"Jack Burton, You!" - Big Trouble In Little China The Game, Reviewed

Last June, I jumped on a boardgame Kickstarter that was originally going to be shipped before Christmas; two weeks ago, my copy of Big Trouble in Little China finally arrived, and three of us played it last night. Was it worth the wait or was it instead a crushing disappointment?

Well, no one could complain about the components: a lavishly illustrated, double-sided gameboard, cards and player boards with similarly stunning artwork, custom made dice, and best of all, 40 well-sculpted plastic miniatures depicting the heroes and adversaries from one of 1986's best cult films.

It takes a pretty big box to hold that much stuff, but also some forethought to keep the contents organized, so I was extremely pleased that the top plastic tray include slotting for the various decks of cards and such...

...and the bottom tray not only had vacu-formed spaces for each and every miniature, but came with a photo of the layout, like those maps in the box of assorted chocolates, to prevent you from inadvertently pushing a model into the wrong spot and risking damage! Bravo, Everything Epic!

Physically, BTILC leaves almost nothing to be desired (although some ziplocs for the extraordinary amount of counters wouldn't have gone astray!), but what about gameplay? For me, any cooperative game comes with two major criteria: ease of play and co-op effectiveness. 

This game takes a little while to wrap your head around, with a couple of unique mechanics, but thankfully the publishers have created a set of video tutorials you can watch on YouTube. I got most of the game setup before the other players arrived, and then we were able to watch the videos and compare them to the layout before us.

The heart of the game is an intriguing dice system, where the symbols you throw dictate not what you can do, but how well you can do it. Each dice has two each of symbols representing Body, Mind and Soul. As you move, fight, heal and attempt other tasks within the game, you slot these dice into the player board for your character. Each slot will normally provide you with a dice for fighting, or the ability to move two spaces, for instance. But the highlighted, or "Epic" slots give you a little more oomph, so you would get a dice with a better spread of results, or move three spaces instead of two.

Every character's board layout is a little different, with Jack Burton's favouring Body, and Egg Chen's having more Epic slots for the Mind, for instance. The order you do things in becomes critically important, but since you roll the dice at the start of your turn, you are freed from trying to come up with a detailed plan before your turn comes around.

You start the game with a number of quests in play: tow major or character quests, and three side quests. Completing the quests gives you the opportunity to combat the minions of Lo-Pan, from the lowly Lords of Death to the hardened killers of the Wing Kong. Along the way you will read entries from a Quest Book in a 'choose your own adventure' fashion, leveling up and gaining rewards that will enable you to eventually face the Godfather of Chinatown in his subterranean lair on the other side of the board.

Combat is simple but challenging, especially in the early stages when you only have three action dice. Looking back on our first game, we didn't take nearly enough advantage of ranged combat and running away from certain fights. Levelling up not only garners you additional dice, but upgrades for your character which can themselves be upgraded to Epic status later on. For instance, Wang Chi's Dragon of the Black Pool jacket (a highly covetable item of wardrobe in its own right) gives him an additional defense dice initially, which can later on be upgraded to an Epic dice, plus one automatic success.

Finishing quests on the streets of Chinatown in Act I  will give the players additional Audacity, measured on a track at the top of the board. It is a race to the center against the opposing Threat Meter, which advances 1-3 spaces every turn and an additional space every time a player dies. Death is not the end, however; deceased players simply draw a Hell card and return to the fight languishing under its effects, which can range from annoying (only speaking in questions) to the dangerous (causing damage to other players with demonic halitosis). As said in the movie, "Chines have a lot of hells."

Once either the Threat Meter or Audacity track reach the centre of the board, play stops immediately, the board is cleared, flipped, and Act II begins in Lo-Pan's underground sanctum. A new track counts down every turn and with every death, giving players a limited amount of time to reach and vanquish Lo-Pan, as well as whichever of the Three Storms have been able to join him. To make matters worse, you have to fight him twice: once as a ghost and again once he has become flesh!

