X-mas Game

A few weeks back, before Thanksgiving even, I had a notion to make up a game for the family to play on Christmas day. The idea started also as an excuse to make gingerbread people (meeple?) or houses. Maybe points would be counted with M&Ms, and at the end of the game everyone should have a pile of candy, and then I'd bring out the cookie making stuff. And after we baked the cookie people, we could use them in the second part of the game, where we would take damage by eating our cookie (that part completely stolen from Run for Your Life, Candyman!).
But that game plan was a bit too big, and as most ideas do, it went through many various incarnations, and ended up being an idea about asking questions. Maybe Christmassy/Holiday type questions, maybe family trivia, maybe a combination, but I really didn’t want to ask family members “what was your best (or worst) gift you received” that could cause unnecessary hurt feelings, so I started thinking of maybe a more generic question answering type game.
And then I listened to The Speil holiday podcast, where they talked about Say Anything, and Good Question, and I realized that I didn’t need to make up my own game, one of these party games was going to be just what I was looking for, and much less work on my part.
I had already heard some buzz about Say Anything, we’ve played Wits-n-Wagers many times, and Cluzzle once, all three designed and sold by North Star Games, but I really wanted to get Good Question for Christmas gaming. (I figured we'd buy Say Anything later, too) So I started looking, and realized it wasn't one I was likely to find in town. Of course, I waited until almost the last minute to realize this, and more importantly, what this meant, which is that if I wanted it, I would have to order it online!
The big online stores didn't have it, and the game stores I checked out (sponsors of my favorite gaming podcasts) didn't ship quick enough. I told you I waited until the last minute! Then I saw an ad on BGG for Boards & Bits, and it appeared that their shipping would get the game to me in time, but fed'ex disagreed. (I think in my haste, I misread their shipping times)
So finishing the last minute shopping Monday night (I was really behind on everything this year!), we found Say Anything, and since I figured I'd eventually buy it anyway, I picked it up for our Christmas game. It was great fun, and was easy to teach, just like the box said. Plus, my parents got us Imaginiff, which we also played. The two went well together, both party games, both with some crazy questions or answers.
And Good Question came today! So now my Christmas game is three!

Other gifty-goodness: my kids each got D&D 4.0 books and minis, which they loved; they also got some Hero Clix, and my little munchkin got The Good, The Bad, and The Munchkin; we got my folks Family Fluxx, which I hear they've already played; and I got a very cool old book called The Boardgame Book, which appears to be part history, part rules.

Birthday Farming

I did go ahead and buy the iTouch program Score yesterday after posting about it, it's such a great little program! And then, of course, I had to use it! So we played a three player game of Agricola, with the basic cards, and we used the variant that we would be dealt 10 cards of each Occupations and Minor Improvements, and pick the 7 of each that we wanted to keep.
You see here the final score, which I shouldn't even document because the BFF, in a rare feat, beat me! ;p Rawk Star did really well building his farm, and had more spaces covered in the end than either I or the BFF did, but he mis-managed his food, and ended up with a couple begging cards, which messed him up.
I'm excited to score more games with this great little app!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Am I too old to be excited about my birthday? Maybe. I am the answer to the universe and everything PLUS the second number in the Fibonacci series old...is that too old to care?
Maybe it's because my birthday is so close to Christmas, I've always promoted my birthday, so it doesn't get lost in all the holiday cheer.
What does my birthday have to do with gaming?? My birthday gift from my wonderful BFF (that's Boy Friend Forever) is an iPod touch generation 2 (which is actually better than his, because his is only generation 1), and there are some great little games and applications that are exciting!
I've been playing a lot of Poker Quest (yes, I opened my gift early!), and trying out all the free trials of games that I can find. On The Spiel podcast, their recent holiday gift guide, they mentioned a couple cool apps, including one to score your game (scroll down to Technology/Gadgets) that I want to try out.
Now, I can be cool like the BFF and bring dice to any game right on my iTouch!

