Movies this week:
1. Maybe Baby: A British comedy about a BBC script-writer who decides to overcome his writer's block by writing about his marriage and trying to have a baby. (secretly, since his wife expressly forbade the whole idea.) It was a really good movie I thought. It had, what seemed to me, a nice reference to the movie Train Spotting, although, perhaps Train Spotting is just one among a large genre of teen angst heroin movies.
2. Twister. I had seen this one before, but I enjoyed it again. Every movie needs a villian, and in this movie, the villian was a corporate sponsored tornado chaser, who had no "instinct" and took credit for other people's ideas. The rivalry was so ridiculous that about half of the laugh lines in the movie were laughing at the writing about this rivalry. The special effects were amazing, if you enjoy watching flying combines, splintering barns and houses. If it were made today, it would be a good contender for 3D.
3. Miss March. Sort of in the spirit of Dumb and Dumber, except there was just one character who was really dumb. The other character had devoted himself to a life of chastity before marriage. Except that when his girlfriend insisted, he finally gave in, only to fall down a staircase and go into a coma for four years. When he awoke, his girlfriend was a Playboy Centerfold, and the two of them went across the country to confront her at the Playboy Mansion. There was some immature humor here and there, but it was a fairly competent story-line, with likeable characters.
4. Two Tickets to Paradise. Hey, there are these three guys that are my age. They are kind of like me in that they are all sort of thinking they'd be somebody by the time they got to be this age, but really aren't. They aren't like me in that they are going to drive across the country just so they can get in to see a football game. (or maybe it's baseball, I don't remember.) This is a movie that aspires, I think, to be a comedy of sorts, but not the laugh-out-loud kind of funny. If you're a lonely 38 year old guy, this one isn't going to cheer you up much, because I think all three guys go home at the end to hot twenty-something looking women, despite their "I'm so depressed I want to kill myself" attitudes.
5. Two Much. I watched about ten minutes of this, and realized I didn't have any idea what was going on, and didn't really care. It was either a funeral or a wedding. I know the plot has something to do with a guy dating two women by pretending he has a twin brother, but then it was a bunch of Italian cultural stuff, which is all pretty alien to me.
Other movies
TrainSpotting: Since I mentioned this above, I thought I'd bring it up again. I tried to watch this when it first came out on video, but I couldn't understand a word they said. I thought what they were saying must be important since it got all this highbrow critical attention. I rented it a few weeks ago on DVD, and turned on the english subtitles and found out that the actual script of the movie was pretty much what you should expect from a bunch of complete losers. Not a relevant line in the whole movie, unless you happen to be a heroin addict, or you were thinking about trying heroin, in which case, hopefully this movie would convince you that it wasn't worth it.
Bickford Schmeckley's Cool Ideas: A fun movie for nerds like me. Wouldn't it be cool if you could write about physics and women would read it and throw themselves at you? Okay, this guy, Bickford, has his memoir "The Book" stolen from him during a toga party, and he spends the rest of the movie trying to track it down. Meanwhile a group of D&D players recover the book from a homeless guy, who found The Book in a trash can, and make free copies to distribute over the campus. Certain passages and ideas in the book invoke a "braingasm" in the readers. In the end, Bickford concludes that he can't always be so serious, but he needs to enjoy life. The story was written and directed by a guy with ALS, or Lou Gherig's or something like that.
Gamers 2: You should also see Gamers, but Gamers 2 is really written from the perspective of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. How does it work; there are two parallel storylines. The players of the game have their own lives, and I think there is a romance between one of the players and the Dungeon Master, and maybe a side plot about some game shop... I don't remember. A lot of the jokes of the game are probably funny to non-players, but are definitely funny to players.
Dungeons and Dragons: The Movie. Most people don't like this movie, but I went into it, I guess, with low expectations, and those expectations were met. Namely, I asked the question; does this resemble what it looks like when I get together with my friends and play Dungeons and Dragons. And my conclusion is, yes; to the extent that the players in my games actually take the hooks and try to "role-play," the acting and storyline of this movie resembled precisely that. It looked like a random group of strangers (withoug backgrounds) mysteriously dropped into a ridiculous situation, and railroaded into a story-line. Exactly like D&D.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
FreeCol! The open source version of Colonization!
So, I was playing my old game of colonization on XP, with no sound, when it crashed, and I thought to myself--ahhh, that's why I quit playing it; because it was crashing without reason. Some improvements, I started to think, to Colonization would be (1) making it so it didn't crash (2) getting the sound to work in XP (3) a large number of game related quirks should be fixed.
So I moseyed around and did a few chores, vacuuming, taking out the trash, etc, and thought about angband, and how it was surely a much improved game because of its open-source nature, and how all of the problems of Colonization would be fixed by diligent fans, if only they made the colonization game open source. Surely this game has a following of really smart people that could make it better.
Eventually, I remembered that last time I had played Colonization, I had used a boot disk, which had fixed problem number one, so it didn't crash. (I never did get the sound-card to work right, with the boot disk though, so it didn't help with problem 2). I was just about to reboot my computer, but I decided to see what sort of comments I could find online about the game.
Very shortly thereafter, I found that indeed, someone HAS put out a free open source version of colonization, called FreeCol! I downloaded it, and started playing. At first I was really excited, because the opening movie, and then the ambient sound as I started my game were very impressive. Then all that sound went away, and everything was completely silent, which was kind of a let-down. I was further disappointed by the movement of the units--instead of sliding across, they teleport from one square to the next. Then, I could find no way to adjust the difficulty setting, and then every time I hit the Enter key to open up the city screen to load up a ship, it ended my turn!