The ticking clock feels a bit relentless, to be honest, which is either a knock against the game's balance or our inexperience. Having played a solo game this morning, I am inclined to say it's the latter, but even entering Act II with Jack Burton at level 6 and full health, I was barely able to beat Lo-Pan before time ran out. And this was even after using intrepid reporter Margo Litzenberger's special ability to move the tracker back one space!

We had not gotten very far in our first game when the Threat Meter reached its end and flipped us into Act II relatively unprepared, and not having completed a single Major Quest, so we thought we were doomed right away. With a bit of planning though, we actually made it to the final showdown with Lo-Pan, who unfortunately killed the lot of us when we bunched up upon arrival. (Bad dice, that's all!)

In terms of co-op play, however, Big Trouble gets big props. Its unique dice system, character upgrades and personalized quests make it almost impossible for an aggressive player to 'quarterback' the game, although there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration. The player's get to choose which of them goes first, allowing them to apply at least a little strategy before their turn even begins.

There are also a set of six shared Fate Dice which can be used by any players to improve their odds, but only once apiece, and with a fifty-fifty chance of some ill effects befalling them or their fellow players when they do, requiring a bit of faith from all involved.

Big Trouble in Little China succeeds in all three areas then: physical components, game design and mechanics, and co-op effectiveness. There is a fourth box they can tick as well: faithfulness to the source material.

From the artwork to the sculpts, to the names and types of rules, it is clear that this has been a labour of love by fans who are as enamoured of the movie as I am. There is a reverence and understanding of the source material unmatched in similar efforts for other properties, but the designers have also broadened the mythology and widened the story. This gives fans a chance to experience something new and different but with a very similar flavour instead of following familiar story beats through a repetitive narrative. 

If we are being honest though, Wang Chi deserves a better profile than Jack Burton, don't you think?

I'm not sure how accurate the professed 120 minute playing time is; even my solo game this morning took more time than that. But coming away from the game once I had packed everything away felt like coming away from John Carpenter's film the first time: I wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but I'd had a great time, and I wanted more of it. Pretty good benchmark for any game - no horseshit.

Edmonton Airshow 2018 - No Smoke, Just Mirrors

Thanks to the miracle of cognitive dissonance, I can say that the 2018 Edmonton Airshow was largely disappointing, but I still had a good time.

The hinge of my disappointment was the unannounced scratching of this year's headliner: Mig Fury - an aerial reenactment of a Korean War-era dogfight featuring a FJ-4 Fury (the carrier version of the venerable F-86 Sabre jet), a Mig 15 and a Mig 17.

These jets occupied a strange niche in air combat history, between the obsolescence of propellor-driven fighters and the ascension of missiles as the principal air-to-air weapon. These pilots fought in essentially the same way that Billy Bishop and Baron von Richtoffen did, but at close to Mach 1. I even had a title for the blog post: Gunfight at the Speed of Sound.

Sigh.

What really galls me isn't so much that the act was cancelled, as this happens fairly frequently at the intersection of aviation and show business, but that the show's organizers never bothered to let us know. The email they sent out that very morning listed Mig Fury as part of that day's lineup, and the announcer never mentioned it. My first clue that they wouldn't be showing up came at 3:45, when announced the T-33 demo would be the final act, ending the show almost a half-hour ahead of schedule.

Smoke in Idaho meant that three other WWII warbirds ended up scratched as well: the Hellcat, Wildcat and P-51 Mustang, which I know left a lot of vintage plane fans severely miffed.

The aerobatics displays that were substituted in their place were very well executed, but also kind of repetitive. For instance, we were treated to an amazing display by Buck Roetman in his Pitt's Special biplane, including his inverted tail cut of a ribbon held 14 metres off the ground (but not until after he had flown under it on the initial pass to size things up!). This was followed by Gary Rower in a vintage Stearman biplane in the style that had trained so many pilots in the early days of WWII. Later on, they placed both these planes in the air at one time, ostensibly to demonstrate their differences, but it still felt like a desperate attempt to fill an empty slot.