SSG@B&S: December

We had a full house this month, as the BFF’s son, Yehaw McK, was able to join us for the first time, both of my kids were home, and my parents came down also. That makes a total of seven. And boy, do we need a bigger table!
Other game days we've played a longer, geekier game and a party game that's maybe short enough to play a couple times, and this month's game day was no exception.
We started with Killer Bunnies and the Journey to Jupiter the board game, which says it plays up to six, but there weren't specific pieces for the six, and there are lots of cards, so we figured we could do seven. We have been late to the KB extravaganza, and have only started collecting and playing Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot earlier this year. The card game, we have blue, yellow, red, and violet so far. On the new board game, only the blue and yellow, ie, the starter. Not being experts on the card game, with the average plays around the table being maybe 2, and the rules for the board game being the same as for the card game for the first part, we got off to a slow start. The BFF had asked me to also read the rules, but unfortunately, I hadn't had time to. Having more than one person understanding the rules, and not having to actually read the rules at the table would have been nice.
Now, I know that a lot of game teachers say not to read the rules at the table, and I would definitely agree for teaching at a con. But sometimes at our house, the reading of the rules is part of the fun, especially when it's just the BFF and I learning a new game.
So Killer Bunnies board game didn't go so great on the first play, but I attribute that mostly to us all learning at the same time, there were too many stops to look things up and too many little things we got wrong along the way. We also wondered if just the blue and yellow together was a little defense-lite, we remembered that in the card game, the red deck brought more defense.
I'll definitely play this again, after more thorough read through of the rules, and probably a few less people.
After eating, we went for a much lighter game, also new from the big box, Zombie Fluxx. We actually did a few hands of Zombie and a few more of regular Fluxx, without mixing them together. Fluxx is the perfect simple game for this sized group. We laughed a lot playing this, and the earlier grumpiness was wiped away! Especially with the Zombie version, when the rule came out that everyone had to moan when they drew a Zombie Creeper card!

SophistiGames

After Shock: No Agricola

So I waited until the deadline day to volunteer to teach Agricola. at the Nuke Con After Shock 2008.3, which was Tuesday, and the rest of the week found some free time to reread some of the rules, dig through the cards as there were still some I hadn't seen before, type up some notes, and Friday night re-watched the Board Games with Scott video on Agricola.
And no one signed up.
I even for a while put my cool jars of bits up on the sign up counter for enticement, but no takers. Oh, well.
I joined a few others in a cooperative game of A Touch of Evil, The Supernatural Game instead. We played cooperatively, and we creamed the bad guy. I even got in the last punch. But, honestly, the other three really, REALLY weakened the monster before my puny dice rolls got into play. He had twenty-two wounds to take, and by the time it was my turn to charge, he was down to just a couple wounds.
I also played Pandemic, three player, twice. We lost big time first, and won big time the second time. Both games seemed really unbalanced, but in opposite ways. It just depends on where the cards lay.
Also learned and played for the first time la Harve, created by the same designer who did Agricola. Very nice game, like Agricola in many ways, resource gathering, planning ahead, many steps to some things you want to do or buy, and victory points. Different in that there are way more resources, each resource can 'level up', actions are played on buildings that you or the town buy and then anyone can use (usually for pay) the building to do the action the building provides. The three guys I played with had all played together a few times, and were very kind to the beginner. I got a score that they said was in par with their first plays, so I wasn't too disappointed, and their scores were the highest they'd ever gotten, which I'd like to take a little credit for. ;p There are many buildings to come out, and since every building had victory points, I was trying to buy as many as possible, and the guys didn't mention 'till the end that usually all the buildings don't get bought, I just assumed we all try to buy the better buildings and keep buying 'till they're gone! Very fun and intricate game. The resource refreshing is random every game, and the number of players definitely would change how the game goes. There's only seven total actions in each round (and you feed after every round), so in a four player game, someone only gets one action per round. Some of the things that happen at round end, ie how much to feed, when buildings and ships come out, if there is a harvest or not, these things all change depending on the number of players as well. I do think it had 1-5, so it must have a solo element as well. I don't think I need to buy this one, yet, but only because I think we have many more games of Agricola in store at home before bringing this one home. I would like to play it a few more times though! I'm not sure if it's out in the US yet, we played from an Australian version picked up at Essen.

A Nice Stack

So here is what came in the mail last week starting at the top of the stack:
Zombie Fluxx
Race For The Galaxy; The Gathering Storm (expansion)
Cthulhu Rising
Killer Bunnies and the Journey to Jupiter (the board game)
Mutant Chronicles
A Touch Of Evil, The Supernateral Game
The BFF (that's Boy Friend Forever) ordered this fine stack o' games with birthday money. Yeah, his birthday was the end of August and he ordered these just a coupe days after. But one of the games hadn't officially come out at that time, so we knew the games wouldn't be shipped until that last game had come out.
We've read through some of the rules, and yes, we've played one already! That's a post for another day.

Dumping Out The Box

Big Box

A big box came in the mail this week....what could be inside??

