Peter Pan Live

Continuing my Pan kick, Peter Pan Live was a live-broadcast production of the musical in 2014.  Headlined by Christopher Walken and Allison Williams, it was largely panned (get it?) by critics, but I enjoyed it well enough.  Putting on such a production live, for that length of time (it ran over three hours), is impressive.  One big dig was Christopher Walken, who (according to one critic) appeared unaware that he was on national television, often having a faint voice or (seeming to) forget lines- unless that was all part of the act (or just Walken being Walken).  Overall, it didn't blow me away as memorable, but it wasn't atrocious, either.

Rating: B-  

Pan

Peter is a young boy in an orphanage, with only a letter and pan trinket to remind him of his mother.  But when he's whisked away to Neverland on a flying pirate ship, he's about to discover his heritage- and destiny.  Can he help the fairies and natives beat Blackbeard, the enslaving pirate?

I enjoyed Peter Pan the novel.  This movie prequel was a disaster.  Plagued by poor or nonexistent plot and character development, bizarre musical adaptations (from Nirvana and the Ramones, no less), poor CGI, and cheesy in general, I can't think of a positive thing to say about this film.  It doesn't know what tone it wants to set or what it is trying to say.  Very disappointing.

Rating: D

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth

Today's review is of the 2019 release, The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth.  For 1-5 players, it takes 1-2 hours per session.

Overview
Your and your band of heroes as on an adventure.  Your job is to complete the objective(s) (outlined by the free companion digital app) before the threat meter is too great.  You each have a character with role, skills, items, and other abilities to help you.  But watch out- your foes are strong, and the menace strengthens in the unknown lands.  Can you and your fellowship prevail?

Journeys in Middle Earth is a campaign played over a series of adventures.  Each adventure (or game) takes 1-2 hours.

One game is played over rounds.  Each round, there is an action phase (where you have four actions to travel, attack, or explore), shadow phase (where the enemy moves and fights), and the rally phase (where you shuffle your used cards back into your skill deck and the threat meter increases).
- traveling allows you to move around the map
- attacking eliminates enemies who are trying to kill you and the fellowship
- exploring reveals situations that force you to decide how to proceed.  It could be helping a farmer capture his escaped chickens, exploring an ancient tomb, climbing a tree to get a view of an area, etc.

Key to the game is the skill deck each hero uses, which consists of basic cards + character-specific cards + role-specific cards.  Most of those cards are established at the beginning, where you'll create and shuffle the deck per the rules.  Each round, you'll use the skill deck to overcome challenges and enemies, and can also use specific cards to lay down in front of you for ongoing effects.

game in progress; image from here

As an app-assisted game, you follow the app's instructions to set up your party, lay (and expand) the map tiles, place and move enemies, and so on.  The app (free of course, but requires a smartphone or tablet) will keep track of everything and save, enabling you to continue the campaign from where you left it.  The app also introduces variance (no two games will be identical) and adjusts difficulty based on the number of people playing.

Review
For years I've been looking for an epic LOTR game that captures the spirit of the movies.  While this isn't quite that, it is the closest thing I've seen.  Breaking the overall campaign into multiple game sessions is a good idea (and necessary to capture the epic nature of the world in bite-size chunks).  There are mostly familiar characters (the base game comes with Aragorn, Legolas, Bilbo, Gimli, Beravor and Elena), but there's no mention of the one ring.  It's largely an "explore Middle Earth" game, as far as I've seen.  And it's fun. 

This is my first app-assisted game, too, and I enjoyed that.  Built-in variation is nice and enhances replayability (and future expansions promise no end of possibilities).  It does, of course, require a tablet (smartphone works, too, but tablet is much better for visibility).  Overall, I recommend this one.

Rating: A

UPDATE: in early 2022, we played through the 14-adventure Bones of Arnor campaign.