Okay, so my first few minutes weren't so great, but then little improvements started becoming apparent. (1) Instead of having to write down on a piece of paper what each individual Indian village was trading, and what kind of specialty profession it trained, all of this was easily accessible by right-clicking on the Indian village. This is a huge improvement. (2) The go-to functionality, and path-finding has been greatly improved, showing not only the path the unit will take, but the number of turns to get there. (3) Goods can be set to report when they are LOW, instead of just when they are OUT; likewise, I think it will report when your stores are ALMOST full. (4) Whereas in colonization, after a building is completed, you have to go make a decision about what will be built next, in FreeCol, you may set up a building queue, and all at once state the next several buildings will be. (5) A minor but nice improvement is that when Indians tell you tales of nearby lands, they go ahead and tell you when those lands are adjacent to an ocean. Thereby, you don't send a scout all the way over to investigate one patch of unmapped territory, only to find that the whole thing is an inland lake.
Later, I went back to my colonization game from earlier that day and I was really surprised at how blocky the graphics seemed. The graphics, while perhaps not the ideal color palette, are much more detailed; being for a modern monitor, rather than the old 256 color VGA.
Finally, the game has a nice online community set up, and the program is being actively upgraded by its open-source coders. I hope to soon see additional tilesets, music and sound effects incorporated. There will probably also be better computer AI, but I'm not sure I'm an experienced enough player to notice that sort of thing. Otherwise, probably not too much because they are trying to stay true in most gameplay details to the original game, but they are also apparently working on a FreeCol II, which will not have the limitation of staying true to the original.
So I moseyed around and did a few chores, vacuuming, taking out the trash, etc, and thought about angband, and how it was surely a much improved game because of its open-source nature, and how all of the problems of Colonization would be fixed by diligent fans, if only they made the colonization game open source. Surely this game has a following of really smart people that could make it better.
Eventually, I remembered that last time I had played Colonization, I had used a boot disk, which had fixed problem number one, so it didn't crash. (I never did get the sound-card to work right, with the boot disk though, so it didn't help with problem 2). I was just about to reboot my computer, but I decided to see what sort of comments I could find online about the game.
Very shortly thereafter, I found that indeed, someone HAS put out a free open source version of colonization, called FreeCol! I downloaded it, and started playing. At first I was really excited, because the opening movie, and then the ambient sound as I started my game were very impressive. Then all that sound went away, and everything was completely silent, which was kind of a let-down. I was further disappointed by the movement of the units--instead of sliding across, they teleport from one square to the next. Then, I could find no way to adjust the difficulty setting, and then every time I hit the Enter key to open up the city screen to load up a ship, it ended my turn!
Okay, so my first few minutes weren't so great, but then little improvements started becoming apparent. (1) Instead of having to write down on a piece of paper what each individual Indian village was trading, and what kind of specialty profession it trained, all of this was easily accessible by right-clicking on the Indian village. This is a huge improvement. (2) The go-to functionality, and path-finding has been greatly improved, showing not only the path the unit will take, but the number of turns to get there. (3) Goods can be set to report when they are LOW, instead of just when they are OUT; likewise, I think it will report when your stores are ALMOST full. (4) Whereas in colonization, after a building is completed, you have to go make a decision about what will be built next, in FreeCol, you may set up a building queue, and all at once state the next several buildings will be. (5) A minor but nice improvement is that when Indians tell you tales of nearby lands, they go ahead and tell you when those lands are adjacent to an ocean. Thereby, you don't send a scout all the way over to investigate one patch of unmapped territory, only to find that the whole thing is an inland lake.
Later, I went back to my colonization game from earlier that day and I was really surprised at how blocky the graphics seemed. The graphics, while perhaps not the ideal color palette, are much more detailed; being for a modern monitor, rather than the old 256 color VGA.
Finally, the game has a nice online community set up, and the program is being actively upgraded by its open-source coders. I hope to soon see additional tilesets, music and sound effects incorporated. There will probably also be better computer AI, but I'm not sure I'm an experienced enough player to notice that sort of thing. Otherwise, probably not too much because they are trying to stay true in most gameplay details to the original game, but they are also apparently working on a FreeCol II, which will not have the limitation of staying true to the original.
Friday, February 5, 2010
I just keep playing Angband
Well, today I'm not making my trip to Astoria for my games with Bo and Kevin, due to a weather advisory.
Angband
So this morning I've been playing this video game, Angband. A really primitive ASCII graphics adventure game, but one with an enormous amount of effort put into the design. This is because it was published Open Source, so something like dozens of coders have taken part in making improvements, tweaking this and that, making the levels balanced, etc.
The default setting is IronMan mode, so if your character dies, it records the high score and erases the file. This can, at times be upsetting. Right now I'm running my highest level character yet, and I'm being very cautious. I am a 28th level mage, and I haven't descended below the 18th floor of the dungeon. When I first started playing with a mage, I found that I died very very quickly. Finally I decided that I would try to have my mage's level around THREE TIMES the floor of the dungeon. I was fifth level before I went to floor 2, and about 8th level before I went to floor 3, and about 11th level before I went to floor 4, etc. Time consuming, but I *survived*.
Obviously I've broken this pattern, to be on floor 18, I'd need to be 53rd level. Instead, I am going down another floor whenever I feel like the floor I'm on is *easy*.
If this game sounds fun to you, you can read more about it and download it here.
