New Epidemic Sweeps the Nation

Leaves Families Broken and Scarred

Saw this in my local newspaper. I thought I would reprint it here. There are two references to Gone Gaming:

AP (Newark, NJ) The Newark chapter of Board Gamers Anonymous (BGA) meets in the dank basement of an ancient public library on Thursday nights. Homes in the neighborhood have barred windows and the streets are littered with paper, bottles and other debris. There is a building across the street with a neon sign flashing "arry's L q or Sto e" in ancient red letters. The Board Gamers Anonymous have been meeting in these cramped quarters every week for the last 18 months. There are a dozen hard core board gamers who form the core of the group and another two dozen who are family members and friends of addicts.

“Most people are shocked when they hear about our group,” states David, the founding member of the Newark chapter of BGA, “most people have never heard of board game addiction, but I can assure you it is a very real problem.”

There are two chapters of BGA in the Newark area. David says, “There's a meeting on Monday night near the University, but I prefer the Thursday group here at the library. It just feels more real. The Thursday night people aren't just going because they have to answer to a probation officer or divorce attorney. Most of us in the Thursday night group have hit bottom and are struggling to better ourselves.”

Standing outside the library smoking cigarettes and waiting for the meeting to begin the board game addicts speak in hushed tones amongst themselves. They do their best to ignore library patrons who walk by and cast side long glances. Working mothers see the addicts and yell at their children to "Wait!", as the children run for the library entrance. The moms scurry to catch up, then hold their children under a protective wing and stare intently at the sidewalk as they pass by.

To be fair the board gamers form a rather odd looking group.

Joe has as scar that runs from the bridge of his nose to his right ear. He says that scar is the end result of a late-night, unlicensed, El Grande game.

Hank has the # 1 sword from Samurai Swords protruding from his left eye. The doctors decided it would be more dangerous to remove the sword than to leave it. Hank says it serves as a constant reminder not to mix excessive amounts of Jolt Cola and board games.

John's left arm is in a cast from shoulder to wrist. He broke it making a particularly difficult chess move. This is the third time he has broken it playing chess. The doctor tells him he'll never play chess with that arm again.

Except for the nervous twitch under his right eye Bob looks normal until you talk to him. You then realize that his jaw is wired shut and his teeth are cracked and broken. Bob explains in writing, “I found a couple recipes on the internet for board game salads. They looked pretty good, so I tried them. I have to say that Dame Coldfoot is a much better cook than Joe Gola. Gola’s recipe had way too many dice. It took all of a week to pass those dice, not to mention my teeth.”

The meeting I attended was a real tear jerker. Sherry (not her real name) told how she awoke in the gutter clutching her Scrabble board and hallucinating that her ex-husband was standing over her yelling at her for spending all their money on antique Scrabble boards, again. "How many times do I have to tell you woman? There are no Scrabble games from 1870! It's a scam."

Hank, the man with the sword protruding from his eye, states that he grew up in a gaming household. He confesses that he thought all adults argued over zones-of-control and leading a heart before one had been sluffed. It has only been since the sword accident, which caused him to enter the health care system, that Hank has learned that arguing over who gets the blue tokens was not normal behavior. "In a way this sword saved my life," states Hank, "I would have probably never gotten the help I need to break this addiction. I was playing games constantly, rarely even taking time to bathe."

The meetings last one hour and are always emotional, several of the participants confided to me.

The root cause of board game addiction is not completely understood, but researchers at Rio Grande University have linked board game addiction syndrome (BAS) to a particular gene that is thought responsible for geekiness, although environmental causes are also suspected to play a role.

Professor Tummelson of Rio Grande University says, “Research into this area has only been under way for a few months, we really don’t know much about the condition. There appears to be a genetic component, but only ten percent of the people with goA (the gene thought responsible) will turn into board game addicts.” Tummelson adds, “For comparison, less than 1/10 of one percent of the general population will become addicted to board games.”

When asked what he would warn parents to watch for in children suspected to suffer from BAS Tummelson says, "That's a tough question. I would definitely tell them to watch for a marked disinterest in cleanliness and spending an inordinate amount of time on board game sites such as Gone Gaming and Boardgamegeek."

Although the root cause of board game addiction still isn’t well understood the network of shady suppliers and dealers who feed this addiction are well understood. A Federal official who spoke under the condition of anonymity says, “The majority of the games causing the trouble are brought into this country by ships originating in Europe, primarily Germany. Many of the games are produced in China and brought into Germany in giant containers that are rarely inspected. Once they enter the States they are then resold through internet sites with innocuous sounding names like Funagain and Gamefest."

Upcoming Companies, Part One: Atlas, Cafe, Cheapass

Early this month I talked about Hasbro, the megagoliath that has eaten the gaming world, sucking up an amazing 80% of the tabletop game trade. As I said in that article, they have the ability to do a lot of damage to our industry. But, for now at least, there's room for the smaller guys to get into the biz.

This week I want to turn that around, and talk about some of the up-and-coming game companies. These guys aren't necessarily small (though none are huge), and they aren't necessarily new (though some are). Instead, they're companies that are working on publishing new sorts of games, be that because they're just getting into the biz or because they're dramatically changing their focus.

Together these companies offer an insight into trends at the opposite side of the gaming industry from Hasbro: the companies who may be on the list of notable publishers in our niche in a few years.

I've got six companies scheduled for this series. They're all publishing at least a few interesting games this year, and they're all people that I haven't really talked about in this column before. This week I have up Atlas, Cafe, and Cheapass, and next week I have Face 2 Face, Jolly Rogers, and Your Move. In each case I've tried to get some personal insight from the publishers and owners as well.

Atlas Games
http://www.atlas-games.com/

Traditionally Atlas is primarily a roleplaying publisher. It was founded by John Nephew in 1990. Their first publications, from 1990-1993, were all licensed RPG supplements, including a single Vampire adventure, a series of adventures and campaigns for Ars Magica, and some Cyberpunk 2020 supplements, which were their most successful of the period. Nowadays they own Ars Magica (and Feng Shui and Unknown Armies and a few others, but Ars Magica seems to be the one getting support).

Atlas experimented with card games pretty early on. One of their earlier releases was Once Upon a Time (1993), a card-based storytelling game that reflected Atlas' roleplaying origins. In 1994 they jumped on the collectible bandwagon and produced On the Edge, a CCG based on their innovative Over the Edge RPG. It changed things at Atlas. John Nephew says, "It was a fast and furious boom-and-bust period, but involvement in CCG publication gave us a lot of experience in the card medium (and a great working relationship with a specialty playing card printer), which paved the way for the new (1995) edition of Once Upon A Time, then Lunch Money in '96, and then the other card games leading up to today."

Lunch Money (1996), a schoolyard-brawl card game that's best known for its disturbing artwork, was another hit. Cults Across America (1998), Spammers (1998), and Corruption (1999) are a few other Atlas games from this period that still grace my own shelves. For the most part, Atlas was producing very American games. Cults was a humorous wargame while Spammers was a typical take-that card game that could easily have been published by Steve Jackson. However, Corruption, a clever card game by Bruno Faidutti, was an early move toward Eurogames.

Despite the successes of On the Edge and Lunch Money, Atlas averaged less than one card or board game from 1990-2002.

In the last few years this has changed, and Atlas has really been pushing card games in particular. Nephew says that there are sound business reasons for this new direction: "The simple reality is that an RPG book's sales drop very sharply soon after it is released (and if anything this has gotten worse in recent years), but card and board games have much better prospects for continuing sales over a long period of time. Also, card games have more potential sales outlets -- we have picked up an increasing number of new distributors in recent years who don't carry RPGs at all. It makes sense that board games and card games are more accessible to a wider audience than RPGs, and that means more commercial potential, especially in a market where more people in retail and distribution have become aware of that potential thanks to the big board game successes of recent years."

Atlas' new focus began with the acquisition of Dungeoneer (2003), a fantasy adventure card game, from the now-defunct Citizen Games. The game has (rightfully) been followed by a half-dozen expansions. They very successfully followed that up with Gloom (2004), a thematic take-that card game with transparent cards. These last few years have also seen expansions for Once Upon a Time, Gloom, and Lunch Money, as well as a few rereleases. What's even more impressive is Atlas' 2006 schedule. There's more Dungeoneer, but also an expansion into less card-oriented board games, including Recess (another school-yard brawl), Grand Tribunal (a card/board game based on Ars Magica), and Seismic (a tile-laying game).

For the future, Nephew says, "If anything, I expect the card and board games (and similar but harder to classify things, like the Pieces of Eight coin game that should be appearing at GenCon) will be an even bigger part of our future. We have numerous projects in the pipeline, and we're on the lookout for more -- whether original games or existing games to buy and re-issue (like Dungeoneer and Let's Kill!)."

My Reviews: Corruption (B-), Cthulhu 500 (B+), Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord (C+, the Citzen Games edition), Gloom (B)

Cafe Games
http://www.cafegames.com/

Cafe Games is a bit more of a mystery to me because they have somewhat limited Internet presence. They've been around since 1998 and in that time they've mainly been a jobber, a distributor of other peoples' games. Currently they represent a lot of very small presses, including Pro Ludo (until recently a jobber itself, for the German market), lui-meme and Martin Wallace's Warfrog. In 2005 they also briefly held the rights to the Descartes Games (now owned by Asmodee) and appear to have been involved in the publication of the Mare Nostrum Mythology Expansion.

In 2006 Cafe Games seems to be spreading its wings and becoming a publisher in their own right. They have three games lined up for publication, the original Spectral Rails (by Morgan Dontanville, who also designed Recess for Atlas), a reprint of Ave Caesar, and the much-delayed Tempus. I have some concerns about their releases because their price-points seem about $10 high, and the publication of Tempus has been a multi-year marathon, but beyond that Cafe's first three games look like a strong start, and if they're able to follow it up, Cafe could be a strong contender as a new game publisher in the coming years.

I tried to get a quote from Cafe for this article, but owner Ron Magin is very busy. I kind of get the impression that Cafe is a sidelight, which may limit its eventually growth. On the other hand word from Europe says that Tempus is finally appearing. I guess we'll see where Cafe Games goes in the next couple of years.

Although Cafe Games was listed as a copublisher on some games prior to this new set of three, they were a pretty scattered set that I doubt has much bearing on their new, original publications.

Cheapass Games
http://www.cheapass.com
http://www.lonesharkgames.com

Cheapass Games is in no way new or untried. James Ernest founded the company in 1996 based on the ideas that games were too expensive and that they tended to reuse the same pieces. So he started putting out black and white games in plain white envelopes, with minimal components. Players got to supply dice, pawns, and other necessities. Since then Cheapass has published about 100 titles.

The core line of Cheapass Games is pretty American in style. They've heavily thematic, and often that theming is pretty silly. The mechanics tend to be mostly simulationistic and often pretty forgetable besides. In more recent years some of Cheapass' core games have been published in color rather than black & white.

Besides their core lines, Cheapass has also put out a few smaller lines that I've found more notable. Their "hip pocket" games have been fairly elegant abstracts. They're purely card based, and they use many European mechanics, including majority control and tile laying. The Diceland line, meanwhile, is a fun system where you throw huge dice around a table in a head-to-head combat. My only complaint is that it's a pain in the neck to store because it's so big. Fightball and Brawl are a few real-time card games that James Ernest put out, the first with Mike Selinker, to generally good response.

Cheapass seems poised to continue putting out more of the same.

Cheapass' interesting growth is coming through Lone Shark Games, a design studio formed by James Ernest and Mike Selinker in 2003. Since then they've been collaborating on games that tend to be deeper than Cheapass' core offerings. In addition the styling of the games spans from American to European. Pirates of the Spanish Main (2004) and Dungeonville (2005) are a few of their games that have been released thus far, from WizKids and Z-Man Games, respectively. Upcoming are Cowpoker (2006) from Steve Jackson, which is just hitting stores now, and Gloria Mundi (2006) from Rio Grande, which made my ten-games-to-watch-for from Nurnberg list. They've got more coming out from Rio Grandes and from Titanic Games in the future.

Titanic Games is another up-and-coming game company with close ties to Cheapass. It was founded by James Ernest, Mike Selinker, Lisa Stevens, and Bob Watts. Stevens is offering the publication and distribution know-how from her position as CEO of Paizo Publishing, while Ernest and Selinker are offering the design know-how of Lone Shark Games. Titanic's first publication was a high-end version of Kill Doctor Lucky, a popular Cheapass title. One of the followups is Stonehenge, a very interesting "anthology" game design. There's one set of components in the box, but five different games. Two of them are, of course, designed by Selinker and Ernest. The other three come from Richard Borg, Richard Garfield, and Bruno Faidutti.

James Ernest sees Stonehenge as part of a strategy for the future. He says, "This industry is always changing, and our biggest challenge is always to invent something new. The anthology board game is our latest experiment, and I'm excited to see whether Stonehenge will be a success. In a sense, it's a continuation of the Cheapass model, because it uses the same components for several different games. On the other hand, the components will be excellent (and included), and the games will be designed by a collection of gifted designers. And me."

My Reviews: Agora (A-), Diceland: Deep White Sea (A-), Diceland: Ogre (B), Diceland: Space (A-), Dungeonville (C), Light Speed (A-), Nexus (C), Safari Jack (C), Steam Tunnel (C), TimeLine (B-)

Is It Just a Phase Or Do We Evolve?

When I first got into strategy games, I tried everything I could and liked them all to one degree or another. It was all exciting and new and my family was not yet tired of trying all the new games I bought. This seems perfectly logical for someone discovering something new. Phase 1.

With the experience of many different games behind us, I could discern a pattern to the types of games my family enjoyed. I looked for games that played well with 3 players, had simple rules while offering several meaningful choices, and conflict was not an issue, in fact, we like conflict. Phase 2.

Now my daughter has less time and inclination to play games so I am forced to look mainly for games that play well with 2. There are many good 2-player games to choose from and several multi-player games that work nicely with only two players. My husband is not a gamer so sitting down to a 3 hour game isn’t an option; it needs to be short and sweet. Phase 3.

I find myself now at a phase that is a little disconcerting to me—the 2-player abstract phase. This seems a natural progression to some but I have never been one to enjoy a pure abstract game. In the past they usually fell into 2 categories, neither of which I enjoyed or was good at.

Advance Planning. Games like Chess and Go where you must be able to project many, or at least several, moves into the future are difficult for me. I cannot hold the picture of my move in my mind, add the possible moves of my opponent, and my next move to counter that. Most often, my opponent’s move will leave me amazed as well as in a mess. This same problem transfers to the 2nd category.

Major Board Reconfiguration. Othello was a game we had long before I discovered BoardGameGeek and was totally pathetic at playing. I could never keep the picture of the board as it would be after my turn and still see the result of all my opponent’s possible moves. The portion of my brain allocated to that kind of thinking has never been activated—I think I lost the password.

