Game Review: Jim Henson's Labyrinth

[M4cr0: The wifey speaks]

Google “classic kid’s movies of the 80's” and you will see all the movie titles from my childhood. One of those movies is “Labyrinth”, the 1986 fantasy film that incorporated live action and Jim Henson's puppets. For the uninitiated, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is a 14 year old girl caught between the make believe of childhood and responsibility of adulthood. She is left at home to begrudgingly babysit her younger brother Toby, where she wishes that the Goblin King would take him away from her. Jareth, The Goblin King (David Bowie) obliges her request, which she immediately regrets. To get Toby back and to stop the Goblin King turning him permanently into a goblin, Sarah must make her way through the Labyrinth and to the castle to rescue him. Along the way she meets amazing characters, both friend and foe. I won't spoil the ending, but do yourself a favour and watch it; if nothing else to see Bowie dance around wooing a 14 year old [just a little bit creepy…].

Back to the game. It was supposed to be my Christmas present, but after opening the box so M4cr0 could paint the playing pieces [yeehaa! Damn... how soon is Christmas?], we had to have a go. The game can be played by 1-5 players, with the objective being to save Toby before the 13th hour. There are 5 characters in play, Sarah, Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo and Jareth, no matter how many people are actually playing. All good characters are united in the common goal of getting Sarah to the Goblin King's Castle. Hours correspond to complete rounds of play; during a complete round, every character has one turn to move and interact with the gaming board.

During play you pick up Labyrinth cards and take tests of speed, wit or brawn, by rolling dice against the antagonist on the card. Losing the test will force you to lose willpower, of which you have a set amount of tokens to lose. Once you lose all of your willpower you fall asleep in what is called the Oubliettte, where you miss a turn but regain a willpower token. Characters also have a special ability card and a weakness card that can affect how and what dice they roll against an enemy. [During the course of a game, if you overcome your weakness, your character becomes more powerful]. The funniest Labyrinth card, and I am ashamed to say that I failed the test, was to recite the lines from “Magic Dance”. I know you know them… You remind me of the babe... (What babe?). The game is arranged so that you have to get through  2/3 of the Labyrinth cards before you can even think about entering the goblin city...

Strategically, you can travel as a group and have a better chance of passing the tests, or you can travel alone. We traveled for the most part in two groups of two and, by the time it was hour 9, we felt like we would never draw the card to the goblin city. It made you feel like you were pressed for time and stuck in a… Labyrinth. On a side note, Marc's Ludo fell in the Bog of Eternal Stench and had to pass a social test every turn to see if he could keep traveling with the group. He failed and had to travel alone: [“Ludo shmell baad!”].

Once you draw the “Gates to the Goblin City” card you can fight the goblins within the city. Eventually, Sarah can meet the Goblin King in the staircase maze and, get this, you have to RECITE the spell that will send you and Toby back to the real world in order to win the game.

The Good – The artwork of the board and cards is lovely and very detailed. Every time you look at the board you will find more and more characters from the movie. The game flow makes you feel sufficiently like you are traveling in circles with the clock ticking. The Labyrinth cards follow the story, even if they are not drawn in order of appearance in the movie. The game is easy and will allow non-board gamers to participate and immerse themselves in nostalgia. After picking up the game and explaining the story, we also introduced the kids to the movie. I think that they will be able to play quite easily with us.

The Bad – The miniatures are not painted [yeeHAAA!]. Look I know you guys don't care about that, and I just put them at the top of M4cr0's “To-Do list”, but seriously everything is beautiful, except for the playing pieces. And they stick out like a sore thumb in a window in the box lid!!!!!! Not everyone paints, shock horror I know. Just give me a second to harp on the point. I have seen pictures of them painted in 3x the size, but painting big is different to painting small. OK I am done.

The game will be too simple for some. I think there is very little skill involved and it is a game of chance against dice. For many players it will be one that possibly sits on the shelf with the safe knowledge that they own a little piece of movie magic.

Overall, I think this game has/will earn it's place in our gaming cupboard. The theme is nothing like the other games we have [it plays a bit like Talisman, but less epic awesomeness/more accessible] and it is a good entry level game to play with the kids and other gaming novices. There is also an expansion that I can't find out any information about [I think it will just include extra miniatures]. This may add another dimension to the game. As it is, I give it a solid 3 out of 5 [I agree].

To end I will leave you with this gem:

See you across the table, [I couldn't have said it better myself!]

Wifey

Grand Master Gabriel: A Commission by D Power

Hi folks,

A few weeks ago D Power from I'm Alone with a Dream, a regular contributor to the Google+ 40K community, launched a commissions service. He had previously established an enviable reputation for innovative conversions and wonderfully executed Blanchitsu-style paint schemes. By "innovative", I mean the kind of grim/dark imaginings that ooze from the eyes of daemons, thrice blinded by their own malevolence. And by "wonderfully executed" I mean the warp just bleeds awesome sauce on his models. It gets in the grooves and lightly dusts in other places. Even the bright parts look...