Game Night at the Library
Last night from 7:00 to 10:00 PM, as planned, I went to the Western Illinois University Library and packed up my duffel bag with a good number of my newer games. I had printed up 10 flyers about the Open Gaming in Astoria on Feb. 20, and I laid them on the table next to the guest list.
When I arrived, I saw many of the regulars there. Q had some wargame partially set up, but he was ready to go play the LAN game. He gave me a few pointers on painting miniatures, and asked me if I'd brought Settlers of Catan. (No, but I will next time!)
In the computer room of the library, they were playing a Local Area Network (LAN) game with ALL of the computers in the lab. Sorry, I forgot what the LAN game they were playing is called--but everybody plays a WWII soldier and picks a gun, and then they run around trying to shoot each other and play war-games like capture-the-flag, or sabotage the enemy guns, etc.
They also had two Nintendo Wii's hooked up together and were playing some kind of four-player Wii game on a pair of big-screen projection TV's. And, they had Rock Band playing in another corner, with all the instruments, and a crooning soloist. Finally a big table full of games from the library, all laid out. Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Pachisi, Clue, Chess--(Not just Chess, but Pirate's of the Caribbean Chess!)
I saw somebody set up a game of Puerto Rico. I think of Puerto Rico as a very short game, but he was explaining it to four new players, and I remembered, it is a much longer game if nobody knows what they are doing.
I played a game of chess, then, with a person that looked as though he spent a great deal of time mastering the game. I decided to play quickly, not worrying too much about winning, and he didn't seem interested in playing another game against me--probably because it was such a complete lack of a challenge. So then I sat down to Kibbitz the Puerto Rico game, as the owner was explaining the rules, and wander around seeing what everyone was playing.
Finally someone invited me to start a game of Pachisi with them; I guess it's the predecessor to Parcheesi. Similar to Sorry in that if you land on your opponents' pieces you send them back to the beginning. The rules were all printed on the inside of the box top, but on the once-over, we missed a few, and we were learning rules as we went. Finally we had them all down, and realized, the game was awfully boring. This gave me the opportunity to finally introduce one of the games I had brought (Carcassone) which it was generally agreed, was a much funner game.
When we finished Carcassone, a couple of guys were asking about the games that I had brought, and I had the opportunity to tell them about the Open Gaming in Astoria, on Feb. 20. One of them pulled the flyer out of his pocket about the Open Gaming... so it seems likely that at least one of the two will try to make it.
I had a really good time at the Game Night, and I look forward to it again next month.
Last Friday
When I went to Astoria last Friday, Bo never showed up, so Kevin and I spent the time having a look at a couple of computer games. Some time ago, I had given Kevin a copy of Colonization. But he had tried to play it and couldn't really get anywhere. So we spent about an hour or two with me just giving him advice about how to take each turn and how to get all of the fiddly little functions to work. It was so long ago that I learned to play it, that I can't even remember what I did to learn all of it. Kevin also showed me Might and Magic VI. How to make up the characters, and how to fight goblins. It looked fun. And finally we did play one game of Race For the Galaxy. I commented that we had no idea what each other had done for the entire game, and suggested that maybe we should get out a big shared piece of paper and draw a picture of the galaxy as we explored and developed it. Not sure if that would be an improvement or not--but just an idea.
Angband
So this morning I've been playing this video game, Angband. A really primitive ASCII graphics adventure game, but one with an enormous amount of effort put into the design. This is because it was published Open Source, so something like dozens of coders have taken part in making improvements, tweaking this and that, making the levels balanced, etc.
The default setting is IronMan mode, so if your character dies, it records the high score and erases the file. This can, at times be upsetting. Right now I'm running my highest level character yet, and I'm being very cautious. I am a 28th level mage, and I haven't descended below the 18th floor of the dungeon. When I first started playing with a mage, I found that I died very very quickly. Finally I decided that I would try to have my mage's level around THREE TIMES the floor of the dungeon. I was fifth level before I went to floor 2, and about 8th level before I went to floor 3, and about 11th level before I went to floor 4, etc. Time consuming, but I *survived*.
Obviously I've broken this pattern, to be on floor 18, I'd need to be 53rd level. Instead, I am going down another floor whenever I feel like the floor I'm on is *easy*.
If this game sounds fun to you, you can read more about it and download it here.
Game Night at the Library
Last night from 7:00 to 10:00 PM, as planned, I went to the Western Illinois University Library and packed up my duffel bag with a good number of my newer games. I had printed up 10 flyers about the Open Gaming in Astoria on Feb. 20, and I laid them on the table next to the guest list.
When I arrived, I saw many of the regulars there. Q had some wargame partially set up, but he was ready to go play the LAN game. He gave me a few pointers on painting miniatures, and asked me if I'd brought Settlers of Catan. (No, but I will next time!)
In the computer room of the library, they were playing a Local Area Network (LAN) game with ALL of the computers in the lab. Sorry, I forgot what the LAN game they were playing is called--but everybody plays a WWII soldier and picks a gun, and then they run around trying to shoot each other and play war-games like capture-the-flag, or sabotage the enemy guns, etc.
They also had two Nintendo Wii's hooked up together and were playing some kind of four-player Wii game on a pair of big-screen projection TV's. And, they had Rock Band playing in another corner, with all the instruments, and a crooning soloist. Finally a big table full of games from the library, all laid out. Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Pachisi, Clue, Chess--(Not just Chess, but Pirate's of the Caribbean Chess!)
I saw somebody set up a game of Puerto Rico. I think of Puerto Rico as a very short game, but he was explaining it to four new players, and I remembered, it is a much longer game if nobody knows what they are doing.