With my entry into the world of BGG, I found many abstracts that aren’t in your local department stores and many do not fit firmly into these two categories. I think DVONN was the first one I tried and although advance planning is a good skill to have, it isn’t absolutely necessary. I can enjoy playing it without feeling overwhelmed and hopeless.

Blokus is another abstract that I like and I’m actually very good at it. YINSH, Hive, Santorini, Tsuro and my homemade copy of Easter Island are all pure abstracts that I can play with my limited brain capabilities. Now I find that I’m actually looking for simple abstract games to play with 2 players and that’s a little strange to me, the hater of abstract games.

I’ve discovered that I enjoy the head-to-head, luck-free environment of the abstract as long as it doesn’t fall into my hated categories. There’s a large dose of satisfaction to be felt when you win a game knowing that luck played absolutely no part in it.

So the question I have is this: is this just a phase I’ve been forced into or do our gaming preferences evolve? In the end, it really doesn’t matter as long as I can find someone to play with. Oh, there’s someone now. Hey, you! Yeah, you; come here, I want to show you this game.
~~~~~~~~
A meeple in the hand is worth two on the floor.

Mary

Board Game Violence Special Report

Good evening and welcome to our special report on board games and violence.

Tonight we review the dramatic events of this past week in the violent world of board gamers; people not like you or me, or even little Johnny or Suzy. We begin our report with a clip from Sunday's news story about the follow up to the school shootings in Localtown, MY.

-Clip 1-

"In Localtown, MY, authorities are continuing their investigation into possible links between last week's brutal school shooting and the board game 'Settlers of Catan'. Local chief commissioner Samuel Jackson had this to say:"

SJ: Both of the perpetrators of the shooting were known to play the game, ... uh ... Settlers of Cuhtahn. We are investigating as to how this was a contributing factor to the carnage and violence of last week.

"Opponents of board games say that games like Settlers of Catan promote violence and Satanism, which makes the players and the publishers directly responsible for all acts of violence, everywhere. Here's Anne Fangthorne, chairman of Direness Underscored: Make Boardgames Always Silly and Sweet:"

AF: It says 'Catan' on the cover, but I heard from my colleagues that it really reads 'Satan' inside the box. Players who play this game are known to violently steal cards from each other, destroy their opponent's chances of winning, and ultimately subjugate the losing players in some sort of pagan ritual by declaring themselves to be 'Lord of Satan'. I think that says it all.

"When asked, Anne admitted that she hasn't seen the game personally."

AF: I wouldn't let such filth in my house.

"This is Bunny Boo Boo in Localtown, MY."

-End Clip 1-

Later in the week on Wednesday, the senate held emergency committee hearings on the subject of violence in board games. These meetings were held in Washington amid violent protests. Here was the scene outside the hearings:

-Clip 2-

Protester: Keep those ******* board games out of our ******* neighborhoods, you ******** ******! You ******* ****** make ****** ***** and our ******** children become ******** violent as a ****** result. **** you!

-End Clip 2-

This particular protester was later taken into custody for throwing a chair at a news anchor and trying to gouge out her eyes with a peace sign.

We go now to a clip of Rep Dean Dwindle, and his remarks in the committee:

-Clip 3-

DD: In 1935, a woman killed her husband after a fight about a bridge game. Last week there was a school shooting by someone who played a board game. When will we wake up? Soon even our computer games may inspire violence.

[Gasps of horror from other committee members]

-End Clip 3-

Rep Dwindle concluded his remarks by saying that board game players should be shot and killed in order to ensure that violence does not permeate further into our society. This proposal was unanimously and immediately voted into law. And I, for one, thank them; we certainly don't need any violence in our society.

On Thursday, local militia, national guard, ROTC, secret service, coast guard, army, navy, marines, air force, border patrol, FBI agents, CIA agents, and SWAT teams were out scouring the countryside, shooting to kill board game players. In some areas, the board gamer population has already been virtually eliminated.

A video tape eyewitness to a board gamer kill has been made available to us. Please be advised that the quality of this tape is rather crude and grainy.

-Clip 4-

BGP: ... I'm ... I can't run any more ... I haven't had any exercise in twenty years ... bzzzt ... all the others ... they're all dead ... bzzzt ... My meeples! My meeples! ... bzzzt ... It was only a game! For the love of god, we were only playing a game! [breaks down crying]

[Off screen] A game? That's what you call it? [board gamer looks around and gasps in fear] A game? And I suppose it was just a game when my little boy came home running to me crying that someone 'stole his longest road', eh? I don't know what that means, but I'm going to put an end to it, now!

BGP: No wait! I was just following the rules! Please! Wood for sheep? Two wood for two sheep?!

*CRACK* [There is a flash]

-End Clip 4-

Today's board game players may soon to be a thing of the past. The World Wildlife Fund could not be reached for direct comment, but a notice on their website expressed their neutrality regarding the government's killing program. "Just so long as it's not panda bears, or boll weevils, or something important," the note reads.

That's it for this week. Next week we will bring you a news study that correlates drug use with the consumption of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Authorities are now considering banning this dangerous substance, which has been known to cause the deaths of thousands of children around the world each year. [1]

Thank you, and good night.

Yehuda

[1] This is true! And it's in your drinking water!

GAME STORE CONFIDENTIAL ~ Who's at your table?

My creative juices just aren't flowing lately. Probably because the bulk of my human contact in the last week has been my 3 year old boy. And he has a very limited vocabulary. Wyatt does have a marked interest in my games though and I'm certain that if I ever let him get into any of them he'd gleefully throw the pieces everywhere. Throwing is his thing, And I mean really, really throwing... hard, fast and so accurate it is slightly scary.

I'll consider letting him have my copy of Puerto Rico though, there's always the threat that someone will ask to play it again and if Wyatt has tossed all the little colonist/slaves into the next county then the risk will be nullified.

Throwing things got me thinking... lots of gamers really have annoying table habits. Not you specifically... at least that I'm aware of, but you know...them. We sure put up with a lot from people we'd otherwise not know and possibly not associate with in order to play these games of ours. For example:

The Chip Clacker

Whether using the clay poker chips that have now replaced all the paper money in my games that have money or the plastic ones that come with some games, poker chips can be annoying. Especially if anyone at the table is a chip clacker. They sit there like they're in Vegas, one-handedly clacking and re-clacking their chips. It gets louder and louder until everybody else at the table has to almost yell in order to be heard above the ear-shattering clacking of the offender's chips.

The SBD Assassin

My dad is 80 years old. I have known him all my life. He lived with me for 16 years up until 2003. I lived with him for 16 years, up until 1967. That's 36 years. In all that time my dad never once farted in public. Not once. He never even asked me to "pull his finger" when I was little. That ought to give you a heads up about how I view public farting. Especially at a game table. And more especially at MY game table. Yes, farts are funny when you're a tyke. Farts are not funny when a grown man who has eaten nothing but chipotle burgers and broccoli for the last 7 years keeps passing silent gas. Disgusting. Rude.

BRAAAAP!!!

Who's that drunken guy on the Simpsons? I forget his name, but he always burps so loud and forcefully his lips flap like sheets blowing in the wind. To me, loud and horrible burps are not okay because they aren't farts. They're basically mouth farts and I don't think they are one bit funny. Repeated table-burping ought to be dealt with severly. I've sat through some game sessions where the burping was so frequent and disgusting that I considered pulling my hazmat suit out of storage and wearing it so I'd stay clean.

The Whiner

Then there's the people who whine and whine and whine. I discussed them somewhat last week but I felt clarification was called for. I want to delineate actual whining from politicking at the game table. Whining is incessant and annoying complaining. Politicking is targeted whining intended to change the mindset of your opponents. Warrior Knights is a game I recently played where the politicking style of whining is useful. Just sitting around bitching about how you hate dice (Lyle) is pointless and eventually makes me want to grab the offender and shake all the whines right out of them. But if I did that, they'd just whine about it.

The Analyzer

We all know this guy/gal as the one stricken with Analysis Paralysis. Every group has one or two. What I don't understand about people suffering from AP is how they figure that consuming huge chunks of time thinking about the fix they're in will change the outcome? In my little gaming universe, the one inside my head, if I'm in a position where I feel myself heading into AP then I've already screwed up and will most likely lose unless I do something unexpected. So, as I have already suggested in an earlier blog entry, I choose the first thing that comes to mind and hope that the Shock & Awe tactic works. Why some people consistently delude themselves into believeing that consuming time will make it better is beyond me. I become annoying myself when there is an AP player in my group. On purpose.

The Stage Manager

This is the guy who feels it's his obligation (and his right) to direct the activities of all the other players in the game. He is constantly telling the others what they should do and why they should do it. I'm not talking about savvy politicking here either. As in the above example, politicking is acceptable and even expected in many games. But the Stage Manager can't keep his mouth shut... he has the innate need to tell everybody what to do, why they should do it and to fill them in on the consequences of not doing as he says. I've learned over the years that constant ridicule of every suggestion this guy makes can help to shut him up. Other than that, it's a permanent and recurring condition.

The Kamakaze Pilot

Realizing that he is either to far behind to have any chance for victory or even that he'd have to really make a supreme effort to pull the victory out, this player just tips his wings forward, applies full throttle and augers into the ground at top speed. The results of the Kamakaze Pilot giving up and self-destructing in the board game are usually beneficial to certain players and not others. Depending upon table or board position, the Kamakaze skews the game, skews the results and frankly, once I've seen this as a trait in a gamer I will go the extra mile to NOT have them at any table I game at. Why play if all you're going to do is make stupid mistakes and then give up? Sheesh... stay home, watch TV.

The Early Riser

Look, we all have jobs. We all need sleep. But please, don't even bother showing up for a 4 hour game that starts at 7pm if you have to leave at 10pm. How rude. I've had the displeasure of meeting quite a few Early Risers over the years and if they accept an invitation I never confirm it unless we clarify when their bedtime is first. Otherwise, just invite them when all you're going to play is short games... or ones that you know they suck at and that have player elimination as a mechanic.

The Litterbug

There's something about the anal and finicky nature of Euro Gamers that makes me think most of them are tidy people. But frankly, even in the Euro arena there are slobs. Those who open pack after pack of Ding-Dongs and strew the wrappers all over the table and floor. Or can't seem to eat a tortilla chip without spewing crumbs in a 5 foot radius of their chair. Or they topple empty soda cans on the table and drip salsa on their seat. This type of gamer isn't as annoying as some and they are often humorous. But they have caused me to have rules about open top glasses and pop cans at my table. I try and have side tables for Litterbugs to set their drinking containers on and even though it's slightly annoying, I don't mind running the vacuum under their seat several times throughout a game.

The Depression Case

Oh Gawd! Woe is me! I never win. Bleh, bleh, blech, moan..... this is what you hear from this downer person. A constant and grating undercurrent of self-loathing, self-pity and unending negativity. Man! It's amazing how people like this make me want to just slap them and slap them and slap them until they either laugh, fight or run away. Anything! Give me anything but some self-indulgent carper who cannot see beyond his own sad little world and understand that he loses because he is not a good player and that in order to become a good player he ought to pay frickin' attention to the game rather than his downer and dour inner fears.

The Glad-Handing Sales Guy

This is me. My attitude is, I'm certain, fairly annoying to some people. I'm always perky and full of commentary. I make jokes and drop the F-bomb in as many locations as I deem appropriate for the situation. I tease, cajole and smile while emanating an undercurrent of threat. My goal is to sell, distract and keep the other gamers laughing. Sometimes it helps me win games, that I know for sure. Mostly though, the table is populated by gamers who are too experienced and too wily to be fooled by my superb marketing skills. But, like many others, it's my trademark and even if it only works in the meta-game sporadically, it's a lot better than trying fart my way to victory.

So ask yourself... who are you at the game table? I've probably missed about 20 "types", some equally as annoying as the ones I have here and some maybe worse. One thing for sure, I did not begin my gaming days as the type of gamer I am now. I made the effort to review my own behaviour and did some modification over the years. We all have to be some type, even if we don't have to tools to see ourselves in another's eyes. But if you can see how you appear to others... and find you don't like it, then be a man! Do something about it. So much of what goes on in gaming happens off the table and in the social interaction that it's easy to overlook that board games are as much about the people you spend time with as they are about the game spread out on the table.

And who likes to spend time with someone who farts, burps, whines, is a control freak, annoys you by slapping his chips all the time, drops garbage on the floor, over-analyzes every move, gets depressed because of all his mistakes, decides to self-destruct and ruin everyone elses fun, gets depressed about it and then claims he has to get up early and bails out on you?

I'll take the Glad-Hander any day... not that I have much choice, he's me.






* Yes, I know 16 + 16 = 32
** Yes, I know that Barney is the drunk guy in the Simpsons.

These are part of the mechanics of marketing, selling and keeping people interested. They're a lot like Easter Eggs that programmers hide in software for fun. They allow the sharp reader or listener to congratulate themselves on how sharp they are and they open the mind as the astute observer has now keyed himself up to find even more mistakes in the presentation. Purposeful errors or little inconsistent tricks like this are themselves part of what makes human interaction fun. It's a game within a game. Try it sometime... it's the first step towards being a happier person.

Taking a "Risk" to Teach Strategy

Today’s guest speaker…uh, blogger is Sagrilarus. I enjoyed his article on Board Game Geek and asked him to spruce it up a bit to post for our readers. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This past spring I had the opportunity to volunteer at my daughter's elementary school in a "Strategic Thinking" after-school activity that used board games to introduce students to the basics of tactics, strategy, and long-range planning. The brochure that came home in her backpack included pictures of hot games like Ticket to Ride and Age of Mythology and when I saw it I got very excited. My daughter playing board games! She’s just getting to the age where she can give me a good run! And she lives in the SAME HOUSE with me! She won’t be able to escape until she’s sixteen! “This is perfect!” I said out loud. “Kaylin! This is a great opportunity for me to . . . uh, YOU to learn new things and to think out of the box! Girl! Don’t pass this up! I’ll take care of everything. I’ll get you all signed up and ready to go.”

The next day Kaylin was signed up for the course, designed for 12 kids, along with 34 others. The following week an email with the faint aroma of desperation on it arrived in my inbox from the instructor asking for parent volunteers to help with the oversized class and I signed on for the next eight weeks along with three other men and one woman. I’m going to try to summarize what happened here so that anyone naïve enough to wander into the same situation will know what to expect and perhaps learn from our experience. Let’s start with a rundown of the course at hand:

The class was aimed at the elementary school level, grades 1-5.

The course itinerary consisted of three games -- Battleship to start showing basic game rules, placement, and simple geographic awareness; Stratego to show information hiding and strategic placement of resources; and then Risk last, which showed long term management of resources, consideration of goals and threats, and political maneuvering. Risk would consume more than half of the entire course time.

A quick aside here. I know what you’re thinking. Where was Ticket to Ride? Where was Age of Mythology or the other hot games on the little sheet the instructor had sent home? I dug into my bag and reviewed – damn! The flyer did indeed have Battleship Stratego and Risk on it, although sort of on the edges instead of in the middle. We had been Technicalitied. The course would be fun, but I . . . uh, Kaylin would have to settle for 1960s game technology. So be it – all I needed this course to do was set the hook in this girl and I would be able to game six nights a week.

Each session started with a brief description of the gaming for the day, and then broke out the boxes. Since the instructor had let so many kids into the class it was necessary to create teams of players, as there were not enough boards to go around. For Battleship and Stratego, this proved to be nearly disastrous. Virtually every team could not resist the urge to cheat. Since both games are so heavily focused on hiding information about your layout from your opponents, and since the kids were playing two or three to a team, it was just too easy for someone to quietly walk around behind the other team’s board, “gather intelligence” (something the instructor had told them was a good thing, although I doubt he meant it quite that way) and report back home. Remarkable how quickly games would turn. “Hey! We sunk your PT boat with two shots. It’s uncanny how lucky we got! again!” With the rampant cheating the class began to unravel and my daughter very much considered quitting out of frustration. I told her to give it one more week and sent off an email that evening to the instructor indicating that he had a real problem on his hands. The cheating issue essentially evaporated with Risk as there is little or no information hidden from other players in the game.

For Risk, the instructor broke off the younger grades into their own Risk game playing one-on-one with a full time instructor. The remaining older students played in teams on one Risk board. We adults were given the job of advising the teams on what their options were.

Ok, now to get down to serious game playing. At the beginning of the team Risk game, the instructor spent some time telling the players the basics, indicating that the capture of countries and continents and finally the entire board was the goal. However when it came time to select countries to start the game, many of the students had not fully internalized the goals he had set out for them – they did not think of a long term strategy and instead chose countries based on personal rivalries with other students or in one notable case preferences for culture. It’s unreasonable to expect young kids to play a game well the first time, but even with that level of expectation it is worth noting that more preparation was needed so that the kids could make better decisions about troop placement.

Emperor #1 became enraptured with the notion of his troops being Vikings, selected Iceland and placed all of his extra pieces there. In all the breadth of history no one has attempted to conquer the world starting in Iceland. Indeed not many Risk players have tried it either. This decision placed “Leif the Unlucky” in a squeeze between three other players, who quickly armed-up to counter his threat. Because of this less-than-wise decision his team was severely hamstrung at the beginning of the game. The curious issue here was that his four teammates continuously advised against this action as the pieces were being placed -- they had excellent position in Africa and were in a position to be the first team to solidify a continent. But this team leader simply overwhelmed them with persuasion and they capitulated to the Iceland position. Once the game began Iceland was disassembled in short order and the team started dedicating what piddly resources they had left to Africa out of desperation to stay in the game. Lesson learned -- occasionally Emperors don't listen to their advisors and take a beating for it (feel free to insert the despot of your choice as an example here).

Emperor #2 ended up with a strong position in Europe and western Asia. Although this is generally a hard place to start in Risk, he was uniquely set up to land Europe (once Iceland was decimated) and hold Siberia. The remainder of Asia was a mishmash of pieces and fortification, so the threats to his position were not as bad as others on the board.

Emperor #3 may have been a ringer – he selected all of Australia on startup, and no one chose to block his initial domination of the continent.
Here’s a curious thing about kids – as the countries were being selected, us three adult advisors who had probably played a total of 150 games of Risk between us walked around and gently recommended to the other team leaders that they not let this player take all of Australia without a fight. When he took the third country in Australia without anyone interceding we got a shade less gentle, with statements such as “You absolutely positively under no circumstances in any way whatsoever want to even remotely consider letting this guy get all of Australia without a fight.” The kids would give us that kind of look you get from your dog when he tries to understand English, and then go right back to what they were doing. All five other teams showed no interest in mixing it up with this team in Australia and even let him have Siam.
The obvious winner, yes? Well, sometimes things don't go as smoothly as planned.

Emperors #4 and #5 seemed to have a bit of history between them and decided to have their own personal war in North America and part of South America. Neither had a commanding position and both deployed the vast majority of their armies in a fairly even fashion, with the exception of NW Territory and Quebec, which were heavily built to counter Iceland.

Emperor #6 was about as evenly spread over the board as is possible, resulting in a role as a spoiler or even a nuisance more than anything else.

At this point the pieces were placed and it was time for blood to spill. And was it spilled. The largest deficit in the play of the six teams was any consideration of defense. The instructor had warned of overextending. We advisors kept telling the teams not to overreach. But all but one team felt obligated to conquer vast swaths of territory on every turn -- a standard rookie error. The one exception was Emperor #2, the guy in Europe and western Asia. On his first couple of turns he took territory cautiously and was able to land all of Europe after the boys in the New World chewed up Iceland for him. Defended, he became the player to beat and had an ace in the hole -- he had eight units in Siberia detached from the remainder of his forces. We'll get to that.

Australia Emperor received two additional armies for the first few turns which can make quite a difference early on, especially when everyone is depleting themselves. He wisely sensed danger in the guy in Europe, and chose to take southern Asia and go after the Ukraine, depleting his defenses in the process. Falling short, he had a reasonable force in Afghanistan, but his rear was all single-army. I pulled Mr. Europe aside and explained to him that Siberia had a unique opportunity to route all of Asia's backfield and maybe even reach Australia with a few breaks. I said, “you can pulp him in Asia and Australia behind Afghanistan’s back and he’ll have to fight back home instead of attacking the Ukraine. There’s no risk here.” I got that blank look again. I gave it one last try, but made it short and sweet: “Asia is weak. Attack it and you can win the game.” Kids don’t like to take recommendations from adults and can be a bit short-sighted on taking advice in general. I think one of the things I learned most from this course is that you need to establish a pretty solid relationship with kids before they start trusting you enough to consider your advice. We beat “don’t trust strangers” into their heads for most of childhood so I suppose this shouldn’t be a surprise. Anyway, he chose not to go after Asia and Australia in spite of getting eight armies to distribute, and the opportunity was lost.

North America became a sink for armies, South America was finally held by Emperor #6, and Africa became a battleground for 2 on 1 fights and the like, resulting in little progress. At times the player holding South America would reach across and sting Europe, just enough to deplete the European Emperor's strength. As the course progressed the team from Australia was largely ignored by everyone except Europe and had the opportunity to build force and slowly make headway. By the end of the course there were two teams knocked out, one team in its last throes, and two that were waning (including the Europe team). All in all a well fought match by the players once they had three or four turns under their belt and began to understand the game mechanics.

Recommendations for Doing a Similar Course

