and Damages, Out of Route & The Dynasty Seal ****

Each set of 6 cards has a fairly distinct theme that manages to stand out when only diluted by 12 others. Once you've played each of them once and learned their quirks, you can mix them all together and pick randomly. Some work better when they have enough related cards to synchronise with (especially the enemies), but the universe generally sorts itself out.

Lockdown ****

A slightly more game-changing enemy makes this the most interesting of the expansions and is the enemy I'd probably choose if I didn't leave things to fate. It was presumably left out of the wallet compilation for space. I say, let 'em bulge.

Alrightgames: SpaceShipped

SpaceShipped

2019 / Card game / 1 player

****

The Elite computer games as an ingeniously compact card game (which I obviously decompressed by getting it with all the expansions to give the universe some breathing room).

I was wary of dense multifunction cards after failing to grasp the likes of Deadeye Dinah, but this leisurely/boring activity of buying low, selling high and trying not to explode is up my space lane, and I can even win sometimes. Some humour wouldn't have gone amiss, but insisting on that retro computer font despite it making everything unnecessarily hard to read is quite amusing.

Alrghtgms: RNSM (DY)

RNSM (DY)

2024 / Wrd crd gm / 1-4 plyrs

**

Not going to keep that up. Button Shy's wallet games are renowned for ingeniously fitting complex games into small packages, often achieved through multifunction cards that can be flipped and rotated for a variety of purposes. RNSM is the most opposite case I've seen yet.

A simple but tricky word game that skips vowels, its plain letter cards are so simple to substitute using Scrabble tiles or going method with real newspaper and magazine cuttings that paying for the official game seems pointless, especially when it's not even that far beyond Lex Go.

Vexing Letters ***

The customary mini expansion adds 6 less common letters to the pile and an optional twin word variant that seems like the preferable way to play, since I'm stuck at 4 letters either way.

Alrightgames: Pictionary (DIY)

Pictionary (DIY)

1985 / Drawing board game / 3-16 players (played with 2)

***

Well, not really. The internet suggested that the board and most of the other components were unnecessary, so we ended up at a sand-timed sketch guessing game using prompt cards borrowed from Stella. Is this Pictionary? I dunno, but it was wholesome family fun.

Alrightgames: Sea Salt & Paper fan expansions

Sea Salt & Paper fan expansions

The two small, official expansions are already pushing out the lid as it is, but more variations are always welcome, especially when they're free to print and play. Or, in my case, awkwardly substitute existing cards and read what they're supposed to do off a screen.

Fanmade 8-card Expansion **

This fan sequel to the first expansion does pretty much the same ideas as the official second expansion, making it unnecessary now, but it at least made me realise how badly the game's lacking an origami turtle.

Solo Variant ***

Various solo modes have been proposed involving flow charts, character abilities and multiple stacks that likely provide a tougher challenge at the cost of fiddliness. This one that determines a stupid opponent's move using dice rolls is difficult to lose and not very satisfying, but approachably simple for the lazy solo player, before I came up with my own that's even simpler:

• The opponent draws 3 cards (2 from the deck, 1 from either discard pile) and discards 1 (your choice)
• They play duos as soon as they have them (include Starfish when available)
• Last chance triggers at 10 points
• Generally try to make them play poorly, but quantity may triumph over quality

Try it.

Alrightgames: Carcassonne – Mage & Witch

Carcassonne: Mage & Witch

2012 / Board game mini expansion / 2-6 players

***

Someone was selling off their old pieces, so I got to upgrade the unofficial placeholders I'd been using, though I still base them around the Shrines for want of bespoke tiles. It adds some supernatural drama/annoyance.