I played a game of chess, then, with a person that looked as though he spent a great deal of time mastering the game. I decided to play quickly, not worrying too much about winning, and he didn't seem interested in playing another game against me--probably because it was such a complete lack of a challenge. So then I sat down to Kibbitz the Puerto Rico game, as the owner was explaining the rules, and wander around seeing what everyone was playing.
Finally someone invited me to start a game of Pachisi with them; I guess it's the predecessor to Parcheesi. Similar to Sorry in that if you land on your opponents' pieces you send them back to the beginning. The rules were all printed on the inside of the box top, but on the once-over, we missed a few, and we were learning rules as we went. Finally we had them all down, and realized, the game was awfully boring. This gave me the opportunity to finally introduce one of the games I had brought (Carcassone) which it was generally agreed, was a much funner game.
When we finished Carcassone, a couple of guys were asking about the games that I had brought, and I had the opportunity to tell them about the Open Gaming in Astoria, on Feb. 20. One of them pulled the flyer out of his pocket about the Open Gaming... so it seems likely that at least one of the two will try to make it.
I had a really good time at the Game Night, and I look forward to it again next month.
Last Friday
When I went to Astoria last Friday, Bo never showed up, so Kevin and I spent the time having a look at a couple of computer games. Some time ago, I had given Kevin a copy of Colonization. But he had tried to play it and couldn't really get anywhere. So we spent about an hour or two with me just giving him advice about how to take each turn and how to get all of the fiddly little functions to work. It was so long ago that I learned to play it, that I can't even remember what I did to learn all of it. Kevin also showed me Might and Magic VI. How to make up the characters, and how to fight goblins. It looked fun. And finally we did play one game of Race For the Galaxy. I commented that we had no idea what each other had done for the entire game, and suggested that maybe we should get out a big shared piece of paper and draw a picture of the galaxy as we explored and developed it. Not sure if that would be an improvement or not--but just an idea.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
My "What A Stupid Rule" Rant
Okay, so I buy a lot of games, and even when I don't own the games, often, I seem to be the one who ends up reading the rules. So, on occasion, I've been known to strategize, with full knowledge of all the rules that are coming, so though I really don't mean to use that unfair advantage, it comes up quite a bit.
But what comes up over and over again, even as I'm explaining the rules from the beginning, hoping to make everything clear enough that I don't have an unfair advantage, I try to explain some small point that I think needs clarification, and I find out that some rule that I thought was merely interesting, or curious, or perhaps even clever... I find out from others that in fact, these are "Stupid Rules!"
Some Stupid Rules that people have pointed out to me.
Steam: You can take goods from a city where you have not made a railroad connection. The rules simply state that you have to use your track links greater than or equal to the track links of anyone else. So far as I can tell, this is a perfectly good rule, as long as everyone knows it--but it seems that because I used it *once* before everyone clearly understood it, now it is forever on the "stupid rule" list.
Wealth of Nations: Yes, you're supposed to simply trade one item to the bank at a time, though you can trade as many items with other players as you want. This is so that the bank continually reflects fair market value. But because it slows the game down a little bit, and sometimes, after you've explained it for the umpteenth time, but people still insist on trading three food cubes to the bank and buying two energy and you decide to just let them because you know nobody else is trading energy or food... *sigh*. Later when I bring it up, it's a "stupid rule!"
Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition? AC is better when it's higher? What a "stupid rule!"
Win Place and Show: You add the red and white die to find out which horse gets a bonus, but then you use the white die to determine both the bonus to speed, and the other thing... I can't even remember, but it's not symmetrical. One of the dice is used for three different things, and the other is used for one. Gee, this just infuriated everybody. What a Stupid Rule!
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition: That part where you pick out roles that you get to use once on your game turn and then everybody else gets to do a related power? Well, that just doesn't make sense at all. What a Stupid Rule!
Pirate's Cove: What!? The Pirate is at Treasure Island on the last turn of the game!? What a Stupid Rule!
Attack!: What?!? The Defender attacks first? I've never heard of a game doing that before! What a Stupid Rule! What?!? They don't say what happens when you leave your countries undefended? (Okay, in that case, they probably should have said what happens when you leave a country empty, or that you're not allowed to do it, but after we house-rule that you lose a random card, and then you leave a country empty, and then you lose a random card--and THEN you complain that it's a stupid rule. SHEESH!)
I feel like I remember a time when we just played the game and looked in the rules to find out what they were. The rules were terse and unyielding... handed down as though from the Gods... Unquestionable. Whether you liked them or not, they were the rules of the game. So I always find myself in this position of defending the rules of the game. Usually, I can even, in my own mind, justify the reason that the rule, as written, is better than it would be otherwise.
In Steam, being able to take goods from cities you haven't built to is something anybody can do, and it makes the game a little more unpredictable and quite a bit more strategic. In Wealth of Nations, if we were a more competitive group, it would make sense to worry about the little bit of difference of trading two or three at a time to the bank. Unfortunately, pestering about it in a more relaxed game makes me seem like a pain. And the dice in Win, Place, and Show, I really can't fathom the way they made it, but I also can't really tell why everybody else thinks its so terrible to use the same die for three different things.
I sometimes wonder if perhaps a second play, where the rule is made clearer from the beginning will fix things. But no. Each time we play the game, the argument becomes more vigorous, so the choices are either to quit playing the game, or to house rule the loss of the "stupid rule."
As luck would have it, here and there, I can find games that don't get too much complaint about the rules. Race For the Galaxy is a game where I have no idea what anybody else is doing, so everybody can probably play by their own rules!