1- I think one of the major issues that escaped the students was a full assessment of their positions prior to the beginning of each turn. Granted, the kids were nine and ten years old and should not be expected to play well their first time, especially on their first few turns. But were I involved in the course again I would try to emphasize three concepts prior to each turn: where am I threatened; where am I trying to go; and where has an opportunity appeared? I would put those questions on a sheet of paper and have the players actually write answers to all three questions prior to starting each turn. I would also have them write a short statement regarding how the turn went after it was finished. This would be an excellent task for the second or third in command as it would give them a good opportunity to be heard.

2- I would also try to get team size down to two so that there would be a more reasonable opportunity for everyone's voice to be heard. The range of ages made it difficult to place command in the hands of all players. Given the number that showed up for the course I think this was more a matter of being caught by surprise without sufficient resources to manage four or five games simultaneously. As in all things, student-teacher ratio is important, as is the physical resources -- we needed three more game boards. The instructor was a good sport and accepted all comers into the course and, quite frankly, did a remarkable job of managing what could have been a very chaotic situation.

3- I would segregate games by age if possible, given the human resources available. Younger kids (including my daughter Kaylin) were too easily sidelined by the older male players who seemed to dominate their teams too easily.

4- If there are two or more players on each team I would have the players take turns being the emperor. This would make sure that a situation such as Iceland would not occur. The members of the Iceland team learned a valuable lesson -- project management can be derailed by one person in a position of authority or with sufficient charisma to fly everyone into the side of a mountain in formation. But this lesson played out quickly and the team did not get to enjoy the remainder of the course as much as the other teams.

5- Elementary kids are like gremlins -- don't feed them if you know what's good for you. Snacks should be small and completely devoid of the evil white granular substance. The woman helping with the course was providing snacks to eight-year-olds. Pain and suffering ensued.

6- Assign the adult volunteers to specific teams instead of having them advise all. Split them as necessary given the numbers -- if you only have one volunteer then he gets all six teams. Introduce the volunteer to the team, establish a relationship between them and get some level of rapport going. By the time most of the teams started considering our advice they were already in the soup. But take care -- I think it is equally important for the adult volunteer to not run the game. It is useful in this situation to limit the adult advisor to only asking questions. "You should go after Africa" is inappropriate. "Have you considered Africa?" puts the students in charge of the answer.

7- The sessions included a volunteer to run the mechanics of the board. This person needs to take care of a couple of things up front, most important was deciding on what the official rules for the session will be. Each adult volunteer that participated had played as a kid, and none of us played by the same set of rules. I appeared to have played by the most strict interpretation of the rules, but the current game rules include official variants that were in play and there were other homemade rules that came up that required a decision mid-turn for some moves, slowing the game and resulting in a couple of fairly important changes for players who had been advised differently by us adults. This issue needed to be cleared up front. Each volunteer (and perhaps each player) should have a set of rules with the appropriate variants highlighted to show exactly how things would play.
The other change I’d make for the "board master" is his role as advisor. If enough volunteers are available, I would limit his advising to the rules. This puts him in a much clearer role and limits his otherwise formidable position.

8- Generate inter-session interest in the game by getting a minor web page up with photos of the board. Likely a photo of each continent would be sufficient to fully describe the board. A scorecard would likely interest players as well – number of countries owned, number of armies on the board, etc. The instructor issued a newsletter each week with a summary of the session’s events which was excellent. It kept the players and their parents informed, but was not as informative on the current status of the game. With appropriate information the students could consider moves through the week.

9- Consider a less bloody game for the girls that decide to participate. If two instructors are available the two games could be run in parallel. This will require an additional level of dedication however, so step lightly into this suggestion.

Hindsight

Considering this was a first-time attempt at the course and the size of the student response was so high, all went quite well. The students learned the games with ease. Battleship and Stratego turned out to be less useful choices as it was exceptionally easy to cheat given the size of the class and the open room environment being used. Risk proved more effective and there was little ability to get an unfair advantage on your opponents.

If you decide to tackle something such as this be prepared for a big turnout, and don’t get my . . . uh, the kids’ hopes up by showing cool new games like Ticket to Ride and Age of Mythology on the flyer.

Working with the kids was a lot of fun, and let's face it, if you're reading this you love games. This was an excellent opportunity for me to have a lot of fun helping out and my daughter appreciated my volunteering at her school. Well worth the time I put in.

Oh, and as for Kaylin, what does she think of board games now that she’s gone a few rounds with them at school? Thumbs up baby! It’s Carcassonne tonight!

Sag.

Another report on the Australian Games Expo

I finally finished jotting down my thoughts about the recent Australian Games Expo and sending them off to the organisers, so I thought I would also post a version for the extra reader here :-)

A lot of this has already been said by Melissa already last week, but this is my take on events. I had never spurned Bob, so there won't be a lot of talking about him.

My gaming convention background – I have attended role playing conventions in around the country for many years and was one of the organisers of one of the largest ones in Melbourne (peaked at about 650 players) for many years too. With the exception of one convention (now defunct), the standard venue for Australian gaming conventions is at schools or universities. The one large gaming area does not suit role playing tournaments at all. It's OK for miniatures and table top gaming which are often run at the gym in a school. Since the arrival of Daughter the Elder our attendance at gaming conventions has reduced somewhat. There are still quite a few role-playing conventions, one wargaming one that I know of, quite a few Warhammer 40K events and CCG stuff. A few of the role playing conventions and the war gaming one have Euros in attendance but this is the first Euro only event that I know of.

The Venue
The building, the Albury Convention Centre, was very good. The general gaming area was close to full or full most of the times I looked at it and on Sunday had begun to spill over into the tournament area – that in itself speaks volumes about the success of the event.

It is probably worth remembering that the games expo has two main types of attendees. Short stay people who drop in for anything up to a couple of hours (e.g. families, teachers etc) and long stay (tournament players and gamers). The latter group are a sort of captive audience, possibly having two meals a day on site and thus create a lot of rubbish that the short stay people don’t. I noticed on the first day that the tournament area was drastically short of suitable sized rubbish bins but this was quickly remedied. It brought back memories of role playing conventions where we had
to ensure that bins were emptied at least three or four times a day.

The toilet facilities were always clean and well stocked which is an important thing.

It was very cold outside, but the venue was heated. It is winter in Australia at the moment and unlike Coldie I am looking forward to the return of Summer.

The mobile coffee truck was great, I just wish that they had stuck around into the afternoon! There are those of us who enjoy a post lunch coffee on occasions.

The organiser mentioned that the main vendor and general gaming area could be expanded next year. Given that the area was basically full and feedback has been very positive I would definitely say that they will need the room and a lot more general gaming tables and chairs to go with the extra space. I have a gut feeling that less people will play multiple tournaments next year and that combined with the extra patronage that is bound to occur will escalate the demand for general gaming tables.

Tournaments
The initial draw. I’m not sure exactly what information was available for scheduling purposes but in an initial draw I believe an effort should be made to place people with people that they do not know. Thus rule 1) no family members in the same group. Rule 2) Try and go for people from different geographical locations. It may not avoid the issue but is probably better than putting four people from the same city in a group together. I accept that this may be difficult to arrange and is by no means foolproof but it is worth trying.

It became evident towards the end of the initial Carcassonne rounds that scoring system which was based purely on points scored was problematic. A tight competitive game could easily see all players scoring under 80 points. A cooperative game could easily see all players scoring over 100 points, leading to the situation that the loser of the one games scores 25% more points than the winner of another game in the tournament standings. I believe a weighting needs to be given to winning and/or placing in the game as was done in Settlers. Otherwise some players will identify an
opportunity to maximise their placing in the tournament scoring as opposed to winning the games. This was not a problem in the finals, but was in the initial games leading up to the finals.

It would probably be worth reviewing any proposed scoring system in this light. Look at it from the point of view of players who want to maximise their position by playing the scoring system as opposed to playing to win. Possibly float it to a few games groups or the geek for review.

I also found that the restriction of only using the base set of Carcassonne made the game much more luck dependant than if The Expansion (Inns and Cathedrals) had been included. In each game that I saw one player draw three or more monasteries, that player won the game. In my opinion, including the expansion would make it more balanced. This may be one of the occasions where the expo was dictated to by the governing body though.

The Settlers of Catan tournament was great (with the possible exception of my results!). I thought it was a good idea to have the random map each time. I noticed that in the Malaysian competition they used the beginner’s map from the Almanac, which does not seem like a good idea to me.

Whilst playing both tournaments was theoretically two chances at a trip to Essen, realistically it just took up too much of my time. My opportunities to spend time perusing and talking to vendors, tying out new games or old favourites in the general gaming area was severely curtailed. I freely admit that this was my choice, but next year I doubt that I would enter more than one tournament so that I could guarantee my self more 'free' time.

Personally I am not a big fan of Eurogames being played as tournaments if there are more than two competing players. The possibility of collusion or king making, accidental or otherwise, always exists. Two player games, or games where there are two teams reduce or eliminate this possibility, but lack the more social aspect of your average multiplayer Euro. It’s all swings and roundabouts isn’t it? My background is role playing tournaments where it is the players against the game, so it is not an issue.

I’ve heard that the intention is to have at least one different tournament game next year. That could be interesting, although I still think I will limit myself to a maximum of one tournament game so I can have time to enjoy the other aspects of the expo at my leisure.

Other thoughts
Speaking as a gamer, the more general gaming space and times the better. Role playing conventions generally run three days and some run four. They usually run games 12-14 hours a day. I accept that the vendors will not wish to keep those hours and their area should be able to be isolated. The gamers however would like to game on, preferably at the same venue, or otherwise at a suitable heated nearby venue. I would guess a fair percentage of the gamers at the Expo have travelled quite a way and have nothing better to do with their evenings. I noticed that Borders (the local game club and supplier of many volunteers at the expo) was full to the seams on Saturday night. This will be even more so next year as the evening gaming sessions will not be competing with the World Cup as they were this year.

Another option would be to extend to include the Monday public holiday as well. The little voice in my head mentions that venue cost would probably be the decider on this point.

The support that the Expo got from the council was great. From the reception on Friday and we saw the Mayor and quite a few staff at the expo over the weekend.

Since most gamers from Melbourne or Sydney can probably get retail –10% back at home, the lack of discounting means that gamers probably didn’t buy many games. Gamers generally expect some discounting and/or new stock at conventions. It will be interesting to see if there is any movement on this front next year.

Another good thing was to catch up with people who I knew via BGG. There were quite a few. There's some that I met that only afterwards I found out of about their BGG personas.

All in all a bloody good event. Thanks to everyone who made it happen - there were lots of you and I probably only know a few names - so thanks again all of you.

Mmm meeples taste like...

Fraser

Eagerly Awaiting Winter

Just can't seem to play many games during the summer months. Everybody is either working overtime, fishing or taking kids to soccer practice. My stack of recently acquired unplayed games is rather large. Alexander, Antiquity, Britania, Citadels, Il Principe, La Citta, Masons, Medici, PUNCT, Rommel in the Desert, Siena, Silverton, Torres, Warrior Knights, World of Warcraft, Ys, 2038.

These games are in addition to my perpetual list of unplayed games. A Line in the Sand, Anno 1503, Attack and Expansion, Bobby Lee, Borderlands, Cafe International, Chariot Lords, Clash of Gladiators, Conquest of Empire, Die Macher, Divine Right, Doge, Freedom in the Galaxy, Gemquest, Junta, Keythedral, Kings and Things, Mall World, Mare Nostrum Expansion, Medieval, Motley Fool, Mu, Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper, Mystic Wood, Taj Mahal, Quest for the Dragon Lords, Terra, Tichu, Tongiaki, Tyrus, Victory and probably a few others.

I have set one small boardgame goal. I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm playing Die Macher at BGG.con. I've owned the game for 3 years. I've studied the rules on several occasions but cannot find the right moment to break it out. Die Macher definitely seems like a game that would be much easier to learn from an experienced player.

On the bright side, we are coming right up on Independence Day, July 4. We've been ironing out some of the final details for the second annual DenaliCon, June 30 - July 4 in Denali Park, Alaska (aka Mount McKinley Park). I hope to get a couple of these games to the table during that event. Since I will be bringing most of the games I don't foresee a problem. (Wanna play my copy of Settlers? Sure, right after we've played a couple rounds of Antiquity.)

Ahhhhh. Antiquity under the midnight sun. I can hardly wait.

Speaking of which:

To those who missed it, the summer solstice occurred a couple days ago, at least in this hemisphere. Fairbanks puts on a big wing-ding during the solstice, right on Main street.

We are a degree or two south of the Arctic Circle. Contrary to popular belief the sun does set this far north on the solstice, but it does not get dark. Not even a little bit dark. This time of year the sun is up for slightly more than 21 hours and 45 minutes.

The two big highlights of the solstice festival, for a lard butt like me, are kettle corn and elephant ears. Unfortunately Blogger won't let me add pictures of either, had a couple good pictures too, better than either of the pictures it would let me post. The line for elephant ears wrapped around the block, and was only slightly longer than the line for kettle corn. Had to choose one or the other, I deferred to the kids and went without my yearly elephant ear.



The weather was bee-you-tee-full, cloudy but plenty warm. The kind of weather that makes it easy to tell the tourists from the locals at a glance.


You always run into people you haven't seen for a long time at the solstice festival. Unfortunately, this year it was a girl who was my neighbor several years ago. I remember her as an ambitious high school student. She is now carrying an infant on her hip and sporting meth teeth (here also). How sad. She was a nice kid.

Prior to experimenting with methamphetamine, everyone (especially women) should consider the ramifications of meth teeth (also referred to as meth mouth). Meth teeth are gross. If meth teeth aren't a deterrent for you to use methamphetamine, get yourself fixed. Men and women alike. Children should not be subjected to meth households. I say that as a nurse who has worked with drug and alcohol addicts in multiple settings, as a cab driver who is familiar with some of the more notorious drug houses in this area, and as a former resident of Moose Creek, Alaska, which is often referred to as Meth Creek, the community where the two main industries are cooking meth and stealing Sudafed.

Sorry for the rant, but it broke my heart to see a good kid get mixed up with meth. Made it 10 times worse because she has an infant. Spoiled an otherwise good festival.

Now that I got that out of my system: Check back for bona fide boardgame content next week, and genuine, authentic DenaliCon pictures the week after.

And remember: Meth teeth are for real.

Fantasy Flight's Adventure Games & That Old Time Roleplaying

Last month I chanced into a game of World of Warcraft: The Board Game. It's really not the sort of thing I usually play with my various board game groups, if for no other reason, gamelength, but it's the exact sort of game my roleplaying group likes to play if we're not roleplaying on a particular day. We've actually played a number of Fantasy Flight games in that group. Besides World of Warcraft there's also been Runebound and Arkham Horror.

On my first game of World of Warcraft I was struck not only by its similarities to the other two Fantasy Flight Games we'd recently played, but also its differences. At first I thought that FFG might just be retreading these same ideas, but then I realized that something different was going on ... Fantasy Flight is actually creating a whole new subgenre of board games: adventure games. Granted, we've had these adventure games around for a while. Arkham Horror was originally published in 1984, and it shortly followed on the heels of another adventure game classic, Talisman (1983). The same era would later see Milton Bradley's HeroQuest (1989). However, with one publisher now putting out so many games, there's an opportunity for something new.

Adventure games have always been board-based role-playing games. Each player has a character that he slowly improves through play. Monsters appear either randomly or as part of a predetermined layout and by fighting them players get loot and experience. Most of the games, unlike traditional RPGs, don't require a gamemaster, with HeroQuest being a notable exception.

Fantasy Flight is acting differently than the 1980s adventure-game publishers by putting out a whole line of these games. Each of Arkham Horror, Runebound, and World of Warcraft is a very different game, with different mechanics and different designers, and thus they together form a central spine for Fantasy Flight's entry to this new genre. Arkham Horror is the classic, originally designed by Richard Launius and then revamped by FFG's Kevin Wilson; Runebound is a Martin Wallace design, refined by Darrell Hardy; and World of Warcraft is a Christian T. Petersen original (based, of course, on the MMORPG).

(Doom: the Boardgame and Descent, by Kevin Wilson, meanwhile, push the old gamemaster v. the players design. Since I haven't played them, and they offer a slightly different gameplay methodology, I've kept them out of this article. Really, it's mainly because I haven't played them.)

Fantasy Flight is supporting the heck out of these titles with one World of Warcraft supplement, two Arkham Horror supplements, and four-hundred and eighty-three Runebound supplements scheduled for this year alone. If they work out, I think we may be seeing the blossoming of a whole new subgenre of gaming, which will doubtless be expanded upon by Fantasy Flight and replicated by other publishers.

My Reviews: Arkham Horror (A), Runebound (B+), World of Warcraft (A-)

Difference & Similarities

What I find intriguing about this new wave of Fantasy Flight games is how they're similar and different, together showing some of the possibilities of this potential new genre of gaming.

	Arkham Horror	Runebound	World of Warcraft
Counters	Stamina. Sanity.	Life. Stamina.	Health. Energy.
Combat Stats	Fight.	Mind. Ranged Damage. Body. Melee Damage. Spirit. Magic Damage.	Ranged (blue). Melee (red). Defensive (green). Reroll. Attrition.
Other Stats	Speed. Sneak. Will. Lore. Luck.	Various skills.	None.
Equipment	Lots of types. Can be found, bought, or sold.	Lots of types. Can be found, bought, or sold.	Lots of types. Can be found, bought, or sold. Private powers work like individual items.
Experience	None other than Clues and very occasional Skill card bonuses.	Gain XP to improve Mindy, Body, Spirit, Stamina, or Life.	Gain XP to "level up", improving Health and Energy, granting a new talent, and giving access to new equipment.
Skill Resolution	Roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to stat. Each 5 or 6 is a success. Usually only one success is required. Clue tokens can give bonus rolls.	Roll 2d10, adding Mind, Body, or Spirit, and optionally a skill. Equal or exceed a target number.	None except combat.
Monster Creation	Event cards create new monsters in certain spaces each turn--and move them.	Adventure counters mark spaces where monsters can be found.	Quest cards place monsters on specific spaces on the board.
Combat	A Fight skill test, adding in Combat items, and subtracting the monster's difficulty. 1-4 successes may be required, else the monster does damage and combat continues.	A sequence of three skill tests: mind, body, and spirit, some of which are offensive and some of which are defensive. Failures result in the monster doing damage.	A complicated system involving rolling a handful of blue, green, and red 8-sided dice, with successes exceeding a "threat" target number from 4-8. Successful blue dice take effect immediately, and if the opponent isn't dead yet, its "attack" stat faces off against red and green dice, possibly doing damage. Successful red dice and attrition are then moved up into the damage box. If they plus the blue dice exceed a monster's health, it's dead, else they're saved for the next round.
Movement	Move your Speed in spaces each turn.	Roll dice to move each turn.	Move 2 spaces as an action.
Events	Each turn a new event is drawn.	Events are mixed into the encounter deck.	On some turns a new event is drawn.
Teams	Everyone versus the game. Destroy the Big Bad.	Everyone for himself. Destroy the Big Bad first.	Two teams compete. Destroy the Big Bad first.
Unique Systems	Sanity system allows monsters to drive characters insane. Stats can be increased or decreased with "focus".	Movement dice show terrains that can be moved into.	Wars and bounties encourage interplayer combat.

As an old roleplayer, I'm particularly struck by how close these new adventure games reflect older roleplaying games. They don't have the same depth of original storytelling, clearly, but in mechanical form they match my basic definition of roleplaying games: they feature modeled characters and skill resolution systems. Further, there's some depth and careful design evidenced in both. Given that Fantasy Flight is a roleplaying company that's moving much more toward board and card games, I have to wonder if they see this as an evolutionary step.

However, these new adventure games still miss at least two major aspects of roleplaying game. One, as already mentioned, is the idea of original storytelling. Runebound, Arkham Horror, and World of Warcraft can all show off theming of various depths, but they're still missing stories that can involve you and can touch your heart. However, I doubt an adventure boardgame will ever be able to accomplish this aspect of gaming without either human or computer oversight.

Another missing factor which is within the grasp of adventure gaming is the idea of a campaign, where you can play the same characters from adventure to adventure, improving them as you go. The old Milton Bradley game HeroQuest did this. Atlas Games meanwhile is trying this concept out with their new Epic Dungeoneer, which allows you to transfer your old characters up to the next level.

Whether it'll become a possibility in some future Fantasy Flight adventure game is an open question.

Conclusion

It's always the hardest to see trends when you're still on their leading edge. However, I think we might be seeing a new one with the blossoming of adventure games at Fantasy Flight Games. By looking at their various releases we can see there's a lot of opportunity for variety and thus for growth in this new niche gaming. Whether they can eventually match more of the gameplay of RPGs, with real storytelling and campaigns remains a question for the future.

Join Me On Tranquility Island

Supper is finished and cleared away, the heat of the day slowly slides into the cool of the evening and the tension of another busy day passes from our thoughts. We take a small box out to the back porch and sit at a wrought-iron bistro table, the dog lying at our feet. The sounds of the world are distant and muffled except for an occasional bird calling to its mate. Even the usual South Dakota wind is at rest.

The lid slides quietly off of the box and I pull out the beautiful pieces to set before us. A cat pushes his way through the pet door, stretches and takes a moment to survey the territory before ambling down the steps to take up a watchful position on the patio.

Click, click, click. The pieces make a pleasant, comforting sound when they bump. A blue jay swoops in for a drink at the bird bath so we stop to watch both the bird and the cat. But peace reigns for this moment and the bird flies off to continue his bird life.

Soon the phone may ring or the dog may find something to bark at but for this short while, the back yard is our island where the world does not interfere.
~~~~~~~
Until next time, may you all have a tranquil island to enjoy.