The Cost of Discipleship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Some popular forms of modern Christianity emphasize prosperity and material blessing.  It is true that God can and does bless His people in such ways, but he also promises them persecution and suffering (see Matthew 10)- the true cost of discipleship is death, both spiritual and (for some) physical.  Noted German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer discusses this and more in his classic The Cost of Discipleship.

After starting with a discussion costly grace and the call of discipleship, much of the book studies the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), and draws conclusions for Christian living from that important passage.  And on the whole, the work is excellent.  Bonhoeffer is hard-hitting and unapologetic in his views on the Gospel and how the modern church at the time (he wrote pre-WWII) had wandered.  There's a lot of value here; it was challenging, enlightening, and convicting.  I did have trouble following some of his statements, but that could easily be difficulties in translation (or the reader).

Bonhoeffer was killed by the Nazis in the waning days of WWII for his alleged involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.  This book was written well before that, and I'd be fascinated to hear if he changed his mind on some of the views he espouses here pertaining to the Christian's relationship with the state.

Rating: A-

Daredevil: Season 3

Set immediately after events in The Defenders: Season 1, the third season of Daredevil finds our hero in crisis.  Physically, he's a wreck, and damaged hearing renders him nearly powerless.  Spiritually, he's wrestling mightily with who he is, what he does, and how he does it.  But he doesn't have time to think things through; the Kingpin, though in prison, is manipulating the FBI and slowly returning to his lavish lifestyle atop the city as criminal mastermind.  And by his side is an agent with a unique gift . . . he always hits the Bullseye. 

Season three has the hallmarks of the first two- after a slow start, there was lots of suspense, brutal violence, and intrigue.  I was mildly disappointed that the show returned to Kingpin as the focus- I felt there were other characters to explore.  And, sadly, the show was canceled, so the teaser at the end was pointless.  Though the season conclusion was largely satisfying, knowing that it's the series ending leaves me wanting more.

Rating: B+

Leselowen: Tierische Abenteuer

I feel ridiculous posting this book review, but when you're learning a new language, you'll read children's books.  Leselöwen ("Reading Lion") is a series of books for new readers.  This volume is called animal adventure, and it follows Titu, a small tiger, as he experiences life in the jungle, circus, and other places.

Designed for first readers, pictures are interspersed throughout the text to help the children.  And that ended up being a problem.  This book is intended for kids fluent in German (speaking/hearing) and learning to read it.  As a language learner, the pictures tripped me up and didn't help.  I was able to follow everything, but (surprisingly) didn't know several of the words.  Good practice overall, but there are better options out there for those learning German as a second language.

Rating: B

Munchkin

Today's review is of the 2001 release, Munchkin.  For 3-6 players, it takes 1-2 hours.

Overview
Munchkin is a tongue-in-cheek dungeon-themed deck game.  You start with a hand of cards with heroes, roles, weapons, and other effects to help yourself or hurt your opponent.  There are two common decks in the game- the door deck and treasure deck.  The gameplay is straightforward: on your turn, you draw a door card and do what it says (if it's a monster, fight it, if it's something else, follow the instructions).

To fight a monster, you add your current level (1-9), your character abilities/weapons, any effect cards you  have, and compare the total power to the monster's.  If yours is higher, you win, and get a reward indicated on the monster card ("go up two levels and gain two treasures," for example).  If you are instructed to gain treasure, draw cards from the treasure deck.  The first to get to level 10 wins!  But beware . . . your opponents can play cards to lower your strength or add monsters to the fray against you, making victory harder than it looks.  The below illustration summarizes.

turn order and example cards; image from here

Review
With a tagline of "Kill the monster, steal the treasure, stab your buddy," you know you're entering an experience intended to be light-hearted and fun.  And it is; any game that's spawned dozens of expansions and variants must be good at some level.  It's funny and playful.  I enjoyed the time, but had two digs:
- the rules, though concise, are poorly worded/presented, leading to lots of questions about gameplay and card meaning.
- the game seemed to last forever- as you increase in level, you become the target, and the others focus on bringing you down.  A fine concept, but it can make games drag and minds wander.