But what comes up over and over again, even as I'm explaining the rules from the beginning, hoping to make everything clear enough that I don't have an unfair advantage, I try to explain some small point that I think needs clarification, and I find out that some rule that I thought was merely interesting, or curious, or perhaps even clever... I find out from others that in fact, these are "Stupid Rules!"
Some Stupid Rules that people have pointed out to me.
Steam: You can take goods from a city where you have not made a railroad connection. The rules simply state that you have to use your track links greater than or equal to the track links of anyone else. So far as I can tell, this is a perfectly good rule, as long as everyone knows it--but it seems that because I used it *once* before everyone clearly understood it, now it is forever on the "stupid rule" list.
Wealth of Nations: Yes, you're supposed to simply trade one item to the bank at a time, though you can trade as many items with other players as you want. This is so that the bank continually reflects fair market value. But because it slows the game down a little bit, and sometimes, after you've explained it for the umpteenth time, but people still insist on trading three food cubes to the bank and buying two energy and you decide to just let them because you know nobody else is trading energy or food... *sigh*. Later when I bring it up, it's a "stupid rule!"
Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition? AC is better when it's higher? What a "stupid rule!"
Win Place and Show: You add the red and white die to find out which horse gets a bonus, but then you use the white die to determine both the bonus to speed, and the other thing... I can't even remember, but it's not symmetrical. One of the dice is used for three different things, and the other is used for one. Gee, this just infuriated everybody. What a Stupid Rule!
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition: That part where you pick out roles that you get to use once on your game turn and then everybody else gets to do a related power? Well, that just doesn't make sense at all. What a Stupid Rule!
Pirate's Cove: What!? The Pirate is at Treasure Island on the last turn of the game!? What a Stupid Rule!
Attack!: What?!? The Defender attacks first? I've never heard of a game doing that before! What a Stupid Rule! What?!? They don't say what happens when you leave your countries undefended? (Okay, in that case, they probably should have said what happens when you leave a country empty, or that you're not allowed to do it, but after we house-rule that you lose a random card, and then you leave a country empty, and then you lose a random card--and THEN you complain that it's a stupid rule. SHEESH!)
I feel like I remember a time when we just played the game and looked in the rules to find out what they were. The rules were terse and unyielding... handed down as though from the Gods... Unquestionable. Whether you liked them or not, they were the rules of the game. So I always find myself in this position of defending the rules of the game. Usually, I can even, in my own mind, justify the reason that the rule, as written, is better than it would be otherwise.
In Steam, being able to take goods from cities you haven't built to is something anybody can do, and it makes the game a little more unpredictable and quite a bit more strategic. In Wealth of Nations, if we were a more competitive group, it would make sense to worry about the little bit of difference of trading two or three at a time to the bank. Unfortunately, pestering about it in a more relaxed game makes me seem like a pain. And the dice in Win, Place, and Show, I really can't fathom the way they made it, but I also can't really tell why everybody else thinks its so terrible to use the same die for three different things.
I sometimes wonder if perhaps a second play, where the rule is made clearer from the beginning will fix things. But no. Each time we play the game, the argument becomes more vigorous, so the choices are either to quit playing the game, or to house rule the loss of the "stupid rule."
As luck would have it, here and there, I can find games that don't get too much complaint about the rules. Race For the Galaxy is a game where I have no idea what anybody else is doing, so everybody can probably play by their own rules!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Game Night, Feb 4, Macomb, IL
Event: Game Nite
Start Time: Thursday, February 4 at 7:00pm
End Time: Thursday, February 4 at 10:00pm
Where: 3rd floor Leslie F Malpass Library
The first Game Nite of 2010 will occur on Thursday, February 4th, from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm on the 3rd level of the Leslie F. Malpass Library. Game Nite will feature Wii, Xbox, and LAN gaming as well as traditional board and card games such as Uno, Monopoly, and mancala.
(A lot of people bring their own games to this event. I've seen people playing Magic-the Gathering. I'll also be bringing a few of my games. I think Primordial Soup, Steam, Carcassone and some others would go over well.)
Start Time: Thursday, February 4 at 7:00pm
End Time: Thursday, February 4 at 10:00pm
Where: 3rd floor Leslie F Malpass Library
The first Game Nite of 2010 will occur on Thursday, February 4th, from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm on the 3rd level of the Leslie F. Malpass Library. Game Nite will feature Wii, Xbox, and LAN gaming as well as traditional board and card games such as Uno, Monopoly, and mancala.
(A lot of people bring their own games to this event. I've seen people playing Magic-the Gathering. I'll also be bringing a few of my games. I think Primordial Soup, Steam, Carcassone and some others would go over well.)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Open Gaming Session Report
***This post is about our last Open Gaming Meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 20 at the Astoria Senior Citizen Center.***
This weekend, we had our Open Gaming event at the Astoria, IL. Senior Citizen's Center. Games played included Arkham Horror (with the Dunwich Horror Expansion), Pirate's Cove, A Game of Thrones, Dominion, and BuzzTime.
Altogether there were twelve people who came in: Me, Bo, Kevin, Devin, Steve, Erica, Jordy, Shelby, Bruce, Esther, Luke and Kyle, though not everyone played games.