Mary

Grog and Mog

Once upon a time, Grog and Mog met in a field. Grog looked at Mog. Mog looked at Grog.

"uh", said Grog.

"uh", said Mog. [1]

"grunt", said Grog.

"grunt, grunt", said Mog.

"grunt, grunt, grunt, I say. grunt", said Grog.

"look, we could be at this all day", said Mog. "how's your family?"

"fine, fine, thank you", said Grog. "they're still sleeping it off from the big party last night. that was something, eh?"

"it sure was, grog. i mean 'grog'. damn, i wish they would invent capital letters already. it's a bit of a mess having to get by without them, isn't it?"

"you've said that rightly, ol' mog. anyway, that was some party."

"what did you do at this party, grog ol boy?"

"we sat around. cooked meat on this glowing hot orange thing and ate it. shot the breeze, you know. the usual."

"ah, yes. the usual. hmmm..."

"hmmm... what?"

"tell me, grog. doesn't it seem to you that there might be something missing? something else that could be done at parties?"

"something else? what else? talking, eating, banging rocks. what else could there be?"

"I'm not sure, grog. you see, hmmm. say, you know how the corners of your mouth go up sometimes, like when you see tog trip over his loincloth, and it rips off while he falls over in front of the ladies? well, i'm thinking we could do that corner of the mouth thing at parties. it makes one feel so good."

"it does, doesn't it? maybe we should try it now. see how it goes."

So Grog and Mog pulled on the corners of their mouths and streched them in different directions, but it didn't feel so good. [2]

"well, mog", said Grog, "i have to say that this doesn't feel so good after all. i wonder why it feels so good when tog does his tripping thing."