Rapid Recall

The other game that we played at this month’s family game day was Rapid Recall. This game is definitely in the Party Game category, playing with two teams of at least two, and could have many more. One thing we like in a party game is something that doesn’t HAVE to have even numbers on the teams. Since we’re mostly playing just for fun, we don’t get bent out of shape over teams, and always try to mix up who’s on which team.
Rapid Recall is one of the variations of Password, as in “Everyone loves Password, how can we change it just enough to make a new game of it?” Taboo is a good example of this. Rapid Recall is not.
In Rapid Recall, one team member has a list of words, and gives clues to his/her team, but the team doesn’t shout out the answers, they instead throw a chip into the chip bowl when they think they know the answer. After the timed period of clue giving and chip throwing, there is a separate timed period (and second timer) for the team members to rapidly recall all the answers they thought they knew, and take a chip from the bowl to signify they got the answer. If they miss any, then the other team also has a timed period to try to remember the answers, also taking the left over chips. The game is won when one team has enough chips to fill up their side of the board.
I think the concept is actually kinda good, but I think the execution is what kinda breaks this game. Team members tried to coach each other to remember the answers they had thrown their chip in for, which works in theory, but when others start listing words, it’s easy to forget what words you were trying to remember. Sometimes different team members thought of different answers for the same chip, and the rules say only the first answer counts (like if the answer was supposed to be flower, and they answer rose instead), so there was a little scuffling if someone answered quicker and wrong. It was also very difficult to get momentum back if it was lost, especially for the second team to try to venture guesses. If there was any discussion at all, we’d all get off track, then you can’t remember anything!
I would rearrange the concept a bit and try it again. Here’s my idea of better mechanics to the good concept:
Everyone plays for themselves. Players take turns around the table reading the clues, and everyone has a turn giving clues (once or twice around depending on how many people you have). All other players are the guessers and like in the real rules, they throw in a chip when they think they know the answer, and the giving of clues and throwing in of chips is still timed. Then on to the guessing of clues, which will not be timed, but will go in turn around the table, starting with the player on the clue giver’s left. Each player makes a guess or passes, and if they got one of the words, they take a chip, and play continues around the table until either all the chips are gone or all players pass in turn. You don’t have to only guess the answers you personally put in, and similar answers can still be guessed. How many chips each player gets each round is added up, and after everyone has had a turn (or two) giving clues, the winner is whoever has the most chips, representing the most correct answers. You’ll have to make sure to keep guessing chips and scoring chips separate, which could be done using the two different colors that came with the game, or after each clue giving round, the number of correct answers everyone has is just written down. That might be easier.
I think this would be fun in the guessing and remembering parts, and there will definitely be a benefit to being the person on the clue giver’s left. The most recent answer will probably be on the tip of the tongue, no matter who threw in the chip. Or players might try to only remember their own answers, but by the time it gets to them, their answers were already given. It could be a fun party ruckus.
I picked up this game at a thrift store, Extreeme Artist and I love to go thrifting, and I always look for games. Unfortunately, the one brand of thrift store we usually go to because of it’s better hours, is the one that prices games a bit higher than the others. But I guess $2 or $4, a game for under five bucks is a good bargain even if you end up only playing it once. That being said, I still want to get my money’s worth, and besides playability, I’m usually checking for good bits.
This game has very interesting bits, two colors of plastic chips (which do rather resemble a puffy Dorito); three cups to hold the chips, two triangle ones that are the same colors as the chips, and one larger one to throw the chips into; the board with triangles of the same colors with a hole in the center to set the larger cup into; two sand timers of different time; the box of questions; and the device to put the question card into, which has a handy sliding arrow to mark which words have been guessed. All these bits would have many uses, counting games with little ones, markers for other games, guitar picks, cups for actual chips, you get the idea. And another box of words for whatever other Password-like game you like to play.
Hmmm, you could use the sliding arrow card holder to check off your grocery items…

Agricola: Family Photo

So here's the photo of us playing Agricola on game day.
Sorry, I'm not in the shot, someone had to take the picture. ;p



Update: The comments are now corrected, Dad, so you can post anonymously.

Agricola: Family

On our family game days, I try not to be too bossy about what we will play, and just see who shows up and what they want to play. I was hoping to play Agricola, so I was glad when Dad asked about it. Since both of my kids were home this time, along with both of my parents, me and the BFF, that's six and Agricola only plays up to five. I offered to just be the teacher, and let them all play, and that way I could help anyone with their turn, but my folks opted to play as a team. This worked out great, I think, because while my Mom is a great gamer, she is a bit of an unconfident player with new games, and playing on a team with Dad gave her someone to confer with about each turn.
I wanted to introduce the game to the new players with the Family way to play. This was the first time playing Family for the BFF and I, so we were all trying something new. The Family way to play mostly means no cards, no Occupations and no Minor Improvements. The first board piece for possible actions is turned over, with a couple slight changes on actions that involve the cards; Starting Player has one food instead of a Minor Improvement, Occupation is changed to Build Stable &/or Bake Bread, and the Day Laborer is changed from two food to one food, one building supply (not sure why the change on the Day Laborer). Playing five player gave us lots of great action possibilities as well, I think I like playing five player best, lots of wood and clay available!
We had a good time playing, and ended with most of the scores pretty close, the BFF excited that he beat me by one point! Team Mom & Dad got a somewhat slighted, since there are only four stoves/ovens to be able to cook animals in, and they didn't get to buy one. They ended up having to take a couple begging cards, but if they had been able to get an oven, they wouldn't have had to beg, and would have had a comparable score. (BTW, the BFF only beat me by one point because I forgot that I had to have TWO plowed fields to get a point.)
I thought it would be fun, since the game or version was new to all of us, to do a bit of a survey about what everyone thought of the game. So here are same questions I asked everyone:

1)What did you think of the game? (BFF and I-What did you think of the Family way of playing the game?)
2)On the BGG scale, please rate the game.
3)What was the best part of the game?
4)What was the worst part of the game?
5)What’s your favorite game right now?

And here are everyone's answers:

Rawk Star Age 17

1)It was ok, pretty good
2)6
3)The little sheeples
4)First player system, I didn't like how it worked. It wasn't an incentive at the end, and if you're the last player, you're messed up
5)D&D 4.0


Artist Extreeme Age 15

1)It was fun.
2)7
3)Having to decide what to eat
4)The length
5)Munchkin / D&D


Grandpa Retired and Loving it

1)I thought it was fun, took a little long to get into.
2)7
3)I kinda liked the way it related to agriculture, to reality. You need to know that you have to eat.
4)Takes a while getting into it the first time.
5)Pegs & Jokers-depends on who you're playing with. With our volunteer friends: card games; with you guys: a board game.


Grandma Retired and feisty

1)I guess I enjoyed it, I think I will enjoy it more the next time I play.
2)8
3)Learning a new game.
4)Not understanding the rules to begin with.
5)The card game Golf / Pegs & Jokers


the BFF Forty-Something

1)I thought it was harder because getting things like grain was harder, not more than one way. was it more fun? no.
2)7 for Family, 8 for regular
3)Playing it with the family, almost a gateway game
4)Waiting between turns
5)Race for the Galaxy


ME A little older than the BFF, and he never lets me forget it

1)Not as much fun without the cards
2)6 for Family, 9 for regular
3)Playing a three generation game
4)Not having the cards
5)Agricola (did you even have to wonder?)

SSG@B&S

Yesterday was the second Sunday of the month, so time again for SSG@B&S (Second Sunday Gaming At Bryan And Shell's).
I started this family game day a couple months ago, it's not just about the gaming, it’s about the family and close friends. With the BFF’s son already a legal adult, and my two getting closer to that age every day, I wanted to set up a tradition, something that will give them an excuse to come home every once in a while after they have moved out. And the bonus is it gives my parents and brother the excuse to come over, too. My folks are retired and do volunteer work in different parts of the country, and are gone about half of the year on their trips, so it's nice to see them when they are in the state. My brother lives in the same city as we do, he actually lives across the street from the parking lot I park in for work, but just like in any busy family, we really don’t see each other that often. But since gaming was always a part of our life when my brother and I were growing up, it's still something that can bring us all together.
Yesterday was this months game day. My parents and my children played Agricola for the first time, with the BFF and I. We played the Family rules. My brother got here after we had started, but was happy to play Spore on the computer while we were farming. We also played a party game called Rapid Recall that I had picked up at the thrift store. I'll write more this week about each of these games.

Can You Hear Me Now?

One of my favorite gaming podcasts, Garrett's Games & Geekiness, holds contests pretty regularly, where you answer a question or two in order to be put into a drawing.
The new fun thing is that you get two entries into the drawing if you send in a recorded entry. Well I couldn't pass that up!
You can hear my voice and silliness on Episode 138 of this great podcast.
Spoiler Alert: I didn't win ;p