I will say this though: if you ever have the opportunity to see a fellow named Jim Bourke do his aerobatic display, do so without hesitation. He flies a modern Extra, specifically designed from the ground up to be an acrobatic all-star, and his display was absolutely breathtaking. The speed and precision with which he snaps and rolls his aircraft are dizzying to behold, and elicited several audible gasps from the crowd.

Another double up saw a Harvard trainer from Yello Thunder paired up with "Nancy" a 60 -year-old Nancheng from the PRC flying her very last show right here at Villeneuve.

On welcome addition to the lineup was this firefighting exercise.

And in addition to sporting some brilliant jetfighter livery, Precision Exotics actually gave air show patrons  the opportunity to ride in or even drive either a Lamborghini or Ferrari on the runway. If it hadn't been $150, I might have done it (from the passenger seat, honestly - it's been a while since I've driven stick and I highly doubted these were automatics!). One of them even raced the T-33 in the finale.

The show closed with some elegant passes by "Acemaker." This T-33 , the training version of Lockheed's P-80 Shooting Star, was a treat to see, if only because it was the only jet we saw in the air besides the 737 that airshow sponsor Flair Air flew past us twice.

In the end, a bad day at the airshow is still better than an average day in the backyard, and I was grateful for the opportunity to see some aircraft up close and in their natural environment, even if I didn't see all the ones I wanted to. Besides, with the show close to cancellation due to the pervasive smoke in our region from the B.C. wildfires, it feels almost churlish to complain.

This Folking Weather (Plus Ry Cooder and Desert Blues)

For the second time in three years, I have returned to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival as a volunteer - just in time for one of the most extreme weather swings I have ever experienced in this province.

On Friday, helping to administer the tarp lottery, my crew and I endured a sweltering 35 degrees, Edmonton's hottest day of the year. Thursday felt even hotter, but that experience prompted me to bring an umbrella for shade the following day as there was virtually none to be found in our corral by Stage 1.

Saturday, with rain positively pouring down during Regina Spektor's set, it got down to 12 degrees, and felt even colder due to the damp. Despite having two layers on under my rain jacket, sitting off the ground in a festival chair with a reversible car blanket covering my legs and am umbrella trying to keep the back of my chair dry, I was still shivering.

I got up in search of warmth just as she wrapped up, but the merch tent had neither sweatshirts nor long underwear. I have both long johns and multiple sweatshirts at home, so I ended up getting fish and chips instead, which definitely kept me from succumbing so I could watch Ry Cooder's set.

Ry Cooder provided the soundtrack to a lot of movies I adored in back in the day: The Long Riders, Southern Comfort, Streets of Fire, Crossroads. His album Get Rhythm, with the eponymous cover of the Johnny Cash classic, remains eminently listenable.

At 71, he has lost none of his mastery of guitar (with or without bottleneck slide) or mandolin. In fact, I was once told that Ry Cooder is considered a virtuoso on pretty much any stringed instrument, and I have no cause to disbelieve that.

He was backed by a three piece r&b/soul outfit called The Hamiltones, who were as brilliant as you might expect backing up a legend like Cooder, and played two of their own tracks as well. (They normally sing backup to Anthony Hamilton, who sang "Freedom" on the soundtrack to Django Unchained.

The set itself was soulful, and you can get a taste of the instrumentality in this video for Prodigal Son.

Lyrically, it's not quite gospel music, but definitely spiritually situated, treading a line between disappointment and the need to get better:

Now you fashion-loving Christians sure give me the blues
You must unload, you must unload
You'll never get to heaven in your jewel-encrusted high-heel shoes
You must, you must unload

...and the hopefulness and forgiveness of faith, represented in a setting perhaps just this side of blasphemous:

Now, I wandered into a tavern
Where a music band was playin'
Now, the steel guitar rang out so sweet
I feel that I was prayin'
And I asked a comely waitress
"Is this a new teaching?"
Yeah, she said, "There is no God but God
And Ralph Mooney is his name"
I said, "Let me empty your ashtray, Mr. Mooney
And if the drunks interfere I'll be sad
But just as long as you sit there on the bandstand
And play your guitar like Buddha, I'll be glad!"
Now the father asked the prodigal
"Did you smell the sweet perfume and hear the angel band?"
He said, "Daddy! Dim lights, thick smoke, and loud, loud music
Is the only kind of truth I'll ever understand!"