"think. think. damn this neanderthal brain! hey. you don't suppose that the feel good has to do with tog tripping, and not with the mouth thing, do you?"

"hmmm.... perhaps. perhaps. you may be on to something there. in fact, i feel a little of that good thing just thinking about Tog tripping and falling over. but say, why does the mouth thing happen?"

"perhaps", answered Mog, "perhaps they happen at the same time, but are not related, vis a vis, to one another. what do you say to that?"

"why, that's possible, yes, entirely possible. say, that's a very smart thing to think, mog, even if i don't know what that last thing you said meant."

"yes, neither did i, seeing as i don't speak french. but anyway, how about we bring tog along to the next party and make him fall and lose his loincloth in front of the ladies a few times. that would give us those good feelings, then, right? and it would be something to do besides eat, talk, and bang rocks."

"capital, my good man, just capital. we shall proceed to do just that."

And so along went Grog and Mog to find Tog.

"hello tog", said Grog.

"hello tog", said Mog.

"Hi, Grog. Hi Mog. Guess WhaT? TheY jUsT inVentEd CapiTAl lEttERS! Isn't tHAT GreaT?" [3]

"SAY tog, THAT IS gReAT!", said Grog.

"OnlY, I don'T ThINK That I aM using TheM just RigHT yet", said Tog.

"OH, nO", said Grog. "SouNDS juSt fiNe tO ME!"

"So anYway, what bringS you fellowS arouND?", asked Tog.

"well, tog, grog and i wanted to know if you would come to tonight's party and do your falling down thing. we think that it makes us have that good feeling thing and the mouth corner thing, and we thought it would be great to do that again at the party a few times." [4]

"Well, that's a great idea, fellows. onlY, it doesn't give me that good feeling thing, more of a hot burning thing. so I don't think that It's my falling down thing that does it. mAybe it's the mouth corner thing that does it?"

"Oh, no, ToG", said Grog. "We thouGht about That. it is definitely the falling thing. well, this is a bit of a pickle, isn't it? WHAT now?"

"let me think", said mog. "hmmmm. you know. when tog does the falling down thing, we get a good feeling. maybe if we did the falling down thing, tog would get a good feeling. and by the way, pickles haven't been invented yet."

"Oh, yeS, That's right aBout the PICKles. thanks aGAIN. but I see what you SAY about the falling thing. Do let'S GIve it a try."

So Grog and Mog fell down and lost their loincloths a few times.

"Oh, yes, I see what you mean", said Tog. "It does sort of give a good feeling thing to see, and the mouth corner thing, too. Only not so much as when I did it, I believe, right?"

"WelL, we aRE MISSing the Ladies. MAYbe ladies have to bE PREsent to see it."

"there will be ladies tonight at the party. let's all do it", said Mog.

It was a big hit. Especially for the ladies. And thus was born the first party game. [5]

Yehuda

[1] Mog was later sued by Grog for misuse of trademark, specifically violating the "look and feel" of a greeting first popularized by Grog. The greeting was also patent pending, a system for the greeting of a person whereby initial recognition is achieved in a non-threatening manner.

[2] It did feel good to the ladies who were secretly observing this, however.

[3] Hacker and early adapter.

[4] Luddite, old generation, refuses to get with the times.

[5] It was called "Whose Loincloth is it, Anyway?" (tm)

GAME STORE CONFIDENTIAL ~ How to grow a set and not be a whiner

I've been jonesing for some two-player board gaming action.

The urge hasn't gotten to an unbearable level yet, but if I attend or host too many more wussified Euro Game sessions I'm going to end up regressing back to the 70's... those were the days many of us remember... when we'd buy a manly two-player, direct confrontation, CRT-laden, dice-happy game and punch the counters, set up the board... and play it solitaire.

Yes. There were sissy gamers back then too, kiddies. So us war gamers had to learn the hard way; alone. The board gaming world has always been plagued by weak-kneed, sensitive types who cringe at the thought of having to pit their wits, intelligence and mental acuity against a single combatant. I will explain to you, in the following paragraphs, why multi-player games (Euro Games in particular) have the deleterious effect of eroding the gaming gene-pool. In short, these plain-vanilla, non-confrontational games reward unmanly cooperation, punish rugged individualism and minimize the very important risk-taking behaviour that builds strong gaming muscles.

First off, lets give the Euros the full measure of credit they're due. Hmmmm... what do they do? Oh yeah! Males who used to be real men are often allowed by thier wives to buy Euro Games. An added benefit of that sickening thought is that BGG has probably gained upwards of 40,000 new members as former men flock to the site to hungrily gobble up every Geek List and thread that's ever been written about "games my mistress/wife/girlfriend/dominatrix will play".

What else? Oh, okay, a bunch of people can use Euro Games as an excuse to socialize, drink beer and have group hug sessions where they applaud each other for being refined and discriminating enough to have risen above the barabaric gaming behavoiur exhibited by real men... like, you know, war gamers.

There was a perfect example of exactly this behaviour Saturday, right here in Idaho. A fellow BGG member lives about 20 miles from me. JonnyBravoh is by all outward appearances a regular guy, and he is nice enough to have hosted a bunch of all-day game sessions at his beautiful home. But to cut right to the chase, Jon only hosts these sessions when his wife allows it. Now Jon has a lovely wife and she likes some Euro Games as well. And me, not currently having a wife I have no room to criticize someone in an area where he is obviosly more successful than me... marraige. Hmmm... now that I think about it, I might actually be more successful than Jon at marraige, I have done it at least four times that I can remember and he's only done it once. So who is he to talk?

Anyway, there were between 6 and 9 people there throughout the day and almost every game played was a souless Euro. Not a one of them had any real backbone, not even the ones that were fun. They all fall short because they allow weakness to have a chance at success. They mask poor decision-making. They suppress man's innate desire for single combat. In effect, they turn what ought to be a monumental struggle for domination into a social affair where sloppy play, failure to comprehend rules and heads completely devoid of strategy can schlepp along and have a chance of winning.

Here's an example: A couple of weeks back Jon brought Keythedral to my house. Four of us played and I got slapped... badly. So, when there were five of us at Jon's on Saturday we played Keythedral. I handily won the game. Beating Jon out by a mere point and humiliating the other three. Jon was stunned. What I didn't tell him was how easy it was to beat the game. I watched what the guy who won a few weeks ago did and I did that. Duh. Everyone else played like total spaz gamers, randomly picking tile locations, buying too many house upgrades, getting behind the 8-ball on having the right color of goofy looking little cubes to buy the influence and so on. A bunch of amatuers. If there had been any real war gamers there they'd have given me a run for the money. Jon came close, but hey, it's his game, he's "experienced".

Another game we played was Santiago. I had played this 2-dimensional tile-laying clone once before, at Jon's house, and was beaten soundly. I remembered well what the guy who won did and I did that, winning the game easily. Even 2nd place was over 15 points back. Duh.

We also played Power Grid. Now I happen to like Power Grid because it is confrontational, somewhat. Jumbo won the game, but if the rules had allowed me to act like a renegade third world Religious-Totalitarian Psycho Nation, like Iraq, North Korea or France, I would have kept my nuclear plants, insisted they were for power generation only and secretly stockpiled weapons grade material and nuked the crap outta Jumbo's little East Coast power empire. But hey, it's a Euro, one made by a freakish looking guy with green hair. So I knew what I buying when I bought it and I'm not going to complain when Jumbo actually wins a game... he was sooo happy.

I also won Ticket to Ride Marklin, a bunch of games of For Sale - I rarely lose at For Sale and no one has ever wondered why, they just comment that I'm "lucky at For Sale", okay, whatever, - I won one game of Bang! and something else, I think.The general consensus was that DW had a good day. That comment alone, "DW had a good day", proves my point that Euro's have turned gaming into a pastime where winning is never a clear statement that someone is thinking and applying the results of their cogitation to the game, no matter how cookie-cutter and bland the game is. No, in the EuroSnoot crowd you aren't a "good player" or a "clear winner"... instead you "have a good day."

To be fair again to Jon, as well as Jason, they were both drinking. Jon to excess and Jason simply a steady stream of beer. At one point Jon was blubbering drunk and thankfully nobody wanted to play anything more serious than Liar's Dice until the 12 or 13 scotches he drank wore off. I waited the rest of the day and into the evening for what I knew was coming... that somehow drinking and then slobbering all over the table would be brought up as an excuse. As we were giving the day it's post-mortum and prepping to leave, Jon commented, "I would have done better in Power Grid if I hadn't been so blindingly drunk that my brains melted and gray juice oozed out of my ears and onto the game board."

Okay, what he really said was, "I would have done better in Power Grid if I wasn't drinking."

Well, duh. That's like saying, " I wouldn't have driven over your cow, your ornamental shrubs, your electric fence, through your garage, out into the fields and then knocked down that cell tower, if I hadn't been drinking."

When I look at pictures of various games on BGG what do you think I see? I see lots of pictures of metrosexual-looking guys all grinning like idiots over the various incarnations of the exact same game which sits on a table in an IKEA-stricken dining room and the table is littered with beer bottles, feminine wine glasses, scotch tumblers and puddles of gray liquid that has drained out of their ears.

The point here is simple, Euro Games and most popular multi-player games are weak because they usually can be easily beaten, once you learn the basic design... which is all too frequently a replicate of almost every other Euro Game. They apparancy of competition comes mainly from the fact that most people who play them are either drunk, or they are somebody's "grudging" wife, or the players are so busy discussing their latest iPod downloads, comparing ringtones, making condescending comments about Country Western music and complementing each other on how everybody solved the Game Storage Issue.

For about the 12,395th time Jumbo stated that he loves epic multi-player games and dislikes two-player games. He likes TI3, he likes Descent, he likes big, expansive epic struggles where 5 or 6 people get together and spend 4-7 hours playing. I reminded him that he never gets to play those games. He agreed, that is one of the downsides to epic-scale multi-player games. Yep. You spend $70 on a game and three years later you've played it exactly 1.4 times.... and that was with your cousin's two pre-teen daughters, your moody roomates and RoBee. That same $70 invested in two or three war games would have allowed you to actually play a game... many times.

But! All this leads to one of the more sinister aspects of multi-player games... the Dark Side of gaming... the morally corrosive and character-wrecking seed that virtually every multi-player game has built right into it. And that evil seed is - blaming the poor play of others for your own miserable failures, lack of comprehension and tendency to lose.

Of all the spineless and self-loathing excuses that exist in board gaming, pinning your sorry-ass lack of skill on the errors that other people make is the worst. It trumps everything... including being roaring drunk or having a 2 year old throwing collicky fit in the host's wife's lap...as she sits at the table and stares everyone down. It even trumps cheaters, liars and rules-bending nerd-boys who stare more intently than a Scientologist at anyone who argues their interpretation of a rule. Pissing and moaning about what someone else did wrong and how that was why you lost is so unmanly and so self-hating and it so disgusting that I wonder how board gaming sales have grown these last 10 or 15 years.

Maybe the God-fearing, purgatory-preaching and very well armed Religious Conservatives do have it right - we really have become a culture that has an internal self-loathing for our own despicable behaviour. Hmmmm... that would go a long way towards explaining why there are so many Liberal Weenies on BGG... puking all over themselves in a frenzied rush to blame their most recent Puerto Rico loss on "that idiot who chose the Craftsman at the wrong time".

Fact is, none of this BS happens in 2-player games. You don't lose at a game of chess and then carp away on BGG like a big whining baby that you'd have won except for the mistakes the winner made. Actually, now that I think about it, there are enough college grads and IT people infesting BGG that I suspect even that happens. 5 Geek Gold to the first reader of today's article that can direct me to a thread that shows an example of a loser in a 2-player game whining that he only lost because the winner was a lousy player. Oh yeah, and the thread has to be prior to June 19th, 2006, I'm on to you city boys and university people's wily ways.

I like the people I game with. I even like Jon, despite the fact that when he cooked hamburgers on his grill a few months back we ended up using them for street hockey instead of eating them. Jumbo, RoBee, Shaun, Lyle, Austin the 11 year old wunderkid with ants in his pants, Bode, Tony the RRT Baron, they're all great folks to game with. When we get a chance to have Jason and fellow BBG'er Rickwa play, it's even better. But... I really miss the mano y mano 2-player, single combat, confrontational style of gaming. Out of the current group I'd guess only Jason and Bode (who is about 10 days out from opening a game store with two partners) are the only ones who, like me, have the stones to play head-to-head games and face their losses like a man... or graciously congratulate you for putting up a good fight when they win.

For the most part I actually like multi-player games, despite the fact that so many of the ones from Europe are cookie-cutter rehashes of the same two or three designs with some crappy theme that was pasted loosely on after the designer lost control to the publisher. I also consider myself lucky that the people I game with don't whine too badly... well, Lyle does, but then he whines about everything. Lyle though, has shown more than the normal level of interest for war gaming, so perhaps I can get him to play a few real games and beat the whining right out of him.

Anyway, I really am looking forward to some of the upcoming Euro's and even more so, many of the designs coming from American publishers like GMT, FFG and Eagle. I think it's right here in the Good Ol' USA that theme and gritty competition stills exists in gaming and game design.

If you think about it, America is where War Games first rose up and became popular. As a culture we tend to be more "in your face" and willing to get down in the mud and wrestle for a win. I know that attitude pisses some people off because it's so brazen. But that's how it is folks, and for my money I like games that have those nose-to-nose qualities. I know I'm starting to sound like I don't like Euro Games, European people, college educated Wussy Boys, Canadians, people who drink wine, gamers who humiliate themselves by blaming their crappy play on others, men who allow their women to neuter them, women who gleefully neuter their men, folks who drink so much while gaming that they actually become more entertaining than the game and anyone who uses the word "elegant" when talking about games. Well, you're wrong. Except for the one about the usage of "elegant" and maybe the neutering thing, I can pretty much get along with anyone and get enjoyment from any gaming opportunity.

All I'm saying is this: 2-player games tend to be better designed games. They are much less forgiving. They are usually much more competitive. Good ones are, out of neccessity, of a much tighter design than even good multi-player games. They require a much higher usage of the brain and reward intelligent risk-taking, intuition and bold play. And... most Euro Gamers fear them because there is nothing to hide behind when you get your ass soundly kicked and there is only yourself to blame.

Finally, and I don't mean to pick on Jumbo here, but he is an easy target and he doesn't currently have internet access, the mark of a spinelss Euro-Wuss gamer is how they shun confrontation and seek situations where they can hide their personal gaming flaws. Jumbo did exactly that about a month or so back. We set up and played War of the Ring, a game that defies easy classification because it's designed by Europeans, published by an American company, has a huge board, lots of cheesy and garish platic pieces and is relatively complicated while at the same time being, at heart, a 2-player direct confrontation war game. After the game Jumbo commented, "That's a great game, but it'd be even better with four players."

No. No it wouldn't. It sucks as a 4-player game. Some of you folks need to grow a set and experience what I'm talking about. Heres a great link to get you started - manly gaming link

Enjoy the summer... and for chrissakes, quit yer whining!

