Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Every Day is Games Day

1. This morning I wanted to wake up at 8:30. Time was counting down. It was already 8:27 and I had the complete set of endorphin cards, but I still hadn't managed to discard my last two dream cards. Finally I pulled a "rational thought". I didn't need it, but I managed to trade it for a second "circumstance" card, which allowed me to draw from the external events deck. Luck was with me. I got "mosquito", which let me discard my remaining two dreams and wake up on time. Sharon was only a round behind me, but Dave was still stuck in REM, and John's bladder wasn't yet full.

2. I had to get dressed. I can't stand getting dressed with John; he's a new dresser. I kept giving him the sock drawer, but he kept going for shirts, so both of us kept clashing. Meanwhile, David and Sharon were practically colluding, dressing each other. By the time David was dressed, I only had a pair of pants and a pair of shoes.

3. Breakfast was worse. I needed to make omlets, french toast, and tea, but I could only get the ingredients for salad, cereal, and tarts. David had a monopoly on eggs, and my oldest kid had already made his one trip to the store to bring me tea and bread. I needed eggs! I only had my smallest son left, but I was trying to save him for an emergency, expecting Sharon to steal my bread. Too late. I should have sent him, since John finished his cheese sandwich, melon, and coffee. I was this close.

4. Driving to work. 'Nuff said. I never win this one and today was no exception. I tried a narrow route, but everyone except David had the same idea. David left us in the dust.

5. At work I had 8 projects to complete. I managed some excellent trading here. foisting off two big projects for which I didn't have the resources for four matching medium projects, all of which I could finish with only three resources. An easy win.

6. They wanted to drive home again, but I took the train. Another close one. I almost caught two trains at once, but John maneuvered his train in front of one of mine. I got stuck behind his train and I couldn't catch him before the train ride was over.

7. Game group. My happiness factor was "win at least once", my personalities were "rules lawyer" and "meeple stacker", and I owned "Puerto Rico", "El Grande", and "Time's Up". I tried to play one of my games first, which would allow me to get the happiness factor out of the way without much difficulty, but I got voted out. I managed to guess John's personalities ("whiner" and "bored") before any of the others, which put me in the lead. I also completed my happiness factor by winning two games, but it wasn't enough to beat Sharon's which was "play at least one game you propose". We ended up playing only her games ("Ursuppe", "Tikal", and "For Sale"), which gave her enough of a bonus to win. Nobody ended up guessing David's personality of "reserved", although Sharon nailed his other one: "cause chaos".

8. Bedtime. I grabbed the blue mattress, pink pillowcase, and green bedspread early on, but stalled from then on. Sharon hit the sack first with all the linens, and then humiliated me with a "kick another player out of bed" card. Like I wasn't losing already.

Another typical day ... for an aspiring game designer.

Yehuda

3 comments:

Coldfoot said...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your gaming day, Yehuda. I think you're missing a few good games since you don't have any pets.

For the last week I've been playing "Give the Cat a Pill". This is a dexterity game to see if your fingers are faster than the cat's tongue. I've won every game but several have been long drawn-out affairs where the end-game seemed to take forever.

We were so bored with the "Inside-Outside" game with 5 pets that we installed a pet door but we still play "Who's Had a Treat?" This is a memory game and I usually lose, the winner receiving 2 or even 3 treats in one evening.

Michael said...

Three cheers! Brilliant, clever, and very funny, Yehuda -- reminiscent of Gola's Amun-Re session report. And I swear I've experienced similar turn angst in some of those exact game scenarios before.

I'm sure it makes a better story than actual game design, but I'd like to think that you just might have something here. "Your goal for this round: wake up." Ah, if only the "work" round were so easy.

sodaklady, "Give the Cat a Pill" is clearly broken; I've yet to win a single game. =)

Unknown said...

sodaklady: point the cat's head upward and pinch the back of the jaws. The mouth will open and the tongue will waggle around. Just drop the pill down the cat's throat. If you have long finders and can open the cat's mouth with one and, you can do this by yourself.