The cold and the wet was easier to bear, with Ry Cooder and the Hamiltones warming us up from the inside out.

Other intriguing bands I intend to follow up on:

Tinariwen

A lot of rockers like to call themselves rebels, but these guys are the real deal: a band of nomadic Tuaregs recording since the late 70s, and whose members have been both propagandists for and fighters in Mali's five-decades of civil war. Their style of music has been described as desert blues, and is a fascinating amalgam of styles.

Dakhabrakha

A Ukrainian trio of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists who describe their sound as 'ethnic chaos', and which I won't even try to describe. They ran the gamut from frenzied to reflective without missing a gear. You can see a full radio performance of theirs here.

Tash Sultana

This young Australian has 40 different instruments under her belt, has a lovely voice, and accompanies herself using a technique called live-looping. Her big break came from a video of her doing a track called Jungle, by herself, in her bedroom, went viral. Not for every taste, but if you like sincere electronica with a broad sound, I suggest checking her out as well.

Last night I was unsure if I would go back for Sunday night's main stage performance, but writing this up (ahead of time, as I know it will not happen afterwards, and I don't want to break my update streak) has me jazzed up again, so after a massive afternoon nap to supplement last night's 3.5 hours sleep, I will gear up with my layers and long johns and head back out to Gallagher Hill to see Shakey Graves and Nick Mulvey and The Milk Carton Kids, only one of whom I have heard of.

Even past the half-century mark, the joy of discovering new music lives!

Tube Be Or Not To Be

Riding an inner tube down the Pembina River is something many people would list as the hallmark of a typical Alberta summer. And yet, it is something no one in our house had ever done until this past weekend, despite the fact it is just over an hour's drive from our doorstep.

Back when the summer started, I booked three nights at the Pembina River campground by Evansburg for the long weekend, something else we had never done. Friday night we set up camp, and when the rain began falling the next morning, we cancelled our plans to be on the river by 11:00, and went out for breakfast instead. (Sammy's Restaurant in Entwistle serves up something called a Ukrainian breakfast; it's kind of a pyrogy omelette which is quite hearty and delicious.)

Around noon, the sun started to peek out, so we changed into our swimsuits and made our way to Pembina River Tubing. Thanks to perusing their website, we had a pretty good idea what to expect. There was no lineup to speak of, so the four of us quickly filled out our waivers, got briefed on the ins and outs of the river tour, and rented a couple of tubes. We had already purchased one for Glory as well as a small raft for Audrey and Nitti (that we eventually named the Pawtemkin) at Canadian Tire.

Once we had all our gear, we made the 8 minute trek down to the waterline. The rain made the trail a little slick, especially while carrying a 53 inch inner tube while walking a dog and wearing Crocs (the preferred wear for such activities), but we made it down without any mishaps.  At the end of the trail, wooden steps led down to a tiny beach by the riverside.

We took a few moments to get ourselves situated and to place socks on Nitti's paws to protect the bottom of the raft. It was probably only 20-21 degrees Celsius by this point, and that water was brisk, baby, but before too long, we were all in the water and tethered together. We pushed away from shore and began our journey.

The majority of the tube route is a gentle float, where you can lay back and appreciate the scenery.

Some of the riverside bluffs and cliffs appear quite massive. They are striped with sedimentary rock, and festooned with tiny cylindrical swallow's nests.

The whole trip usually takes 2-3 hours, which gives you plenty of time to get your Zen on and just "be here now."