Bring 'em Back Alive: Disorder in the Court

By Dwayne "okiedokie" Hendrickson

Over at BGG, amongst all the sub groups of gamers, there is a sub group known as "Thrifters". Thrifters are a nice bunch, they have a weekly Geeklist, they have a King, they probably have all the missing pieces you need. The thrifters are constantly searching through thrift stores, yard/estate/garage/boot sales, discount houses, clearance racks, attics, flea markets, anywhere for discounted games. But amongst the thrifters there even sub-sub groups, factions that have differing opinions of behavior and decorum within the Kingdom of Thrifters. Here is a quick overview of what I have noticed.

Catch & Release vs. Filling the Zoos. Since games can be purchased at a discounted price the same games can be resold at a profit. These two groups seem to be split on where the profit comes from and how big a profit should be. The Filling the Zoos side are looking for the games that can be posted on ebay where one can realize a hefty ROI. The profit is the motive for the hunt, so much so that the hunter may actually sell a game that they themselves want. The Catch & Release crowd prefer locating games and then listing in the BGG Marketplace or offering them for trade, getting the games to the gamers. I have read some posts from the C&G group that indicate that the FtZ group really don't love the games as much as the C&G side. If you really, really love a game, you would sell/trade to another true gamer (geek) rather than sulley your gaming fingers with filthy luchre. The FtZ side counters that they are just trying to fulfill a niche in the marketplace. If you can't pay the $300 for Dark Tower, that's just too bad. Ebay is open to everyone, BGG'ers included. The FtZ is just taking advantage of what the market will bear.


Ballot Box Stuffers vs. Earning the Kings Favor. At the end of 2005 I had a lot of downtime at work. So much so that I started going through all the geeklists that had to do with thrift store finds. It was about this same time that the Weekly Thrifting lists appeared (started, I believe, by Pmboos). I rooted through each list, cataloging each game id, reading each entry to determine if the thrifter actually purchased the item or wanted an opinion. I counted each comment to see how many people added "I bought this one today as well". Then in a fit of madness, I decided to rank the thrifters to see who had the most finds, and therefore crown the King of the Thrifters and name his court, vassals, & serfs. It was not unlike taking a backhoe to a levee. The Thrift Geeklists soon grew to almost 5 pages a week and then discussions sprang up about quantity (Ballot Box Stuffers) over quality (Earning the King's Favor). Were folks buying piles of cheap unwanted crap ( Ungame, Hi-Ho Cherrio, Monopoly) at 50 cents a pop just to move up in the rankings? Or was it better to sit back and actually purchase games that are highly ranked (Acquire, Settlers of Catan ) or have a good following (Heroquest, Loopin Louie). Are you stuffing the ballot box to move up the list, or by being selective are you more deserving of being in the King's Court? Sadly, since my workload has increased, I may be unable to handle the statistical monster that the King of Thrifters has become and the coronation ceremony in Jan of 07 looks like it may not happen.


Old Thrift vs. New Thrift. Old thrift is used items, often found in the seedier sides of town, places you may not want to go, meeting people you may not want to meet. It can get depressing, walking among tons of unused, unwanted junk, day after day, week after week. It's kinda like walking across Africa looking for a lion & all you see are crippled muskrats. New Thrifting is going to your FLGS, TRU, or Big Box dealer, waiting for them to mark things down. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Waiting in the air conditioning, waiting while you are surrounded by happy music, new merchandise, and probably within arms reach of a Starbucks. It's like sitting in the clubhouse of your country club and shooting a dear as it walks across the 18th green. Which is the true thrifter? Both watch, both search, both wait. But which carries more weight in the thrifting community, a used copy of TI3 found at Uptown Thrift in Slapout, Oklahoma for $4.99 (with 15% off because it's Cra-a-a-azy Casino days) or a shrinkwrapped copy of TI3 purchased at Barnes & Noble in Downtown Chicago for $8 because for a 90% clearance sale? Does a true thrifter HAVE to smell bad afterwards?


Crapshoot vs. The Blade Brigade. Most types of thrift stores seal their games, either bagging them (hope beyond hope) or taping them shut. The Crapshoot crowd plays by the rules & has learned to possibly discern what is in the game based on various method of shaking or, if they are lucky, finding that the store also has a used X-ray machine that the thrifter can then use to peer inside the box. They do that, or they they plunk down their hard-saved pennies, take their prize home and learn that their copy of Squad Leader contains only 3 chits, half a map, and all the TV Guide Crossword books ever published. Crapshooters take it as part of the hunt. Inside that game box will you find an extra expansion, unopened mail, hidden pr0n, cash, an encrusted hairbrush, or just the game itself? The Blade Brigade, having been burned more times than Helen Keller in Yellowstone Park, makes their own rules and carrys a small knife with them. They will slice the tape and inventory the contents, sometimes taking only the pieces they need (Chandelier for 13 Deadend Drive). Quite often, 'Bladers' will leave a game for someone else to purchase. Also, some thrift stores will not sell games that have been opened, therefore when you get to the counter with a game that has been 'bladed', it could go back into the pricing area until the next day and you go home with nothing.

So there you go, six sub-sub groups that may or may not be at each others throats. & I haven't even gotten into discussing territorial rights.

Until next time, keep your dice on the table & your drinks off the board.

An old flame rekindled

I fell in love last weekend.

With an old flame I thought I was completely over. Let's call him Bob.

It's nothing Fraser need worry about, though.

Bob won't reciprocate my love, won't whisk me off to some sunny climate with a swim-up cocktail bar and give me massages that curl my toes. The most I can hope for is long evenings with a bottle of wine, my thoughts consumed with my latest encounter with Bob. What could I have done differently, could I have been more giving? Was I a pushover - was I too coy? When will we meet again - and will I score?



Let's take a step back, and set the scene. Last Friday night, we drove three hours north to Albury, for the first ever Australian Games Expo. No-one was really sure what to expect, but we were pretty excited. Is this the first ever games convention to have a banner over the main street of the town it was held in?

I'm guessing it is probably the first ever games convention that was launched with a Mayoral Reception - drinks and finger food put on by the city council, with Mayor, councillors, senior staff and invited special guests.

Definitely a nice start to the weekend.

I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the (non-gaming) council mayor and staff for the event and for its potential. "This has got legs," I heard several times - I gather Albury's council were instrumental in supporting the expo and getting it off the ground. It was great to see both the Mayor and a couple of staff members wandering around the Expo over the weekend, taking in the atmosphere and seeing what the vendors had to offer.

The three evenings we were in Albury were filled with social gaming - on Friday night at our hotel, and on Saturday and Sunday nights at the local Border Games club's clubrooms. While it was pretty quiet there on Sunday, I think there were probably around fifty or sixty people there on Saturday night - we were perching gingerly on the children's chairs while we played.

The Expo itself was - well, to call it busy is an understatement. As well as eighteen retail or wholesale displays and a sizable open gaming area, there was a room set aside for the inaugural Australian Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan tournaments. While many of us competed in both of these, others chose to only play one or even just visit the Expo for the open gaming. As far as I know, this was also the first Eurogaming convention in Australia - other conventions have had Eurogames played, but this was the first to focus specifically on them. The estimate I heard was that over a thousand people came through the doors, in addition to the various tournament players. Impressively, many of these were families with children of all ages - and many left with bags of games.

The open gaming area was definitely a huge hit. Originally, this had been intended as a side part of the event, but it was expanded as the organisers responded to feedback from gamers. It wasn't just the gamers who were playing, though - it was the public too. Whether from a retailer, a wholesaler or a potential player, the call would go up - "Can someone teach this?" - and more often than not, there would be an eager response and the game would start up. A large game collection supplied by Border Games and some of the exhibitors helped to keep this area buzzing.



The exhibitors area was a bit more hit-and-miss, especially as no-one knew quite what to expect from the weekend. There was representation from game importers and wholesalers, game groups including a children's chess organisation and the Australian Poker League, a game inventor (who also invented a walk-in bathtub ... this fascinated me all weekend, but not as much as the proof - in the form of the young man helping at his stall - that he has in fact perfected the science of human cloning) and four game retailers including two internet suppliers. After dissatisfaction at other events over one local business's deep discounting, there was agreement that there would be no discounting at the event, and that games would only be for sale from the retailers and not from the distributors. As a gamer, I have to say that this seemed pretty poor to me. With club memberships, we are entitled to discounts from local game shops, so there was no real incentive for us to buy while we were in Albury, other than to save on postage for orders from interstate. I know that other gamers were commenting the same, and this may have led to some disappointing sales at the 'hobby' end of the market. There is still a very real incentive to order games online, especially from overseas, and a small discount might have encouraged people to spend more freely while they were away.



The other thing that I found disappointing, which is really a perennial problem, was the range of games - especially newer games - that was, or rather wasn't, available. Caylus is barely available here, and we have finally tracked down a copy of the Italy-France map for Power Grid, but many of last year's Essen and this year's Nürnberg games simply have not made it to Australia yet. I'm keen to get a copy of TechnoWitches and to try out many of the newer releases including Thurn und Taxis (in real life, rather than online), MauerBauer (Masons) and Cleopatra and the Society of Architects. After this year's success, maybe some of the international players may consider sending some representation to the Expo in future, bringing some of their newer games here before we would normally expect to see them. I know that that would be a real drawcard for many of us.

Kudos here must be given to new company All Games Distribution who are importing a great range of titles, including some great card games like 6 nimmt! and Geschenkt which have not been available locally in the past. The pride of their offerings this Expo was surely the only 'new' game to be featured, Magicians' Night (Die Nacht der Magier), the glow-in-the-dark dexterity game that seems to be the favourite for this year's Kinderspiel des Jahres award. We gave it a whirl on Saturday night at the games club and it is a very good game indeed, although the $97 price tag feels a bit steep.

The two tournaments - Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan - ran all day Saturday and for most of Sunday. The format was a 4-round Swiss tournament (with winners playing winners and losers playing losers); the top 16 players in each tournament went on to the four semi-finals, and the winner of each semi-final went into the final, playing for the fantastic prizes of (1) a trip to Essen, with 5 nights' accommodation; (2) a 3D Settlers chest; and (3) a Teuber-signed copy of Cities and Knights of Catan or Seafarers of Catan. Enrolments, while they didn't reach the initial target of 64 in each tournament, were very healthy - 52 in Settlers, I think, and around 45 in Carcassonne. The word was that Spielezentrum Herne were very impressed with those numbers - I expect them to be larger next year.

I entered both tournaments and, I have to confess, I was dreading it. Neither Settlers nor Carcassonne has been a favourite of mine for a long time, and I felt I was committed to a couple of days of purgatory, just to keep tournament enrolments high. In fact, playing in the tournaments was a delight - I had only pleasant opponents, and the addition of a "Best and Fairest" prize (with attendant voting for the nicest opponent) was a great move. Congratulations to Best and Fairest winners Phoebe and Damien. I've written about my games played in a GeekList, so I won't go into details of those experiences here.



There were some hiccoughs in the tournament process, which will be ironed out by next year I am sure. Eligibility for the Settlers final was calculated first on number of wins, then on Victory Points, with ties broken by percentage of overall score. The draw, however, was generated strictly on Victory Points - which meant that it was possible for players who spent the tournament playing at the top tables to not actually qualify for the semifinal, despite being among the top 16 VP earners. I don't have a quibble with the win-VP-percentage system, but I do think that it should have been applied to the draw as well as to finalist selection.

Scoring for Carcassonne was calculated quite differently, and I think that this was not a meaningful scoring system. Players were ranked and qualified for semifinals based on their raw scores over their four games. Astute tournament players (of which I was not one, so this may all be a big case of sour grapes) quickly realised that the only way to play was co-operatively, and so they worked together to build bigger and bigger cities, with scores of 120 or more being relatively common. To give an idea of how this may have affected results, I was sitting equal sixteenth before the final round, in which I won my (seeded) game with 84 VP, but I failed to qualify in the top sixteen for the semifinals. Where the Settlers scoring gave rise to some anomalies, I really feel that this system in Carcassonne skewed the results and did not give a clear picture of the players' relative performance. Next time, use percentages of total score for a game, rather than raw scores.

I understand that there is some discussion about what games to run tournaments in next year. While I support the push for variety, I think it is great that Australia will have representation at the world championships this year. My vote, therefore, goes to repeating one of this year's tournaments (preferably Settlers) and maybe introducing a new game next year. Based on my current BSW stats, I'd vote for Thurn und Taxis out of pure self-interest - although there was some discussion of an auction game like Ra.



The tournaments really took it out of me, though. By the time I'd played three games each of Settlers and Carcassonne on Saturday, then the final qualifying rounds and a Settlers semi-final on Sunday, I was too tired to do anything much at all. Next year, I'd like to see the event extended to a third day - whether an 'official' third day at the expo centre or a third day of open gaming at some other venue. My preference would be to extend the event, because I didn't really get a good chance to check out the vendors and explore the games that they brought to play - and also because I wanted to have more time to catch up with old and new gaming friends. Make it a short day, finishing at 2 - we all have to get home - but take advantage of the long Queen's Birthday weekend and give us more time to play and enjoy.

Overall impressions? Top marks to Phil Davies of Mind Games Albury, his team of assistants, the sponsors, and the City of Albury for making this event happen. We re-booked our hotel before we left for home - we will be there next year. I see this event as having real potential not just as a drawcard for gamers in Australia but as a regional event as well - maybe some of our Malaysian, Singaporean and of course New Zealand neighbours might consider joining us next year or in the future.

And Bob?

The Settlers of Catan, of course. I've grizzled and grouched about playing it, pitched and moaned at the idea of the tournament - and now I can't wait to play it again.

May your armies be large, your roads long, and your rolls productive. I'll see you in Albury next June.

Melissa

From the kitchen of Dame Coldfoot and Wolfgang Krocker

Boardgame Salad

Games you will need:

Bohnanza, Candamir, Goa, Gulo Gulo, Hare and Tortoise, Indonesia, Jambo, Mare Nostrum, Puerto Rico, Reef Encounter, Serenissima, Siena, Traders of Genoa


1. Wash and dry the lettuce from Hare and Tortoise. Tear into bite-sized pieces and chill until ready to toss.

2. Chop the carrots from Hare and Tortoise. Cut green beans and wax beans from Bohnanza into bite size pieces. Rinse garbanzo beans. Slice Candamir mushrooms. Blanch Puerto Rico and Siena corn (still on the cob) and chill in a bowl of ice water. Carefully cut the corn kernels off the cobs. Save cobs for the sheep. Set veggies aside.

3. Shell the shrimp from Reef Encounter. Let shrimp marinade in 1 cup of Siena wine, ½ cup of Mare Nostrum olive oil. Sprinkle Serenissima spices, Traders of Genoa salt and Goa pepper to taste for one hour. Do not marinate for more than 1 hour. ToG salt and Goa pepper taste woody if left to marinate for more than 1 hour. In a sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of Mare Nostrum olive oil on medium-high heat. Quickly stir-fry shrimp until pink and opaque. Chill.