Game Memories: Gruen

When writing about my first game memory, I mentioned that we didn't call the game by it's actual name in my family. This is one of those family stories, that is so old (and/or I was so young), I don't actually remember it happening, I just remember the story. One of those stories that is told every time the event happens, usually embarrassing the person in the story when they are of a certain age, but fondly remembered at a later age.
As the story goes, my parents, brother, and I were visiting Dad's parents for the weekend (in such a small town, our weekend visit would warrant a sentence or two in the town paper). And I kept asking Grandma to play a game with me, the game I wanted to play was Gruen. Grandma had no idea what I was talking about, and I thought I was mispronouncing it, so I kept trying to make her or my parents understand what I was saying, to no avail. I'm sure they all thought me daft. Finally, someone suggested that I go find the game in question and we'd see what I was talking about. The card game was one of my favorites, and was in a nice copper colored box with the name Gruen on it, I knew right where it was on the basement shelves, so I went to get it.
Turns out, Gruen was a watch company, and my Grandma's copy of the card game Authors was so old, it either had worn out it's original box, or didn't ever have one, and so Grandma had kept the cards in the old watch box. Laughter was all around when the grown-ups finally figured out what little shelly was trying to say. Hey, that's the name on the box, how was I to know?
Every time the game was played after that, we called it Gruen, and had a laugh, and a nice memory. After Grandma passed a few years ago, my Mom was going through some of Grandma's things with some other family members, and since all the grandkids loved playing this game, the deck was split up between branches of the family. But my Mom asked if she could also have the box, so she could make me something special. And the next Christmas after that, this wallhanging was one of my gifts. It will always hang in my gaming room, and hopefully will be passed down to future gamers.

KODT

About a year and a half ago, the BFF (Boy Friend Forever) got addicted to a new type of geek crack, when we attended Free Comic Book Day 2007. This has got to be the best marketing scheme EVER, the idea possibly coming straight from the streets where the drug dealers have perfected getting people addicted with a free sample. Once a year, the first Saturday of May, most comic book publishers give away demo copies or complete comics, and most comic book shops participate and get very high traffic that day! (I’d like to set up an energy drink and cheesy-pouf stand outside a comic book store on that day)
So almost every other week for the last eighteen months, the BFF has gone back to his favorite comic shop to pick up things from his ‘pull list’ (this new geek crack even has weird new language to go with it!), I've gone with him sometimes, but the shop has about 30 cats laying on the counters, which bugs my nose (and non-cat-person sensibilities) a little. A couple weeks ago, after his usual stop during the week enlightened him to a great sale, he wanted to back on the weekend before the sale was over, and he said he’d buy me something, too. Can’t pass that up!
As I was wondering around the store, I couldn’t decide what I might like to read. He already brings home so many good titles and I read what I have time to, and I didn’t really know what new comic I might like. Then I decided to dig through the old boxes of comics, who knows, I might find a copy of one of the series I bought many years ago (when dating a different comic collector), Samuri Penguin, Boffo Laughs, or the one Moon Shadow I’m missing.
And then I saw a bunch of old copies of Knights Of The Dinner Table, a comic about gaming, specifically role playing. I'd heard of it before, but never read it, and with old copies going for 4 for $2, with the store sale on top, I decided to try it out.
I started with the ones that were actually in order #30-#34, published way back in 98, but the story line got me hooked. And in addition to the comic stories about the different gaming groups, there are articles about building your RPG characters, and some board game reviews, too.
Since RPG-ing is one (probably the only) gaming type that I don't currently do much of, but would like to do more, I have been reading these comics cover to cover, and picking up more. The LGS (local game shop) has used copies as well, so now I've picked up several, and I'm probably going to subscribe. The most recent issue that I was able to get my hands on has some parts of a new-ish western RPG, including some NPCs and maps.
Their website has much cool stuff, too.

Game Memories: Authors

Possibly the first game I ever played, and certainly the first game I ever remember playing was the card game Authors (although that’s not what we called it in our family-and that’s another story) Going from memory, the rules were similar to Go Fish, but a bit more advanced, instead of just asking for ‘threes’ or in a themed deck ‘catfish’ or whatever, you had to ask for a specific card which was a specific book. For example, the Mark Twain cards were, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Mysterious Stranger, the book’s title was at the top and the other three books were listed at the bottom of the card. So instead of asking “do you have any Mark Twains?” you would have to ask “do you have Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain?” I never really enjoyed playing Go Fish, probably because I was spoiled by Authors.
In addition to learning more complicated rules (and thus sparking the life-long desire for interesting games), I learned who wrote what, and even thou I’ll admit I haven’t read some of them, I’ll never forget who wrote The Call of the Light Brigade, or Little Women, or Oliver Twist. It might be fun to make a reading list from this game, they are all classics, after all. I also learned the value of gaming as a family activity, learned how to play games with young children, and learned a nifty trick to help kids keep track of a big handful of cards.
My teacher was my dear Grandmother, my dad’s mom, and this was the first of many games that I played with her or at her house over the years. When I was very young, my parents would sometimes have to go out-of-town for conferences or classes, and often I and my little brother would stay with our Grandparents for the weekend or week while our parents were gone. Time at Grandma's house was more precious on these times when our parents weren't with us, because Grandma would have more time to spend with us personally. My brother played outside a lot, and was (still is) four years younger, so he wasn't old enough to play at first, so I remember most the games just between Grandma and I.
I don't remember learning the rules, but I remember Grandma teaching me a nifty trick. She got out a section or page from the newspaper, and taught me how to put the fold at the top, and lay my cards out on the bottom, having the top to easily come down as a cover. And Grandma used a newspaper, too, and didn't ever 'let' me win, and never considered the game a kid's game. I tried to play my kids' games with them when they were little similar to how Grandma played with me, as if the game they were interested in at the time was the best game in the world.
I've played a lot of games in my life, and will play many, many more. But you always hold a special place in your heart for the first one.