But from time to time, the languid roll of the Pembina is punctuated by rapids. Not truly whitewater, but made to feel much more prominent by your proximity to them, as well as the relative fragility of your craft. 

Or perhaps just the disposition of your passengers.

Nitti, on the other hand, handled things with his typical canine stoicism, even enduring the indignity of wearing baby booties.

We had brought along a cooler with some sodas and juiceboxes, some sausage sticks and cheese, so we had a light lunch while afloat. Not long, after our riverine repast however, we encountered one of the few landmarks of our journey.

This is the second of two parallel bridges, the first of which holds up the Yellowhead (Highway 16). This one bears the CN rail tracks, and as luck would have it, a Via Rail passenger train passed over us just after we crossed its shadow.

At some point between rapids and snacking we took a moment to grab a group photo.

And immediately after passing under the little bridge, we quickly used the paddles that came with the raft  and the frisbees tethered to the rental tubes to make our way to the sandy shore of the day use area of Pembina Provincial Park. Once out, we caught the shuttle bus back to PRT, returned our rentals, and headed back to the campsite.

Tubing was a great experience, and one we will undoubtedly do again. In fact, the very next day, I purchased my own tube and Glory and I hit the river again while Audrey returned to the campsite with Nitti to read her book.

This was a far sunnier day, and there were way more people on the river, but it still didn't feel crowded. The river was also running much higher than the day before, which we knew thanks to Alberta Environment's constantly updating web page which tracks such things. Where Saturday's flow had been only 17 cubic meters per second, Sunday's was actually 22.

The river is safe for all ages up to 35 m³s though, it just runs a little more quickly. We ended up at the second bridge at about the 100 minute mark, compared to the previous days 2:20. This time though we drifted right past the day-use area and rode around two more bends before arriving at the gravel beach of our campground. 

The strength of the current and the slipperiness of the rocks made it more difficult to stop than we had anticipated, meaning we ended up about 60 metres further downriver than planned. Ah well, less distance to walk back to our campsite. I joked with Audrey that next time we will equip her with a sturdy rope she can cast out to us as an arresting device.

With two floats under our belts and another probably happening at month end, I am confident we will return to the Pembina before too lone. After all, you can start your float by noon and still be back in Edmonton in time for supper

.

Hoodoos, Horseshoe, Hot Dog, and Pizza

There were still a few sights to be seen in our last couple of days in Drumheller:

The Hoodoos, which now have a much better infrastructure that facilitates both viewing and protection.

The Atlas Suspension Bridge, built when the Atlas coal mine got tired of bringing their workers across the Red Deer River by crane.

This viewpoint, which appears on no map, but can be accessed by driving straight through the hamlet of Rosedale, out the other side, past yet another mine, and up a steep hill. Considering how prehistoric or Wild West most of the scenery around Drumheller is, I found myself wondering if early settlers perhaps found it reminiscent of Wales or Ireland.

The World's Largest Dinosaur, which left us feeling a bit down in the mouth (sorry, had to be done).

Assorted dinosaurs of downtown Drumheller.

Horseshoe Canyon, another amazing bit of Alberta topography.

And that just about brought us to the end of our adventures in the Drumheller valley. The 30+ heat dampened our enthusiasm a little, but we managed to see everything we wanted to, and have some unstructured time back at the campsite too.

Despite having a fire going though, we were so disinterested in cooking or cleaning up on our last night that we indulged Glory's request to order the Megasaurus from Bernie and the Boys Bistro.

This 16" brute of a pizza weighs in at an astonishing eight pounds and took over an hour to cook.

The cross section looks more like a deli sandwich than a pizza, and while you didn't quite have t unhinge your jaw like a snake in order to take a bite, shy eaters need not apply:

Once home and unpacked, the next order of business was washing the desert-like dust out of our faithful hound.

Thankfully he doesn't put up too much of a fight at bathtime.

And the results speak for themselves!

I'm confident (and grateful) the memories of our trip will not wash away so easily or so quickly.