Alrightgames: Battlecrest – Expansion Collection #1

Battlecrest: Expansion Collection #1

Resold

The extra character options you'd really expect to be included in the base game if they didn't insist on fitting these things into a single wallet. Fortunately, the pair of them are now often available second hand for the price of one, along with the extensive rules and cards to run the necessarily convoluted solo mode. Once the novelty wore off, I traded them in.

Whispr & Forge: Hero Sets ***

Doubles the character count of the base game for almost essential variety and extends the false nostalgia of making it feel like I'm clicking through a mysterious ViewMaster reel that came through a portal from an alternate 1980s.

Imperator: Solo Expansion & AI sheets ***

I generally avoid solo modes that involve fiddly flowcharts and constant cross-referencing, but there's no way around it with something complicated like this. It's a bit of a rough simulacrum and too easy manipulated, but that's what I get for not playing computer games like a normal person.

Alrightgames: Battlecrest – Fellwoods Base Game

Battlecrest: Fellwoods Base Game

2022 / Skirmish card game / 1-2 players

***

Resold

This fantasy skirmish game in 18 reversible cards with evocative non-existent comic book art is the densest Button Shy game I've seen yet, but not as complicated as I feared once the rules were mansplained to me in videos. Playing elaborate tag with myself is a bit tedious though, so I'm going to have to crack open the similarly intimidating AI manual.

Alrightgames: Last Letter (DIY)

Last Letter (DIY)

2014 / Word/card game / 2-6 players

**

Matching first and last letters isn't much of a game, but it served as a desperately educational school break activity, especially as she creatively cheated by inventing words (including ones ending with silent Zs to be extra helpful for dad's turn) and identifying features not actually present on the cards ("they're behind the door"). Some families probably only use Dixit cards to play Dixit.

Alrightgames: Codenames – Duet (DIY)

Codenames: Duet (DIY)

2017 / Deduction card game / 2 players

***

We seemingly got the full experience of the published game using printed grids (hidden by birthday cards), Stella word cards and unwanted Agent Hunter cards for thematic flavour, but it still ranked low on our list of Dixit-like games, even after inevitably swapping the word clues for more open-ended picture cards.

Alrightgames: Gloom of Kilforth – Pimp My Gloom

Gloom of Kilforth: Pimp My Gloom

2018 / Roleplaying card/board game accessories / 1-4 players

***

None of these deluxe upgrades for the already-attractive game are necessary if they're not included in your second-hand bundle already, but race standees represent the characters better than class standees do (which is lucky, because those have mysteriously vanished), the larger landmark cards stand out better when other cards are piled on, and loads more dice are always welcome.

Alrightgames: Star Realms – Year Two Promos

Star Realms: Year Two Promos

2017 / Deckbuilding card game expansion pack / 2-4 players

***

Also included in a bargain bundle (along with some duplicate sets I sold on to almost cover the cost of the new stuff), these are more cool, rare cards I hadn't even checked out before, so unlikely were they to end up in my big box that there seemed no point in teasing myself.

I've now got enough to divide my collection into three distinct eras to choose between (old-school, Colony Wars and Frontiers, rather than just pre- and post-Frontiers like before). No, I obviously don't need all of that. Yes, it brings me joy.

Alrightreads: This Is Just a Saga Now

R. L. Stine, The Fear Street Saga: The Betrayal

1993 / Audiobook / 161 pages

**

Some gruesome deaths don't make up for this mainly being a boring period romance with more to come. I wasn't looking forward to these.

R. L. Stine, The Fear Street Saga: The Secret

1993 / Audiobook / 160 pages

*

All of this just to justify the unlikely street name.

R. L. Stine, The Fear Street Saga: The Burning

1993 / Audiobook / 192 pages

**

A shlocky series doesn't need this much lore.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Cataluna Chronicles – The Evil Moon

1995 / Audiobook / 151 pages

***

A bonkers trilogy based entirely around a pun, this might be where Fear Street jumps the shark / joyrides the werecar, but it's a lot more entertaining than the last historical.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Cataluna Chronicles – The Dark Secret

1995 / Audiobook / 150 pages

***

As repetitive and drawn-out as any trilogy centrepiece until a Back to the Future ending left me craving the crazy finale.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Cataluna Chronicles – The Deadly Fire

1995 / Ebook / 147 pages

**

He may be a master of juvenile horror, but R. L. Stine has no idea how relative time travel works, which just makes it funnier. Another Fear Street spin-off trilogy ending in a fire isn't going to confuse pre-internet readers at all.

Workreads II

Alex Horne, Wordwatching

2010 / Ebook / 288 pages

***

A frankly duller subject than nature, but one that he still makes readable. More interesting than the book was realising I'd been played by the meta prank, since some of these new words sounded disconcertingly familiar.

Ben Mezrich, The X-Files: Skin

1998 / Ebook / 336 pages

****

The last literary X-File I got around to and probably the best, mainly for its impressive attention to detail, both gorily medical and character-wise.

Paul McAuley, Brazil

2019 / Ebook / 96 pages

***

Reappreciation of an oddball film I'll probably not watch again regardless. Even the fan who wrote it has only managed to sit through it a dozen times.

Tony Hawks, The A to Z of Skateboarding

2019 / Ebook / 115 pages

**

The slightly exaggerated contempt for his more famous namesake and the concept of skateboarding was briefly very amusing, but then that single joke rolled on and on.

Alrightgames: Deadeye Dinah (DIY)

Deadeye Dinah (DIY)

2021 / Card game / 1 player

***

Like a microscopic novel or animation made of atoms, this nine-card in-hand Wild West simulator was more appealing in concept than experience. The economical design is very clever, but flipping, rotating and squinting got old fast. I'll stick with SpaceShipped.

Alrightgames: Catan – Family Edition

Catan: Family Edition

2012 / Strategy board game / 3-4 players

****

Like some method meta player, I've traded Catans more than any other game, trying out various editions and expansions at bargain prices, then selling them on for minor profit when I repeatedly decided it wasn't really my kind of game, and probably my family's kind even less. But the 7 year old even likes chess now, and this was cheap enough on eBay to try again again. She's just started to appreciate Takenoko, so there's no rush.