Arkham Horror
We started the event with Arkham Horror. Bo, Kevin, Devin, Luke, and I started the game, though later Kevin had to drop out to talk to his friends, Bruce and Esther. Shortly thereafter, Steve joined in. In this game, we must have been identifying with our feminine side, for of the six men who played the game, only three picked male characters. We had Diana Stanley, the redeemed cultist, Carolyn Fern, the psychologist, Kate Winthrop, the scientist, Wilson Richards, the Handyman, Darrell Simmons, the photographer, and Michael McGlen, the Gangster. We were able to win this game as our combined effort sealed six gates before the ancient horror escaped from its bonds. I was very lucky--shopping twice at the curiosity shop and buying two Elder Signs, so I sealed two gates--and I saw a lot of really lucky rolls here and there. There was only one monster surge, and we never even saw movement on the terror track, or the Dunwich Horror Track.
Intermission
Around four to five o'clock, other people were meandering in, and we had the difficulty of too many people for one game, but not quite enough people for two. There seemed to be six people ready to play another game, but the only six player games available were games none of us really wanted to play.
I also realized that I didn't have much in the way of "filler" games. Most of the games I brought were ideally played by five people who were ready to sit down to a minimum of 90 minutes, while others were up to four or five hour games.
I MOST wanted to play "A Game of Thrones" but though I had read the rules, I could only formulate, in my mind, a vague impression of the way the game was played. So I did my second favorite thing to actually playing the game--I settled in to read the rules (again). Erica, Luke, Jordy and Bo played Pirate's Cove, while I reviewed the rules to "A Game of Thrones." Kyle seemed very interested in "A Game of Thrones" and set up the board for us while I read. However, he had to go, and never got to play.
Meanwhile, Kevin was hard at work boiling a gallon of water, cooking spaghetti, burning garlic bread, and learning the in's and out's of fire-alarm functionality. Kevin is absolutely the most hospitable person I have ever met, making sure that everyone is well-fed and entertained.
After eating, Devin and I set up a game of Dominion--this being the closest thing to a "filler" game available. This is a card game where you build your deck from a set of available cards on the table during play. By the time we had taken our third turn, the Pirate's Cove game was over. Since both of us really wanted to play "A Game of Thrones" we immediately began putting Dominion back in it's box again.
A Game Of Thrones
So "A Game of Thrones" began with me, Devin, Bo, and Luke, while those less inclined toward direct confrontation games, Erica, Esther, Bruce, and Kevin managed to find a TV set and played a game called BuzzTime. Sorry, I don't know anything about that game.
(Oh, if you don't know, "A Game of Thrones" is also the first of a series of books by George Martin. I believe I read it in 1999, but everyone else there had read all of them recently. I said I should read those again, but Devin said "DON'T. Because he hasn't written the next book, and everyone is just hanging by a thread wanting to know what happens next. I gather it's been a long wait.")
The game started fairly peacefully--we expanded into unoccupied territories, and when we got closer to one another, we set up our defenses instead of attacking one another. When a card came up saying "bid on the three areas of influence" the entire tenor of the game changed. The problem was, you see, we had been bidding on the areas of influence every turn, while in fact, this was the FIRST turn we should have. Instead, we decided to make it the first turn we DIDN'T bid on the area of influence.
The other rules clarification that came up was that we didn't need to play to turn 10, but as soon as anyone owned seven keeps or cities, they one the game. And thereafter the game became just a WHOLE lot more competitive! As both Luke and Bo realized that they were each just one city short of that lofty goal.
In fact, Luke (The Lannisters) at one time had eight keeps/cities! But then two were taken back from him before the turn. I should go check boardgamegeek.com and see whether he technically won at that point.
But at the end of the game when turn 10 came around, it was the Bo (the Starks) who won the game. Luke felt like he had just lost because everybody was picking on him because the Lannisters were bad guys. "I didn't even pick them!" he protested. But Bo explained, "Yes you did, It was completely your choice. You picked the token randomly right out of the box!"
Closing Time
Though our stated times were 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM we only finally swept up, and turned out the lights at midnight. I had fun, and I look forward to it again next month.
This weekend, we had our Open Gaming event at the Astoria, IL. Senior Citizen's Center. Games played included Arkham Horror (with the Dunwich Horror Expansion), Pirate's Cove, A Game of Thrones, Dominion, and BuzzTime.
Altogether there were twelve people who came in: Me, Bo, Kevin, Devin, Steve, Erica, Jordy, Shelby, Bruce, Esther, Luke and Kyle, though not everyone played games.
Arkham Horror
We started the event with Arkham Horror. Bo, Kevin, Devin, Luke, and I started the game, though later Kevin had to drop out to talk to his friends, Bruce and Esther. Shortly thereafter, Steve joined in. In this game, we must have been identifying with our feminine side, for of the six men who played the game, only three picked male characters. We had Diana Stanley, the redeemed cultist, Carolyn Fern, the psychologist, Kate Winthrop, the scientist, Wilson Richards, the Handyman, Darrell Simmons, the photographer, and Michael McGlen, the Gangster. We were able to win this game as our combined effort sealed six gates before the ancient horror escaped from its bonds. I was very lucky--shopping twice at the curiosity shop and buying two Elder Signs, so I sealed two gates--and I saw a lot of really lucky rolls here and there. There was only one monster surge, and we never even saw movement on the terror track, or the Dunwich Horror Track.
Intermission
Around four to five o'clock, other people were meandering in, and we had the difficulty of too many people for one game, but not quite enough people for two. There seemed to be six people ready to play another game, but the only six player games available were games none of us really wanted to play.
I also realized that I didn't have much in the way of "filler" games. Most of the games I brought were ideally played by five people who were ready to sit down to a minimum of 90 minutes, while others were up to four or five hour games.
