I Need Your Help and I Come Bearing Swag

"I need a go-to cocktail recipe booklet that will drive away my remaining friends."

Well, here you go, genius: four shots and one cocktail that will clear your calendar for good. Anybody who donates $10 to the show gets mailed one.

Pocket Book Adventures: Charming and Inventive Solo Dungeoncrawling

I finally got the pencil out and sat with Grumpy Spider Games' Pocket Book Adventures, which you can play with just the booklet and aforementioned pencil.

It's a perfect downtime companion: clear, clever and with a novel dexterity mechanic. You can sit down and puzzle your way through one of the 50 maps in 10 minutes — or do more maps if the persistent campaign/RPG elements draw you in. Which they will. This is a minor masterpiece.

Here's a quick video of me demonstrating how combat works. Or hear the whole review in the latest episode of Breakup Gaming Society.

On the Table: Thunderbolt Apache Leader, Dustrunner and Space Hulk: Death Angel

? This was the Winter of Thunderbolt Apache Leader: I was paranoid about losing the knowledge I'd gained from the first play, which took several weeks, so I ran it three more times. It's crunchy and tense and rousing and strikes the delicate balance between simulation and abstraction. I had a strong hunch when I first read the review in 2012 that I would love the game. And I do.

? Dustrunner uses most of the ideas that make Grey Gnome Games' Tin Helm work, but throws it onto a high-tech, two-lane futuristic blacktop of death. I've played it at least a couple dozen times in the last few weeks, enjoying the way it compresses Tin Helm's tactical dungeon propositions and, like always, how Jason Glover's creations look on the table. The only thing I'm weighing is whether Dustrunner will steal any table time from its older cousin. I'm not sure yet. Let me marinate on it and check in with you on a future episode.

? Space Hulk: Death Angel is #2 on my Top 10 faves of all time. It solved — and continues to solve — a proposition for people who love the insane lore of Warhammer 40,000, want to play in the universe somehow, but don't want to spend their time buying codexes and painting minis.

Next Up: Final Girl

Keep your sh*t together. Save other victims. Find weapons and courage. Stop the titular maniac or die before the credits roll.

Final Girl hit the boardgame world with a crimson splatter in 2021. I grabbed the base game and the Wolfe Asylum (based on the Silent Hill tableau) expansion last summer. Now I will see what kind of Final Girl I can be. Based on recent trends, it couldn't be worse than my futility as a Blood Angels veteran, a wasteland car courier or an air squadron commander.

Van Ryder Games figured out how to release a ton of expansions (called "movies") that let you take first-person POV in classic slasher settings without getting sued. You can play cat-and-mouse with Great Value Freddie, Dollar Store Jason and others.

The magnetically bound boxes even recall the chunky VHS tapes you could get from Blockbuster. I guess the bigger your movie shelf gets, the more Final Girl characters you can swap out among various modules. I'll report back once I've had a chance to contend with The Ratchet Lady of Wolfe Asylum. Insert your own joke here.

That's it for this installment. Until next time, may you fight long and well.

N