u/Menome7

With some of the cards coming out of Fear No Evil, I feel that the game is in a prime position to finally have some comic-classic 'Neighbourhood Patrol' custom scenarios now that there's scenarios such as "Protection Racket" and "Art Museum Heist" as bases to slot other Villains into.

Initial Modular Sets that I feel could work with this concept:

Cops

Disasters

Down To Earth

State Of Emergency

Streets Of Mayhem

What sort of combinations do you all think would work so that you could go: "Today I'm going to play a Neighbourhood Patrol game of Champions, and these are the sets I'm drawing from"?

So I'm continuing my chronological run-through of the albums and have reached Discovery and Xanadu. Now, I've seen fairly negative things about Discovery before so I was pleasantly surprised by it once I finally got to listen to it. It's certainly different in sound to before, and yes it's "Disco, Very" but it's good disco.

I've also never seen Xanadu, only heard the song on the radio, so I picked up the soundtrack too as part of this. Good lord, the ELO side is absolutely fantastic in addition to the hit single. I'm Alive is a new favourite right off the bat and all the songs feel like they're the 'traditional' ELO-sounding songs certain folk were bemoaning as being missing from Discovery.

So it got me thinking on whether I could combine those Xanadu songs with some of the best of Discovery and see "What could have been" in a new playlist whilst staying within the limits of approx. 20 mins a side for vinyl.

Side A

I'm Alive

The Fall

Don't Walk Away

The Diary Of Horace Wimp

All Over The World

Side B

Shine A Little Love

Confusion

Last Train To London

Don't Bring Me Down

Xanadu (Jeff or Olivia vocal, your choice)

Midnight Blue

Give it a try and see what you think!

My chronological album journey has reached "Out Of The Blue" and I can easily see why this is many people's favourite, there's a lot to love across all four parts with only a couple of duds (Night In The City, Starlight and The Whale just didn't do it for me).

However...even since I was a kid, I've just never clicked with Mr. Blue Sky. It's touted by many as the definitive ELO song, it's been used in TV shows/films as backing music as 'the' ELO song that the general public will know and be an upbeat pleaser. I just can't stand it.

Maybe it's *too* chirpy? Maybe it's the choir backing being a bit *too* much? Maybe it has all the right notes, but they're being played in the wrong order? I just can't put my finger on it. I'd hoped that hearing it more in context as part of the full 'Concerto For a Rainy Day' might help, but I just ended up falling in love with the preceding three songs and still falling flat with Mr. Blue Sky.

Wild West Hero remains possibly my top track.

I used to work in a warehouse environment, where sometimes the radio would be on, other times people would put their own CDs etc on. One day my coworker puts on a mix CD of mostly classic rock her husband made and I know every song on there but one.

Being a noisy warehouse I can't hear it clearly but it's got a Beatles-y piano to it, singer sounds McCartney-ish and I can make out some lyrics about: "Gotta get away from..."

Song finishes and is followed up by an odd choice, the 'Shangri-La' outro from Grandaddy's "Just Like The Fambly Cat" album. I ask my coworker what the song was and she doesn't know, she'll try and ask her husband. Obviously she never does.

For the next 15 years I scour through Paul McCartney's solo catalogue, Wings' albums (The band the Beatles could have been 😉), other Beatles solo bits and various 70s bands. I just happen to only have an extended Essential Collection for ELO for years...

Until this week, where my chronological album listen has hit "New World Record". Not only have I finally found THAT song at last, I realised the outro was a cover by Grandaddy on their album.

I've known the radio hits and owned one of those extended 'Essential Collections' for years, but I've finally started going through the studio albums. I'm up to 'Face The Music' chronologically so far and there's been something new to love on every one so far.

But my god, 'El Dorado'. What a genuine masterpiece of an album that completely resonates with me. I'm 39, I work the boring IT desk job, I don't live anywhere special. I have unfulfilled dreams and ambitions, my own adventures I wish I could have managed to go on and find myself daydreaming of. The story in the music speaks to me on a fundamental level whilst being beautiful in itself (The Eldorado Intro and Outros, Can't Get It Out Of My Head, Mister Universe, the title track).

I obviously know there's at least two highly-regarded albums to come and there'll be fantastic songs, but I don't think another is going to connect with me quite the way that El Dorado has.

We tried out Lucky Duck Games' Destinies in our three-player group on Monday and one of our players wasn't fond of the more competitive nature of it, and felt that they were mainly failing forward with the dice-roll + pegs system, ultimately just not having fun. So my wife and I will continue with Destinies in our own time, and I'm looking at alternatives.

I already own Arkham Horror LCG, but from experience know that if Destinies was too much for my other player in terms of adversity, that's an absolute no-go.

I've looked at Kinfire Chronicles: Night's Fall and Journeys In Middle Earth in my search for a game that might serve us all. Kinfire seems like it'd be a more 'relaxed' difficulty but I see people saying that it perhaps gets too easy after a few scenarios of upgrades. Plus gameplay seems to be combat-focused and I'd like a little more variety.

JIME would be a thematic hit for all three of us, but as we only get approximately 3 hours per week I don't know if it would be too complex for sessions and I've heard it's more on the difficult side without one of the expansions offering the rules for an 'Adventure Mode', which limits the ticking time constraints on scenarios. It also seems to offer a bit more in what characters are doing in missions outside of combat?

Both would be pricey purchases, and I can't afford them both right now. So would you recommend going with the more streamlined Kinfire, or go for JIME and the expansion with the easier ruleset?