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MIDDLE-EARTH QUEST kind of came out of nowhere. When it was announced last year around the time that the WORLD OF WARCRAFT ADVENTURE BOARD GAME came out, I was already well into railing against boring, repetitive adventure games and the thought of yet another Tolkien-themed game wasn't exactly something I was anticipating with excitement.

So it’s been a while since two things have happened: One, that I’ve been able to play a lot of one game and two, that it’s been a game I felt passionate about. So these two things finally came together giving me the confidence to splash out some of my thoughts on what I find to be an amazing game for introducing to folks who haven’t tried many games.

For some reason, I was struck relatively early on in my plays of Memoir ‘44 that it was a game that would clearly benefit from a campaign system. I’m not entirely sure why this was - perhaps it was a reflection on the relatively limited scope of most of the scenarios, or maybe because the pleasing simplicity and speed of the game left ample scope for an extension of both for those that wanted it. I can’t have been the only one because several home-brew versions appeared fairly quickly after the game was...

This game was published by Avalon Hill in 1987 as a “family game”. Contrary to what is expected today from games that receive a similar billing, the rulebook for this DotLW is a pretty dense (8 pages of text with only a few pictures to break it up) and has the traditional AH model of subsections – like 8.5: Battle Strength. To preface the review, I have to say that this game is great. The game itself is based on the concept that each player represents an expedition that has...

My copy of Mythgardia arrived today. If you are a fan of Talisman, Return of the Heroes and Tales of the Arabian Nights, and can embrace the randomness of this quest that takes you through the mythology of 5 cultures, you will love Mythgardia. I know that we will be reaching repeatedly for this little gem of an adventure that takes an hour or less to play.