Nuke Con: Other Games

Yes, I did play a few other games at Nuke Con besides Agricola! ;p
I also played Cash N Guns, Race For The Galaxy, Bang, Monsters Menace America, Rock Band, Run For Your Life Candyman, Torres, volunteered for one two-hour block, and play tested Boltz & Voltz.
I didn't play an RPG I meant to, because of a table mix-up (we were at the right table, but they had changed to a different table). The BFF (boy friend forever) really wants to play RPGs, and I'm not very good at them yet, so I didn't want to play without him there for moral support. I feel self conscious if I try to play with real RPGers. So I was a little bummed about the table mix-up, but I probably would have clogged up their game, so it's ok that I didn't play.
We also tried to play Power Grid, after hearing and reading so many good things about it, and we checked it out from the game library. But it was late into the night, and the BFF and I were very tired, and we couldn't get through the rules, we were just that tired! That's how we ended up playing the Candyman game, it was much simpler to understand at the late hour. It was actually very cute, it was basically the broken Candyland game in the playing of the board, with the added element of attack! Each player (he was Stinky, I was Butch) has a grid sheet to keep track of attacks on each body part, so hitting someone in the peppermint was hitting them in the head. This ended up being a perfect silly game for overly tired oldsters, even tho it went on too long, like the game it's parodying.
Cash N Guns les Yazukas was also very fun. This was one I had heard about first from the On Board Games podcast as a fun group game. It was also getting late the night we played this, and we had a fun table of folks to play with. The throwing stars, that are in this expansion were so much fun, maybe someone can perfect the double-knock-down move that our Yazukas were trying to do.
Bang was a little less fun, but not as silly. With part of who you are being hidden from the other players, it maybe was hard to first play with people you don't know. That's one part of a game convention, from all my little experience, that I've learned; some games are hard to learn with complete strangers, or maybe some strangers are hard to learn new games with. Either way, it's a dice roll, proving once again that Gaming = Life.
Monsters Menace America is a good game with a cool movie monster theme. I've played it once or twice before at game days or mini-cons, and have always enjoyed it. My kids and I played while we were waiting for scheduled games to start, and had a bonus player of an adorable Baby Bug who was an excellent player for such a young age. This is a game we've enjoyed each time we've played, and we've not bought it for our own collection only due to it being 3 player and up. The BFF and I usually only buy games that can be played two player, for those times when it's just he and I playing.
I learned at last year's Nuke Con that I really enjoy play testing new games, so when I saw one play test on the schedule this year, I made sure to sign up for it. Since it's just in playtesting, I don't know how much to say about it, but Boltz and Voltz is a good solid game with great artwork. I will be watching for it and will buy it as soon as it comes out!
Race For The Galaxy is a great game, which we have enjoyed many times since we got it last month. The time slot at the con was going to be a tournament, and there were something like 64 slots available. The BFF and I were getting pretty good, and were excited to play in a tournament, but including he and I, there were only six of us, and none of us being the tourney leader. Don't know what happened with that. We six separated into two games of three (good thing we brought our copy) but each table only played one game, with no tourney, it was more appealing to go play Agricola again! In my game, we were all pretty concentraty, and not talking much, and I commented to my group that I had read or heard that the game wasn't very social, and now I saw why.
Torres was a game I had seen the cool bits for and was very interested in, so I was excited to see it close up. I love that people bring their favorite games to a convention, just in case they can find someone interested in playing, and that was what happened. It is a very spacial game, almost a puzzle, and it reminds me of the kinds of games my brother and I would buy for and play with my dad when we were kids. I would like to pick this one up sometime, or maybe buy it for my dad.

OK, Just ONE More...

We knew there were animeeples, our local game store is getting some in I hear, and now there's a hint of veggimeeples!!!

Stop Talking About Agricola Already!

OK, OK!
Here's just a couple Agricola links before I move on to talking about some other game.
(There are still other games, right?) ;p

Play Agricola On-Line
I tried it just a little, and one of my people disappeared. ?? But I'll definitely try it again!

Agricola on-line Scoresheet Very cool, just plug in what everyone got for each category, and it tabulates your score.