I was intrigued to see how such a style would translate into a commission service, so I sent him a brief for a conversion idea I came up with 20 years ago, based on the picture of Grand Master Gabriel of the Deathwing, below:

Grand Master Gabriel was slain leading the Deathwing aboard the Space Hulk "Charnel Shrine", during the events of the 13th Black Crusade. He was replaced by Belial, who restored the honour of the Deathwing company by cleansing the Space Hulk room by (freaking) room. I sent D Power the picture above and these instructions/suggestions:

A BRIEF EXPLANATION: There is a wicked picture of the old Master of Deathwing, Gabriel, in the Angels of Death Codex (2nd Ed.). The new Deathwatch Terminator Captain would be a good base for a conversion based on this picture. I'm guessing other Terminator models would be suitable as well.

PAINTED? Grim dark the hell out of it for me. Just don't use real blood.

EXTENDED THOUGHTS: This would require a lightning claw arm, preferably a 2nd Ed. curved one, and some DA bits for icons etc. 

Within a few days D was sending me images of the early stages of the conversions. The effort being put into achieving the details depicted in the picture was immediately apparent, including the innovative and appropriate use of bitz, materials and sculpting.

In particular, the elongated appearance of the stormbolter/auxiliary grenade launcher has always vexed me. But... there it was.

The detail on the back of the model is also interesting, particularly since there is no way of knowing what it would look like from the picture. The skill of the artist shows here; it is the kind of detail that can be easily overdone or underdone, but this work just fits. I haven't tried to read the text on the cloak yet, but it looks awesome and pays further homage to the original artwork.

The use of Dark Angels iconography makes is absolutely clear where Gabriel's allegiance lies, despite the spikes and the heavy weathering. Small uses of spot colour attract the eye to small details all over the place, such as the piping.

So, how does D Power's style translate into a commissioned service?

Unlike other building/painting services, you aren't going to get a nice, neat, safe paint scheme with airbrushed OSL (for an additional fee). The kind of scheme that the artist can reliably do every single time, twice a month, because otherwise they would be out of a job. You are buying an interpretation of the 40K universe, as it is viewed through a very dark and gritty lens. You are buying a piece that reflects both a specific style and the immense talent of the artist in regards to modelling. This style may not be to everyone's liking (pleasing everyone is the job of those other services), but it pleases me greatly. If Gabriel's restless ghost were to eternally haunt the blistered decks of the Charnel Shrine, he would look something like this:

If you like the idea of owning a piece like this, send D Power an email and he will help you get the ball rolling.

See you across the table,

M4cr0

The Man Cave Blues

Hi folks,

I am just about to finish up teaching for the year and the last couple of weeks have been outrageously busy. On top of kid's Birthdays and Christmas shenanigans, I have also been busy putting together a job application, which has eaten the lion's share of my time. As a result, my man cave is starting to look more like a dumping place of all that is inconvenient!

Can you spot two super-heavy vehicles, three polystyrene glue bottle and a Ravenwing flyer in this photo?

I took the picture above about two weeks ago, when I first thought about this post. Since then, things have deteriorated even more significantly. It is seriously time for an intervention. Maintaining a relatively neat hobby space is vital to my ability to complete projects. I find that if I can't sit down and start working on something within a few minutes, I will end up getting roped into something else far less interesting!

Can you spot the unused wads of green-stuff (SHAME!), Sammael + Jetbike, Tamiya Clear Red bottle and lucky xenomorphs?

Above is my main workstation, where I would usually paint. There are an awful lot of projects waiting to be finished on this table. It's not exactly functional at the moment and needs a good cull. At the moment, it is simply easier to carry my paints away to the kitchen table and work there, which defeats the purpose of having a man cave!

Can you spot the emu feathers, thermoplasma generator, lucky hobby knife, MtG cards and swear jar?

I have been keen to re-organise my display shelves (above) for a while now, there is a lot of To-Do stuff there that needs to be replaced with To-Done stuff. I am also knee-deep in books, which is the problem when you start using book shelves to display miniatures, or just junk, really (below).

Can you spot the Metallica guitar tabs book, Tyranid Harpy/Hive Crone, empty superglue packaging (SHAME!) and Goblin Green paint pot (circa 1997)? You may even spot Secret Project X from my 2016/17 To-Do list...

So, here is my confession: my man cave needs to be cleaned up. I have let it fall into shadow and, as a result, not much is getting done. It's high time I did something about that, before my Christmas painting projects for friends turn into Easter painting projects...

See you across the (junk strewn) table,

M4cr0

Joe Dever: In Memorium

Hi folks :-(

It is with a tremendously heavy heart that I report the passing away of Joe Dever. He was best known for his Lone Wolf series of adventure novels, which provided young people with easy access to the world of role-playing and mythology building.

Such was the impact of these books on my life, that my third ever Old School Gaming post was about Lone Wolf (the first two were rubbish anyway). The Darke Crusade was the first fantasy novel I ever owned and, it would be no exaggeration to say, Lone Wolf has shaped my interests and hobby pursuits ever since. I even took one book to my first day of high school; it was something like a security blanket. Another kid noticed and said he was into Lone Wolf and Greyhawk too. That kid has been my best friend for 23 years now and I would run through a burning house for him (and no, that's not a challenge, Goomba). There would be no Old School Gaming without Joe Dever.

Mr Dever was still working on three new Lone Wolf novels around the time of his death. The family has assured fans that they will use his notes to complete the books. It will be bittersweet to play through those last adventures.

Thanks for all of the adventures Joe, your legacy is great and I pray you are resting in peace.

M4cr0