Overall, I like it, and may try a variant (like the Marvel one).

Rating: B

T.I.M.E Stories

Today's review is of the 2015 release, T.I.M.E Stories.  For 2-4 players, it takes 90 minutes.

Overview
You are a member of T.I.M.E agency, tasked to right wrongs . . . by traveling into the past and embodying others.  In the base game, the scenario is set in a 1920's mental asylum. You play the role of one of the patients as you seek to complete the mission.  You'll explore rooms (displayed on the board as panoramas made of linked cards) and wander the hospital to finish your quest.  But be careful: all actions have a time cost, and when your time is up, you fail the 'run', having to restart the mission from scratch.

game in progress; image from here

In the above image, you get an idea what the game is like.  The room cards (bottom) form a complete picture, and each player places their character token above one area of the room, enabling them to explore the contents on the back side of that particular card.  You can talk to other players about what you've seen, but not show them the card (unless they choose to spend time and move to that same part of the room).  Once you're satisfied that a room has nothing more to give, you can spend time by moving on the map (upper left) to a different room, place the corresponding cards for that one, and place your token again.  The map itself (also composed of cards) may change as the game progresses and you learn more information.  Each room might have a scenario that forces you decide- spend time to investigate more (and complete a task to earn information or objects), or move on?  Decide wisely; time waits for no one.

Review
I played one run with friends, and we failed.  It's a solid game, though- I really like how they use cards to create panoramas with clues behind each one, and the concept of spending time is cool (and lends suspense).  Some curious things presented in the rooms we visited didn't pan out, which wasted time and caused the failure.  (It's annoying but fun when there are red herrings.)  Overall, though, the game replayability is low.  It might take 5 runs to get through a mission, each time learning which clues to ignore, but once you're done, that's it.  They produced a healthy number of missions, but they all suffer the same problem.  And, as far as I could gather, the clues are insufficient to guide the team, so it's a lot of guessing (which is why they give you multiple runs, I assume) where I'd rather try to solve puzzles to progress (like in the Exit games).  It's good overall, but could be better.

Rating: B

The Defenders: Season 1

Set months after Daredevil: Season 2, The Defenders brings the stars of four Marvel Netflix series together: Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Daredevil.  The Hand, a powerful crime syndicate centuries old, has their eyes fixed on New York City.  They seek immortality, and will kill all who stand in their way.  The one thing they lack: a certain substance locked away far below ground.  The only way to obtain it is by opening an ancient door with an Iron Fist, and The Hand knows how to . . . persuade him . . . to comply.  Can the heroes prevail?

This series was highly anticipated . . . and underwhelming.  I've seen only Daredevil, so perhaps I did myself a disservice here, but I was unimpressed with this superhero band.  Iron Fist's character, the overall plot, the dialogue . . . several big areas were lacking.  And it was only eight episodes (a Daredevil season is thirteen), so it felt rushed.  This was a big drop-off from Daredevil, and I see why they canceled the series after only one season.

Rating: C

Catan Histories: Merchants of Europe

Today's review is of the 2011 release, Catan Histories: Merchants of Europe.  For 3-4 players, it takes 120 minutes.

Overview
If you know Catan, you'll pick this up quickly.  Same basic concept: you place your trading posts on hex corners.  Each turn, the active player rolls the dice, and everyone who has a trading post on hexes matching that number gets the specified resource.  You use resources to recruit (and move) merchants (who turn into trading posts on empty corners), build caravans (to move your commodity tokens to other players' trading posts), etc. You win if you're the first to deliver all your commodity tokens.

game board; image from here

Review
I like Catan, but don't think it's great.  This variant is mildly better- I like the changes they made.  The rule changes, the mildly historical flavor- good stuff.  But it still suffers from the inherent "initial state" problem in all Catan games- your initial placement of trading posts goes so far in determining the winner, and the dice rolls determine resources (and therefore, everything).  So it has the same good and bad of its ancestor.

Rating: B+