Common Agricola Mistakes I definitely want to read through this more before th next time I play!

Game Day October: Agricola

We started a family and close friends Game Day a couple months ago. I'd been thinking about starting this for a while, I wanted for one, to have a good reason for all the teenager-almost-adult kids to come visit once a month, to start a family tradition that will carry for years. So far, they've been small, which is fine, building up the tradition. This month, yesterday, it was the smallest so far, with just the BFF and I in attendance, but that's fine, because we all gamed a lot last weekend.
Since Agricola is my hot game right now, we played two games of that. We sure discovered the differences between a two player game and a five player game!
Part of how Agricola is varied depending on players, besides having three different decks to choose from, is that some cards are only in play depending on how many people are playing. Each pack has cards for 1+, 3+, and 4+ players, so for solo play and two player, the cards available are the same. We talked about having a ghost third player, and we could roll a die to decide their turn, or just cheating and adding in the 3+ cards, but we didn't try that yet.
The cards distracted us again, I would say, and not getting things out in the right order. Some of the cards have to be played before certain activities and vice-versa, and it's still tricky to plan far enough ahead of time to get it all done properly.
We each won one game, the BFF said on the second game, he purposely took the wood before I could get it, because he thought that was how I beat him the first time. I've heard that in each number of players, there are certain resources that are harder to get, I guess wood is harder to get in a two player game.

Agricola: Rules Reading and First Solo Play

Alone on a Friday evening, the BFF at work, Rawk Star at the play he was teching for, Artist Extreeme at his dad's, I finished reading through the Agricola rules, punched out all the bits, and tried a solo game.
A couple things of note in the rules: in addition to the phase/stage thing being confusing, the rules point out the difference between person and player. Since we're using 'people' for game pieces, the term 'people' means 'family member' or playing piece, not the person playing the game, that term is 'player'. Just in case you thought you as the player had to jump onto the playing board to claim your spot. ;p
The other thing I'm not sure if I had misunderstood when being taught, but the harvest is in three phases, in order, with new animal babies being the last phase. So if you only have two of an animal and you need to cook it up to feed your family, that animal won't have a baby, because cooking one leaves you with only one. I may have played this wrong at Nuke Con, but it would have only been on the third game which I stunk at anyway.
These were my cards for my first experiment with solo play.
Trying to concentrate on getting 'some of everything', I still was distracted by the cards I got. I decided that a solo game is kind of a puzzle, since you don't have to take turns with anyone else, you just have to figure out when to do things. I did use a few cards, I had good cards that would work towards house building, but I only was able to get out 1/2 of the cards I wanted to. I was able to build wooden rooms cheaper, so I did that first, then renovated twice. I would have had a ton more points if I had been able to bring out the Chief and the Chief's daughter, since I was able to get my house up to stone. Below is my final farm, I ended up with 32 points, only having negative points for veggie and boar.