4. Hard boil 5 medium sized Gulo Gulo eggs. Cool and chop finely.

5. For dressing, mix ½ cup Mare Nostrum olive oil, ½ cup Serenissima wine, 4 tablespoons Indonesia spices and ¼ cup Candamir honey. Mix well. Add ½ cup of pureed fruit from Jambo and chill.

6. In a large bowl, mix lettuce and veggies. Top with shrimp and chopped eggs. Pour dressing over all and toss well.

Serves: 3-5
Eat time: 45 minutes.

Australian Version: For an advanced meal arm wrestle to decide who gets the last shrimp.

Strategy of a Game: Blue Moon, Part One: Hoax & Vulca

Over at RPGnet these last few months I've been writing a series of reviews of the Blue Moon expansions. Each review has also included some strategy notes on the deck. Since I know folks aren't necessarily reading reviews for strategy, I've decided to collect those strategy notes here, at Gone Gaming, along with some additional card counts and other info. Each of these articles will cover two of the Blue Moon decks, and I expect you'll see about one a month until I hit them all.

I'm starting off with two decks that I haven't discussed before, the inhabitants of the original game, the Hoax and the Vulca.

You may also want to take a look at the general strategy notes I included in my article Anatomy of a Game : Blue Moon.

Card Counts

First off, here's a break down of the cards in the first two decks:

Card Types	Leadership	Characters	Boosters	Support
Hoax	3	18	3	6
Vulca	3	18	4	5

As we'll later see, this is a pretty standard split of cards, which the Hoax being a little off-balanced toward support.

Here's card icons. Note that these first decks are very conservative and thus don't include much in the way of special icons.

Card Icons	Free	Gang	Pair	Prot.	Repl.	Retr.	EShield	FShield	Stop
Hoax	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	2	1*
Vulca	0	0	1**	0	0	0	2	1	1*

* Keep in mind that each deck tends to have a mutant with the icons: earth shield, fire shield, stop. Thus a base number of 1/1/1 for these last three icons is normal.

** This count includes 1 paired card whose matches don't appear in this deck.

Finally, here's some combat value counts:

Counts	Earth Sum	Earth Max	Fire Sum	Fire Max	2C Max Play
Hoax	44	5	55	5	10 earth
Vulca	46	5	69	7	14 fire

Max shows the highest card of the type while "2c max play" shows the highest value possible when playing two cards, usually a character plus a booster or support.

Of note here: A heavy bias toward fire in the Vulca deck, and a pretty massive two card combination. However the Hoax also has a slight fire bias.

Deck #1: The Hoax

Strengths: Special effect characters, a few retrievables, and some nice support cards.

Weaknesses: Generally low-value characters. Strengths are also a limited resource.

Cards of Note: The following cards are of particular note in the Hoax deck.

Brain Drain (Support). Prevents your opponent from playing more than one card on their turn. This can shut down most decks unless they have a leadership or character card that discards support. It's thus best to play when you're already assured of a 6-card win.

Duplicator of Strength (Support). A powerful card because it doubles the Earth value of your character card. Unfortunately, the Hoax are generally pretty weak. There's a 5, Catsuan, the mutant is a 4, then you're down to 3s. However, you can use this as a one-two setup since the Duplicator is a support. Play the Duplicator of Strength on one turn, then play a character with either the Potion of Prodigious Passion (increases value to 5) or the Battling Boomerang (2/2) booster on the next turn. This can give you a 10 total, or a 14 with Catsuan and the Boomerang.

Hank Highflyer Hawk (Character). I hate to highlight this character, since it's from the Flit deck, but it's nonetheless one of the best defenses in the deck. You get to ignore your opponent's character value and also any of the special effects on their card, which can get you out of many a jam. This is a great card to hold onto until your opponent really thinks they have you.

Strategy: The Hoax deck is pretty subtle. As already noted, its characters are weak, mostly running 1-3, with a few higher values in fire and just Catsuan's 5 in earth. It only makes up for that with its support and special effects.

I think of the five 2/2 characters as the core of the deck. They're somewhat similar to the Shamans of the later Mimix deck, in that they have nice special powers, but they're hard to play after the first round of a duel. However in the Hoax deck you actually have the opportunity to play them later in a duel if you're building up support, which can itself give you quite a good total even before you play a character.

Of these 5 special characters you have one superb defense (Bethenitana, who prevents your opponet from attacting dragons, and should be played one turn before you retreat) and a strong attack (Genathones, who allows the play of an extra support). You also have 3 that you only want to play if you think you're going to finish off the duel immediately: Thirkomedas (who prevents the play of leadership/booster/support), Redamikanas (who attracts an additional dragon if you win), and Demegodas (who doubles the value of your support). Each has some pretty obvious times to play. For example, you play Thirkomedas if your opponent is only matching duel values through the play of boosters and Demegoas if you've already got out a good set of supports.

There are three retrievables in this deck, and they're all nice: a 3/3 character, a 2/2 booster and a 1/2 support. If you're playing against the Flit, remember that a retrievable can't be retrieved if your opponent also has one out. This might be a nice way to get rid of a particularly powerful retrievable character that your opponent is using without having to throw the fight. Other than that, consider these very nice resources. Play them when you're treading water because your opponent isn't increasing the values quickly enough, and you can cost him nice cards. Since you just have three you don't want to put more than one out in a duel, lest you lose them all in a retreat ... unless doing so would result in a 6-card and thus 2-dragon victory.

Beyond that, pay attention to your supports, because they're your only real advantage. Try and get them out early in a fight, to constantly cause your opponent to play higher numbers. Also see the earlier notes about Brain Drain and Duplicator of Strength.

A nice card combo with the Hoax is Muster Reinforcements/Trigger Brainstorm. The first one lets you draw five cards. Then on the next turn you can play the Brainstorm and drop a number of supports. This can both increase your value and push your card count to 6 quickly. It's also one of the ways to more easily play a 2/2 special-effect character late in a duel. It works best if you already have supports in your hand, and if it's late enough in the game that you don't mind losing a few of your support (or, alternatively, if it gives you an instant 4-dragon game win).

Counter Strategy: Even more than most decks, I think it's a viable strategy when fighting the Hoax to throw duels in order to cost them their best cards. This works best to kill the retrievables or any of the better support cards. If your opponent has played these but hasn't hit 6 cards, I think it's almost required.

The Muster Brainstorm leadership, which gives a player 5 cards can be intimidating, but you can also turn it to your advantage. After a player is down to a normal hand size, he's even more likely than usual to have an unbalanced hand. If you're starting a new duel around here, consider keeping the element the same because you might be able to take advantage of that.

Perhaps the best way to defeat the Hoax is to brute-force them. You'll need to play low cards in some duels, to keep your hand clear of them, but in other duels jump straight up to a 6 or a 7, either on the lead if you have a great character or in the first response (preferably using a booster or pair). By doing this before an opponent can take advantage of his supports, you might have already locked him out of the duel.

Deck #2: The Vulca

Strengths: High-value characters, particularly in fire.

Weaknesses: Few special effect texts, and thus not a lot of versatility.

Cards of Note: The following cards are of particular note in the Vulca deck.

Charm Holy Dragon (Leadership). Trading 8 fire for 1 dragon is almost always a good idea, provided that you can do so efficiently. In general this is a great way to get rid of low-to-mid value cards that wouldn't deliver a victory in-and-of themselves. So, if you're ever in a position where you're holding two to three cards which meet the 8 fire requirement as well as this Leadership, use them!

Flamebreat the Dazzling (Character). The strongest character in a deck of strong characters: an aweinspiring 7/0.

Volcanic Gauntlets (Booster). A close mirror to the Hoax's Duplicator of Strength, but even better in this deck because of the high fire value that it features. This is a great card to finish off a duel, particularly in combination with one of the 5+ fire values.

Wall of Fire (Support). Like the Hoax's Brain Drain, this can be a duel-winning Support. When you play it your opponent either immediately retreats, or else decides to stay in a fight hoping to win with what he's got in his hand. Unless he's lucky, you'll beat him either way.

Strategy: The strategy of the Vulca deck is mainly to take advantage of its high-flying numbers. You have Flamebreath (7/0) and Scorch (6/0) as well as the aforementioned Volcanic Gauntlets and an Elemental Enchantment which increases a power value to 6. The Lightning Bolts (3/1) support and the Fireblast (3/2) booster are nice too.

The trick of this deck is to always make sure that if you're going to use your best values, you do so only when you'll win two dragons. Thus you should save them for your sixth card. Play low cards to get there, them jump from four to six in one move if you have appropriate boosters or support.

Though it's tempting to think of this deck as weak in earth it's not bad. Just looking at its straight values, it's actually a couple points more powerful than the Hoax deck. Thus, don't be afraid to start a fight in earth or continue one if your cards call for it.

There's not much special effect text on the Vulca cards, but there are a few which you might want to watch if you're playing certain other decks. The Ember (1/1) character prevents the play of characters without special effect text. This is great against a deck of plain characters like the Mimix (or the Vulca themselves). The Cast Cataclysm leadership, Cinder character, and Pandemonium support all have various ways to deal with support cards. Keep this in mind if you're playing a support-heavy deck like the Hoax. Flickering Fire, which is a support that prevents the play of leaderships, can be pretty mystifying as to how to play defensively. It really only works if you know an opponent has a deck strategy centered on a leadership and is about to play it. The Aqua's Adminster Water of Immortality is a rare card that you might be able to time, but in general you won't get good use of this defense unless you're a very experienced player.

In general, keep the strategy of your Vulca play simple, as that's all the deck demands.

Counter Strategy: The biggest counter strategy against the Vulca is simply to play against their strength. If you can, always be ready to stave off one high-power play, through armor or a character like Hank Highflyer Hawk. The Vulca usually won't be able to followup on their one high play.

In addition, try and force a final, high-value conflict before you get up to 6 cards. Playing something that will force your opponent to play a 6+ as your third card isn't a bad choice when playing against the Vulca.

Beyond that, take advantage of whatever special powers your own deck has, whether it be the Hoax's special powers, the Flit's retrievables, or the Mimix's pairs. These are the places where the Vulca won't be able to compete, and thus you'll have the best opportunity to beat them.

Adaptations For Two Players

The few games I’ve been playing lately are 2-player games, just me and hubby, which led me to think of the different ways that games handle 2 players.

Reduce the playing area. Very few games simply shrink the playing area to force interaction between players. La Citta and Samurai are the only games in my collection that use this technique although Attika, with its build-the-board tile-laying style, starts out with fewer tiles to accomplish the same thing. No other adjustments are needed to retain the feel of the game.

Adjust the number of pieces. Many games use a different number of pieces for each player depending on the number of players but the purpose can differ: Torres gives each player more blocks to build castles which forces the 2 players to interact, while Hansa reduces the number of goods tokens to shorten game play to a reasonable player-to-time ratio.

Adjust playing area & pieces. Through the Desert combines a smaller board area with fewer pieces to keep the 2-player game tight and competitive. Medieval Merchants combines a truncated playing area for 2 players with a reduction in earnings and costs depending on the number of players.

Shadow player. Alhambra uses a 3rd player in the 2-player variant to add competition to this area-control game while Kardinal und Konig (Web of Power and China) has a 2-player variant which adds a shadow player that the 2 players fight to control.

Play 2 colors. When all else fails, each player can control 2 sets of game pieces to simulate a 4-player game. In some cases, the scores are added together to determine a winner and in others the winner is determined by comparing each player’s lower score.

No change. Often no change is needed for 2 players to enjoy a game but a more forceful style of play is required as in Magna Grecia and Tigris & Euphrates. On the other hand, maybe even these great games could benefit from a smaller playing area which would ensure confrontation between players.