I MOST wanted to play "A Game of Thrones" but though I had read the rules, I could only formulate, in my mind, a vague impression of the way the game was played. So I did my second favorite thing to actually playing the game--I settled in to read the rules (again). Erica, Luke, Jordy and Bo played Pirate's Cove, while I reviewed the rules to "A Game of Thrones." Kyle seemed very interested in "A Game of Thrones" and set up the board for us while I read. However, he had to go, and never got to play.
Meanwhile, Kevin was hard at work boiling a gallon of water, cooking spaghetti, burning garlic bread, and learning the in's and out's of fire-alarm functionality. Kevin is absolutely the most hospitable person I have ever met, making sure that everyone is well-fed and entertained.
After eating, Devin and I set up a game of Dominion--this being the closest thing to a "filler" game available. This is a card game where you build your deck from a set of available cards on the table during play. By the time we had taken our third turn, the Pirate's Cove game was over. Since both of us really wanted to play "A Game of Thrones" we immediately began putting Dominion back in it's box again.
A Game Of Thrones
So "A Game of Thrones" began with me, Devin, Bo, and Luke, while those less inclined toward direct confrontation games, Erica, Esther, Bruce, and Kevin managed to find a TV set and played a game called BuzzTime. Sorry, I don't know anything about that game.
(Oh, if you don't know, "A Game of Thrones" is also the first of a series of books by George Martin. I believe I read it in 1999, but everyone else there had read all of them recently. I said I should read those again, but Devin said "DON'T. Because he hasn't written the next book, and everyone is just hanging by a thread wanting to know what happens next. I gather it's been a long wait.")
The game started fairly peacefully--we expanded into unoccupied territories, and when we got closer to one another, we set up our defenses instead of attacking one another. When a card came up saying "bid on the three areas of influence" the entire tenor of the game changed. The problem was, you see, we had been bidding on the areas of influence every turn, while in fact, this was the FIRST turn we should have. Instead, we decided to make it the first turn we DIDN'T bid on the area of influence.
The other rules clarification that came up was that we didn't need to play to turn 10, but as soon as anyone owned seven keeps or cities, they one the game. And thereafter the game became just a WHOLE lot more competitive! As both Luke and Bo realized that they were each just one city short of that lofty goal.
In fact, Luke (The Lannisters) at one time had eight keeps/cities! But then two were taken back from him before the turn. I should go check boardgamegeek.com and see whether he technically won at that point.
But at the end of the game when turn 10 came around, it was the Bo (the Starks) who won the game. Luke felt like he had just lost because everybody was picking on him because the Lannisters were bad guys. "I didn't even pick them!" he protested. But Bo explained, "Yes you did, It was completely your choice. You picked the token randomly right out of the box!"
Closing Time
Though our stated times were 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM we only finally swept up, and turned out the lights at midnight. I had fun, and I look forward to it again next month.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
A Log of Gaming
NEXT SATURDAY (January 23): We are planning an Open Gaming session from 1:00 to 10:00 PM at the Astoria Senior Citizen Center.
The main attraction at this time seems to be Arkham Horror, but I am bringing many other games as well.
Friday, January 15, 2010:
I was planning my regular Friday trip to Astoria to game with Kevin and Bo. Kevin and I started around 3:30 PM. We couldn't find Bo. I had JUST received an order of several new games, and was eager to try them out even though only one of the three had a two-player option.
We played Primordial Soup--a 3-4 player game, but each of us played two roles. We quit, about halfway through the game--not because we didn't like the game, but because it was awkward to play two competing amoebas. Kevin's best amoeba had "spores, longevity, and division rate," a good combination--breeding fast and everywhere, and living a long time. My best amoeba had "speed, substitution, and frugality" a good combination, mainly because it could find something to eat wherever it went.
I really like the game, and I knew I'd like it when I saw Tom Vasel's review of it (even though it was only like, his 64'th favorite game.) It feels a little like a simulation of life in the primordial soup--when the amoeba was King. And it's got funny little characters on the cards. I'm not sure how it will stand up to the test of many many plays, but I'm really glad I got it.
Next, I spent an hour eating and reading the directions outloud for Race For the Galaxy. (Chomp-chomp-chomp) I tried to pause while I had food in my mouth--really. I liked the game, and I think it would go really fast with players that knew what was going on. But it is a steeep learning curve. With every new card I got, I had to look up the meaning of the symbols on the Player-hand-outs. I ended up with a few more Victory Points than Kevin, but in the end, I didn't really feel like I'd played against him, as much as I played the same solitaire game at the same time he did, and then compared our scores at the end. The sort of game I think I would call "multiplayer solitaire."
I think somewhere, I heard someone mention the role-playing-game term "navel gazing" which means the sort of game where you spend all the time staring at your own belly-button. Particularly, some players were known for getting so much into building their character--they didn't have any time to actually play their character. Race for the Galaxy is a very good navel gazing game, I think. Because you are really putting together the beginning's of a cool galactic civilization. It's just that your civilization never comes across any of the other players' civilizations. (Of course there might be surprises in the deck--we only played once.)
Before I left Kevin's we also opened and looked in the boxes for A Game of Thrones, and Steam. Kevin was surprised that "A Game of Thrones" was made in 2009--he was expecting that it would not be up-to-date with the books. I guess that means, I should get up-to-date on the books, too. I'm sure I only ever read the first two.