Agricola @ Nuke Con

The most anticipated game in our house recently was Agricola. (and that is pronounced ah-GRICK-oh-lah)(and yes, I am the annoying one who has corrects everyone who pronounces it like a soft drink)(and by everyone I mean every game store clerk, every potential player, even the guy who taught us the game)
Last weekend at Nuke Con, I finally got to play it. I preregistered on-line to make sure I didn’t miss it. And the guy that taught us during the slotted time was happy to teach more new players and play more games during the rest of the weekend, so I actually got to play three times. I was a little afraid that I had read and heard too much hype, like a movie where all the good parts were in the trailer, and it wouldn’t be as good as anticipated. But playing it everyday of the convention only made me want it more!
Since this is leaning toward a review, let me mention what kind of games I usually like. My official favorite game is Carcassonne. I love all it’s expansions, I love all sorts of Eurogames, give me wooden bits and I’ll be very happy. My close second favorite game, or maybe I’ll say my favorite game series, is Zombies!!! I love all things zombie and gross like that, zombie movies and comics are always watched and read, and zombies are a theme in my arts-n-crafts, too. So I’ll play any and all games related to zombies, but the Twilight Creations Zombies!!! series will always be at the top of my list. (Now if I can figure out a game with zombie meeples…) I like various card games and party games, I don’t lean toward collectable card games though, and I’m usually turned off by war themes. Good mechanics of a game will win me over, but it’s the bits I love. Gimme good bits!
Speaking of good bits, back to Agricola! (who doesn’t love a good segue?) I opened the box this morning to get the rule book out to read, and there’s all the great bits! Nothing like the smell of cardboard and wood in the morning. ;p The first thing that impressed me was that they included a bag full of baggies, for when you separate out the bits. That’s game packaging at it’s finest. There are quite a few different kinds of bits, and I had wondered if it might get confusing, but I haven’t really run into that yet, except for clay is the lighter brown disk, and wood is the darker brown disk. I’m not sure if so many kinds of bits will be confusing for younger or older players, we’ll test it out with my mom next month.
The first two games we played, we just used the E deck. The coolest part, IMHO, about Agricola is the different sets of cards, and the quantity of each, so that the cards you use each time will be different. The three sets are: E which is basic, I for Interactive, and K for Complex (remember, the game was written in German). In each set there are Occupation cards and Minor Improvement cards, and you are dealt seven of each, and with a total of over 300, depending on how many players and which set you use, the possibilities are virtually endless. There are different cards used for different numbers of players, last weekend all three games were five player games, so we used the most cards available. The cards give you ways to do things easier, or allow you to break a specific rule. But a warning for new players, when you're first learning, and someone has a card that lets them break a specific rule, it's easy to forget that they get to do it because of the card, and get confused on the actual rule. That happened to us a couple times, when someone had a card that let them bake bread at harvest time.
Since I had watched the "Board Games with Scott" video of Agricola, I had a pretty good idea of the rules before sitting down to be taught. The best thing I learned from the video was to watch the scoring. As Scott says, ‘you want a little bit of everything’, and I really kept that in mind playing my first game. I’m proud to say that the tip from Scott even helped me win a little prize! Our game teacher played with us, and since he’d played many times before, he outdid all of our scores by plenty, almost doubling them. But out of us four newbies, I had the highest score, thus the prize. Watching the scoring is one of the keys, as our teacher pointed out, it is a two point swing, having nothing of something will give you a negative point, where even only one of something will give you a positive point in most cases. I only beat the BFF by that two point swing (but don’t feel too bad for him, he watched the video, too!).
The progression of playing is interesting, the second time playing, I also did pretty good (tied for second after our experienced teacher), and tried to incorporate more of my cards. The third time, with no newbies, we advanced up to the I deck and used one of the advanced rules, where you are dealt 10 cards and have to decide on the 7 that you want. I really got too focused on the cards that time, trying to use all the cards together, and ended up messing myself up, and even having to take ‘begging cards’. Begging cards are what you want the least in this game, and what you have to take if you can’t feed your family at a harvest. I was so intent on making my cards work together, I forgot that I had already eaten my sheep, and had to take two stupid begging cards! Our teacher had been saying all weekend that everyone he had ever taught hadn’t had to take begging cards, and I messed up his good record. (Sorry, Jerry!) At the end of that game, one other player who I think won that time around gave me some good advice: try to get maximum regular score points, focus on that, not on the cards. Why didn’t I think of that?!?
I always like learning strategies from other players, I watched our teacher save up his wood and build his fences all three times we played. I figured he's had good luck with that strategy, but it didn't leave him a lot of time to get animals out. It will depend on what cards you have, I suppose, when I had animal cards, I really needed to build my fences early! Another good tip I picked up from our teacher is the difference between the stage and the round. Some cards specify stage, which is a set of rounds, and he had a player with hurt feelings when he misunderstood the card.
Now I'm off! I have a date with the rest of the rules, and all the bits, and maybe a solo game tonight.

A Little Introduction

I've been a board gamer all my life.
I remember playing games when I was very young with my Grandmothers and cousins.
I remember camping with my parents and brother growing up, and playing games were part of our camping fun.
I remember other gaming family traditions while growing up, like getting a family game from Santa every year (a tradition I started with my own children when they were young).
I remember finding new games to play with my college friends, mostly ones that involved or could incorporate decadent behaviors.
I remember new friends teaching new-to-me games, and games around campfires, and gaming with my first husband and his family. Everyone's family has different game history and tastes.
I remember games my children liked at every stage of their lives so far, and played whatever games they wanted to play. OK, I admit, I never played CandyLand. That is one broken game!
I remember playing better and better games with my kids as they grew older, and having three generation games whenever possible, with my parents and my children.
And now, with teenagers, sometimes it's a scramble to fit games in, but we try! I've started a Game Day for family and close friends which is growing slowly, but I hope it will be a tradition that keeps the young'ens coming home once a month.
The BFF (that's Boy Friend Forever) is a bit of a collector (not like I'm not) so our game collection grows every month and is at this moment between 100-150. Gaming is one of our together activities.
I'm addicted to podcasts, or as some brilliant person said, internet radio shows, and I've found some gaming podcasts to add to my never-miss collection.
I just attended the largest close gaming convention last weekend, Nuke Con, for the second year after attending various smaller conventions & game days.
I find myself more and more wanting to talk about games.
And so this blog begins.....

The Beginning of the Board Broad

My name is shells, and I'm a board gamer....