At around 9:00, we began to discuss our upcoming weekend of Open Gaming, and we realized that it might be interesting to keep a log of our gaming experiences. Without further Ado--we took a backward trip through memory-land, and produced the following:
Saturday, Jan 9, 2010
Bo, Kevin, and I played Cosmic Encounter, Pirate's Cove, and Stocks and Bonds
Wednesday, Jan 6, 2010
Bo, Kevin, Carol and I saw Avatar! Whoah, cool!
Friday, Jan 1, 2010
Kevin, Bo, and Bo's cousin Tim, and I played Arkham Horror
Dec 26:
I was in Michigan for Christmas--and I played Spore (the video-game), for the first time.
Sat, Dec 19, 2009
Kevin and I played Arkham Horror, while I believe Luke and Bo played Chez Dork with Luke's dad. They probably played Zombies, too.
Fri, Dec 18, 2009
Erica, Kevin, Bo, Luke, and I played Cosmic Encounter, and Citadels.
Fri Dec 11, 2009
Bo, Kevin, and I played Cosmic Encounter, Stone Age, and Citadels.
Fri Dec. 4, 2009
It begins to get a little hazy--but I think there was a game of Puerto Rico, then Kevin and I played HeroCard OrcWars and Settlers of Catan--the Card Game
Nov 27 & 28: Wealth of Nations
Nov 21: Dominion and "Win, Place & Show" with Bo, Kevin, Erica and me
Nov 20: Dominion with O.J, Erica, Issy, Bo, and me
So between the two of us, Kevin and I were able to remember back almost two months.
NEXT SATURDAY (January 23): We are planning an Open Gaming session from 1:00 to 10:00 PM at the Astoria Senior Citizen Center.
The main attraction at this time seems to be Arkham Horror, but I am bringing many other games as well.
Friday, January 15, 2010:
I was planning my regular Friday trip to Astoria to game with Kevin and Bo. Kevin and I started around 3:30 PM. We couldn't find Bo. I had JUST received an order of several new games, and was eager to try them out even though only one of the three had a two-player option.
We played Primordial Soup--a 3-4 player game, but each of us played two roles. We quit, about halfway through the game--not because we didn't like the game, but because it was awkward to play two competing amoebas. Kevin's best amoeba had "spores, longevity, and division rate," a good combination--breeding fast and everywhere, and living a long time. My best amoeba had "speed, substitution, and frugality" a good combination, mainly because it could find something to eat wherever it went.
I really like the game, and I knew I'd like it when I saw Tom Vasel's review of it (even though it was only like, his 64'th favorite game.) It feels a little like a simulation of life in the primordial soup--when the amoeba was King. And it's got funny little characters on the cards. I'm not sure how it will stand up to the test of many many plays, but I'm really glad I got it.
Next, I spent an hour eating and reading the directions outloud for Race For the Galaxy. (Chomp-chomp-chomp) I tried to pause while I had food in my mouth--really. I liked the game, and I think it would go really fast with players that knew what was going on. But it is a steeep learning curve. With every new card I got, I had to look up the meaning of the symbols on the Player-hand-outs. I ended up with a few more Victory Points than Kevin, but in the end, I didn't really feel like I'd played against him, as much as I played the same solitaire game at the same time he did, and then compared our scores at the end. The sort of game I think I would call "multiplayer solitaire."
I think somewhere, I heard someone mention the role-playing-game term "navel gazing" which means the sort of game where you spend all the time staring at your own belly-button. Particularly, some players were known for getting so much into building their character--they didn't have any time to actually play their character. Race for the Galaxy is a very good navel gazing game, I think. Because you are really putting together the beginning's of a cool galactic civilization. It's just that your civilization never comes across any of the other players' civilizations. (Of course there might be surprises in the deck--we only played once.)
Before I left Kevin's we also opened and looked in the boxes for A Game of Thrones, and Steam. Kevin was surprised that "A Game of Thrones" was made in 2009--he was expecting that it would not be up-to-date with the books. I guess that means, I should get up-to-date on the books, too. I'm sure I only ever read the first two.
At around 9:00, we began to discuss our upcoming weekend of Open Gaming, and we realized that it might be interesting to keep a log of our gaming experiences. Without further Ado--we took a backward trip through memory-land, and produced the following:
Saturday, Jan 9, 2010
Bo, Kevin, and I played Cosmic Encounter, Pirate's Cove, and Stocks and Bonds
Wednesday, Jan 6, 2010
Bo, Kevin, Carol and I saw Avatar! Whoah, cool!
Friday, Jan 1, 2010
Kevin, Bo, and Bo's cousin Tim, and I played Arkham Horror
Dec 26:
I was in Michigan for Christmas--and I played Spore (the video-game), for the first time.
Sat, Dec 19, 2009
Kevin and I played Arkham Horror, while I believe Luke and Bo played Chez Dork with Luke's dad. They probably played Zombies, too.
Fri, Dec 18, 2009
Erica, Kevin, Bo, Luke, and I played Cosmic Encounter, and Citadels.
Fri Dec 11, 2009
Bo, Kevin, and I played Cosmic Encounter, Stone Age, and Citadels.
Fri Dec. 4, 2009
It begins to get a little hazy--but I think there was a game of Puerto Rico, then Kevin and I played HeroCard OrcWars and Settlers of Catan--the Card Game
Nov 27 & 28: Wealth of Nations
Nov 21: Dominion and "Win, Place & Show" with Bo, Kevin, Erica and me
Nov 20: Dominion with O.J, Erica, Issy, Bo, and me
So between the two of us, Kevin and I were able to remember back almost two months.
NEXT SATURDAY (January 23): We are planning an Open Gaming session from 1:00 to 10:00 PM at the Astoria Senior Citizen Center.
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