It’s interesting to see the different ways that games accommodate the number of players; most of the time it works but sometimes it doesn’t. When a game plays as well with two as it does with four or five, for me, it’s like finding the prize in a box of Cracker Jacks.
~~~~~~~~

Until next time, keep the flies out of the butter.

Mary

Games that I have never lost, and never will

ASL

The trick to never losing a game of ASL is the proper mastery of the following three tactics: line-of-sight, terrain, and combat.

Line of sight is your first tactical defense. If they can't see you, they can't get you to play. I try to hide in large oaken barrels. You know, the big pickle barrels that they use on the lower East side; go see Crossing Delancy if you want to know what I mean. Be sure that the pickles and brine are no longer in the barrel before you jump into it. Hoo boy, could I tell you a painful story about that one.

You'd be surprised at the number of places that don't have pickle barrels. Women's bathrooms, women's dressing rooms, women's locker rooms - you name it, I've looked everywhere. Just about every place you can think of has occasionally been known to not have a pickle barrel. You may want to carry one around with you. But if you forget, you have to find some other means of avoiding line of sight encounters, such as a rain barrel or an oil drum.

If you've been sighted by your enemy, your next tactical consideration is terrain. What you need to achieve here is to find terrain that is good for you and difficult for your enemy. You have an initial advantage, since if your enemy is carrying around a complete game of ASL, you can probably outdistance him riding on the back of a soused pair of Botswanian racing slugs.

Climb big stairs, and jump over fences. For a distraction, throw a few colored squares of cardboard on the ground behind you as you run. This works almost as well as caltrops.

If you have lost the line of sight and terrain battles, your last tactical option is to engage in combat. Most likely your opponent is not in very good shape (let's be honest here), but if he or she sits on you you're in for a rough time.

A few sharp jabs to the solar plexus can be of great help here; with any luck, your enemy will be worried about dropping his or her game boxes. While he or she is juggling to keep them from falling down, you can escape in the distraction. For desperate situations, you can use the old dungeon trick of a thrown bottle of oil and a torch.

Monopoly

The major tactics to not losing in Monopoly are cash management and trading power.

There are many tactics you can use that fall under the category of cash management. The pre-emptive strike is to hide the money when they first try to purchase the game. If you missed that opportunity, you can try bribery or distraction.

A good example of the latter trick is to leave a path of dollar bills lying on the ground and leading into a big barrel. When they stick their nose into the barrel to find the rest of the money, kick them in the butt and knock them in. Believe me, there's nothing worse that sitting in a big pickle barrel.

Other important aspects of cash management including saving enough money to buy a plane ticket to take you to another country, preferably one that doesn't play Monopoly. If you find one, let me know.

If you have exhausted your cash management options, you have to fall back on your trading power. This requires a lot of skill and finesse. One good trade could be: "I'll give you this big pickle barrel if you stop asking me to play that dumb game. What do you mean, 'Why do I need a pickle barrel'? Everyone needs a pickle barrel! How are you going to hide when the ASL players come around? Oh, just say 'No, thank you'? I hadn't thought of that."

Another trade possibility, although a less ethical one, is to agree to play Monopoly only after playing another game first. If you choose the right game, such as ... oh, say ASL, then by the time you reach mid-game, your opponent will have jammed a soused pair of Botswanian racing slugs into his nostrils and held his breath until he has died. Using this method, you won't end up having to play Monopoly after all. The ethical problem here is a very subtle one: the slight deception involved in giving your opponent the impression that you may be willing to play Monopoly, when you really won't. You should consult a spiritual adviser if you are concerned about this.

The Game of Life

This game requires no special tactics to avoid losing. Simply drop dead as soon as the game is mentioned. They can just revive you after the game is over. I can personally attest that this happens to me every time I am asked to play this game.

Trivial Pursuit

The major tactic for never losing at Trivial Pursuit is a keen knowledge of random bits of useless information.

A guaranteed non-losing strategy looks something like this:

Them: "I know! Let's play Trivial Pursuit!"

You: "Did you know that the game of Trivial Pursuit was developed in 1941 by Blitzkrieg Bomblaster, a notorious war criminal from Main-on-Main-on-Main, and Duke "Kill-em-all" Ducksington, the infamous MP3 downloader for the Montreal DRMbusters gang, after getting together to find a piece missing from their game of "Hee-Haw: the Game of Riotous Laughter"? In North America, the game's popularity peaked in 1932, the year over 20 billion games were sold. The rights to the game were licensed to Choo Choo cat (now part of Something Positive) in 1928. As of 1924, nearly 88 trillion games had been sold, in 2,600 countries and 1,700 languages. The most popular edition is the Pickle Barrel edition which sold 55 gazillion copies alone at 12:48 on May 2, 1922, to a Berkshire coven of soon-to-be widows of a large group of determined ASL players. Blah blah blah."

Them: "zzzzzzzzzzzz..."

Charades

Finally, to avoid ever losing at this old standby, you have to have great acting skills and great teamwork.

To signal that you don't want to play Charades, hold your hand in front of the person's face, curl your fingers up, and make rapid forwards and backwards motions, while your team tries to guess what you are trying to say.

To signal that you don't want to play Charades any more, hold your hand in front of you face, curl your fingers up, and make rapid forwards and backwards motions, while your teammates, for the fifth time, help your opponents guess what they should be trying to say.

Yehuda

GAME STORE CONFIDENTIAL ~ Geeky Goodness

I think we all could agree that playing board games, RPG's, CCg's or any of the other sub-genres of our particular hobby is just one apsect of many that define our lives and who we are. Usually, for most of us anyway, it's a minor aspect. Family, career, school, friends and other interests really are more important for most of you reading this article. If you're one of the freakishly obsessed Game Geeks who ranks the collecting, caressing and even playing of games more important than most other things in life, well then... I guess you are a Geek. A freakish one.

But insults aside, even accurate ones, I'm going to use my space today to opine a bit about how games are really not that important, but how they can set disparate people and paths on trajectories in life that are sometimes inexplicably aligned.

To start with, I haven't played a boardgame for 9 days now. That's because other, more important things have been going on. A little work... so I can buy a few things, some house cleaning, throwing a rod on my lawn mower and then the trip "over the hill" to Boise to buy a new one... just the usual mundane crap that everyone has to do. Oh, yeah, and then there was the big Family Birthday BBQ for my dad this week-end. He's now 80 years old... I've mentioned him from time to time on this blog. He's a great guy. So my immediate family, which is my grown daughter and son, my son's wife and my brother, all came to Idaho to celebrate.

Dad actually turned 80 on 6-6-06... which I think was supposed to be like Y2K or something. Hollywood released the re-make of The Omen that day, which no way can be as good as the original. How could it be? Gregory Peck and Lee Remick were towering talents when compared to the cookie-cutter, plain vanilla, sexpot Hollywood loser of today. Although, I did see a clip and the kid is as eerie and menacing as the one in the original movie from the 70's. Anyway, nothing bad happned on 6-6-06 that was any worse than the day before or after. Which is great, because the family getogether was important and it would have been a drag if Armageddon took place that week.

So anyway, my older son and his bride drove 12 hours straight from Humboldt County to Idaho. My daughter, who works for the Feds, inspecting imported agricultural goods in Chicago, somehow got enough time off to fly out here, and even my brother, who I haven't seen for maybe 6 or 8 years flew up from the freeway infested Silicon Valley. My dad and his lady of the last 15 or so years came out and their best friends, a man named Pete, who's from the Ukraine and his lady who's from Germany arrived. Add to the mix my highly energetic boy Wyatt and a great time was had by all. Great steaks. Many beers, smooth schnaps, single-malt scotch and so forth. Wyatt managed to stay awake from 7am Saturday morning until just after 9pm. That's a 14 hour energy streak for a toddler. That kid is unreal. He flat wore me out.

After the old people left and the younger one crashed in a heap on my big stuffed chair, the rest of us sat under a full moon, with 12 million stars surrounding it, and did what people do when they're with family. We talked about the how and why of our connections. My brother, who is pushing 60, has been a died-in-the-wool Scientologist since 1966 and I thought about asking him if Tom Cruise ever ate that placenta... but I decided not to. Instead the safe subject was Neil Gaimen, someone who both my brother and I "knew" when he was not much older than my boy Wyatt. We both lived in England at the time and knew Neil's dad and mother... because David Gaimen is also a life-long Scientology guy too. I asked my brother if he had ever read Gaimen's stuff and he confessed he hadn't. My daughter Jaimy was a huge Sandman and Death fan and she had never known that I had met the author. I explained that knowing a 6 year old kid who is a son of an adult you know isn't exactly a strong connection and then my brother asked about Sandman. Jaimy explained the comic books and that caused the subject to drift into my old game store. I did sell comics there for about 8 years, which is how Jaimy discovered Sandman and Milk & Cheese and a host of edgy, alternate comics. From there, her and Marshall started talking about you. Gamers.

I sat back and listened to them, sipping my scotch and being amazed at the stories they told about you people. Realize that neither of my older kids qualify as gamers. My boy is a unix guru of some sort and has his own private little tech company and my daughter is basically a Federal Agent. Jaimy does like to get together with old friends and play Cranium or Scrabble I guess. Marshall has zero time to game. He confessed to not even owning a television. They just make money and play music down there in the redwoods. But both of them got their basic working skills behind the counter of a game store. And both of them ended up appreciating it.

I'm not going to delve deeply into the gory details about gamer gross-outs, morbidly obese people, bad hygeine or poor people skills... yes, they had plenty of stories to tell there. But the focus of the reverie was the fun, the humor and the acquisition of communication skills as well as the blossoming of what I guess you'd have to call tolerance and respect. We all laughed out loud at my very, very conservative father's outrage at how "weird" gamers are. He used to just carry on endlessly about the really idiotic stuff people did in the game store. He was right, of course. People, probably even you, are often dumb, rude, unbalanced or just outright stupid. In a game store the departures from the "norm" (whatever the hell that is) seem more intense because gamers tend to take their games very, very personally.

But as time passed even my dad developed friendships with some of the customers. He discovered that many of them were active duty military or had served, so he recruited new blood into his VFW chapter. Others he just enjoyed talking to. One of his favorites being the shaven-headed, tattooed guy with those huge African looking ring inserts in his ear lobes, a real freak, who amazed my dad with his tales of his work. He was a counselor with an organization that worked to keep kids off of drugs. My kids cracked up talking about the really fat guy who worked for me that kept breaking my stools and how one employee called me in a rage and said if I didn't bring him a new stool, he'd quit. My daughter asked my why I showed up an hour later with a stool and I answered her; why not? It wasn't his fault the stool got broken. We laughed about the guy who lived in dumpsters and bought RPG dice... and how none of us could figure out why. Both kids worked for me during the original MTG rage and there were so many funny stories about obsessive compulsive behaviour that even my brother, the clueless non-gamer, was laughing.

Overall, it was one of the best week-ends I've ever had. And I didn't ride my motrorcycle or play a single game. But looking at the grown kids and listening again to how much of their view on life was formulated by their connection to a subculture that many people view as weird, I didn't need to play a single game to feel the same sense of satisfaction. My daughter asked, "Hey Dad, how are you going to give Wyatt the same experience we had? You don't have a store any longer?"

That made me smile.

I'll figure it out, that I'm certain of. I know what she meant though. What she was obliquely referring to was what she and her brother acquired by me forcing them to work for me. In a very unglamorous job... surrounded by geeky stuff and geeky people. What they received was an education by people other than me. They were taught about tolerance and patience from folks like you.

Tolerance isn't about accepting bad behaviour. Tolerance is, I believe, all about not allowing strange or different behavior to poison your perceptions about people. A game store is a fantasic place to instill tolerance, understanding, people skills and even a wider understanding of the human race. Except for my kids, everyone who shopped and worked there was there because they wanted to be. My kids initially hated the job... and when I cut each of them loose after serving their mandatory 3 years they quickly found other jobs. Not suprisingly, they excelled at their careers. They got along well, they had a well-developed work ethic and they just seemd to cruise along when all about them many others their age were having trouble working or complaining miserably about the job, the boss and the customers.

I'll have to try and develop Wyatt into a gamer. I didn't do that with his brother and sister, but I have more time now. So maybe he'll cross over... if you know what I mean.

I think one way of doing that is to take him to gaming events from a fairly early age. You know, get him used to you people. Over the last several years I have read scores of articles, mainly on BGG, about what repulsive places game stores are or how disgusting Cons and the people who attend them can be. I know the people who author those threads are being petty and judgemental and not even close to having real tolerance... and I really, really know their own life and their own habits couldn't stand up to even mild scrutiny. And the final thing I know is that I'd much rather have my youngest kid have the ability to crack jokes with a fat guy, never once judging the guy by his fat, or play a game with a table full of tattoo geeks, goth freaks and lawyers and manage to enjoy himself despite the fact that lawyers were present.

It's not my opinion that Game Geeks are any better or worse than other Geeks. I just happen to be a Game Geek myself and despite the erroneous and sometimes burdensome labelling done to us (and frequently by some of us) I pretty much prefer the Geekness of gaming over other Geeky genres. I'm not saying I like you specifically, I'm just suggesting that you, being a Game Geek, may be just a little more fun, a little more accepting and a whole lot less annoying than the thousands of other Geek Classifications out there.

And I suppose that now I'll have to start paying attention to all those Geek Lists about games for kids... since I don't have any intentions of having another game store I understand I'm obligated to pass the Geekiness along to the young one somehow. So, if you check my BGG profile in a couple of years and see me rating Chutes and Ladders a "9", you'll know why.

SPITEFUL GAMERS AND SUICIDE BOMBERS

This is the second submission to Gone Gaming since we solicited reader submissions. If you have something boardgame related to say send it to gonegaming@gmail.com. Guidelines are here. Got an idea for a series? We will post it. Can you fake an interview with Charles Darrow? We'll post it. Charles Roberts? Same thing. Charles II? ........... Well, keep it game related.

Kris Hall is a boardgaming dad from West Virginia. He is a member of Ted Cheatham's Appalachian Gamers group, and he tells me that he routinely hands Ted his butt on a platter. Ohhhhh. I don't think I was supposed to let that cat out of the bag.

Enjoy

So we’re in the last turn of a game of Puerto Rico. James is to my right, and he has constructed a big purple building which will give him lots of points if he can get a colonist on it. I also have buildings that need colonists. But when James’ turn comes, he doesn’t choose the Mayor which would give him more colonists. He assumes that if he doesn’t choose the Mayor, I will have to choose that role in order to maximize my score.

On my turn, I choose the prospector. No new colonists for me, no new colonists for James.

James wins the game, but he is outraged with me. “Why didn’t you choose the Mayor? It would have increased your score!”

I reply: “It would have increased yours more.”

This answer doesn’t seem to make sense to him. “But your job is to maximize your score. The only way to do that was to choose the Mayor. If you don’t choose the Mayor, you’re not playing the game right.”

We ended up in a semi-lengthy debate about what I would have to call “gaming ethics.” James’ opinion was that because the object of the game is to maximize your score, you must try to do that at all times. My position is that I am allowed to act out of spite if I sense obvious attempts to manipulate me, humiliate me, or otherwise earn my wrath.

Another story. We’re in the last auction of the first group of auctions in Pizarro & Co. I have only two ships on the board. Ted knows that my chances for winning will be slim if I don’t get another ship on the board by winning this auction. When it’s his turn to bid, he shouts out some outrageous number, knowing that I will have to top him.

“It’s yours,” I say.

Ted is stunned. He has practically bankrupted himself in his attempt to bluff me.

I feel a certain cold satisfaction. I believe that I have sacrificed my chances for winning, but that I have taken Ted down with me. I know that it is practically his duty to drive the price up and keep me from an easy victory, but his bid was so over-the-top that I felt I had to call his bluff. If only to teach him to be more cautious around me in the future.

As it turns out, I was right about Ted’s fate and wrong about mine. Ted’s lack of cash haunts him the whole game and he loses. I have plenty of cash to shepherd my two ships through the game, and I gain an unexpected victory.

I must emphasize that I did not act out of strategic vision. I acted out of spite.

I suppose this tactic could be called the Suicide Bomber technique after the psychos who destroy themselves in order to hurt others. If you prefer a less incendiary name, call it the Sampson Maneuver, after the Biblical hero who killed himself as he destroyed the enemies who blinded him by knocking down the pillars of their temple.

Now, I am not normally any more vengeful than the average guy, and I don’t use this tactic very often. In fact, the use of this tactic in the Puerto Rico game wasn’t actually suicide because I knew I wasn’t going to win. It didn’t actually change the outcome of the game at all. It merely annoyed James.

So are their legitimate and illegitimate uses of the Suicide Bomber technique in gaming? For me there are. Here are my guidelines:

1) It is legitimate to act on spite generated by other players in the game. If the other player double-crosses you, blocks your route, out-bids you just to be mean, or is just so snide about his superior skill that you want to accidentally knock your glass into his lap, then go for it.

2) It is not legitimate to act on spite generated by other players outside the realm of the game. If Bob is a couple of bucks short when it comes time to contribute to the beer fund, you are not allowed to whisper to other players: “Let’s not try to win. Let’s just all try to destroy Bob, and watch him go crazy.” That kind of behavior is juvenile. Possibly fun, but juvenile.

3) Leave your spite at the table when the game is over. It’s only a game. But be aware that others may not feel that way.

Last story about this last point. My wife and I are playing the computer game Master of Orion 2 hotseat. Kim pulls ahead of me in technology and could easily blitze my star systems. She refrains in a spirit of generosity. It isn’t long before I pull ahead in technology. And I build the MOO2 equivalent of the Death Star and blow her prize planet into cosmic dust.

Kim is outraged. Red with fury. Spitting mad. My repeated comment that “It’s only a game!” falls on deaf ears.

I slept on the couch that night. And for the next week, Kim regaled all her friends and co-workers with tales of my perfidy. I was soon known to all in our circle as the most treacherous fiend since Hitler had betrayed Chamberlain after Munich.

We can laugh about it now.

But I try to remember that it is all too easy to generate spite. And that it can boomerang back at you.

And remember: it’s only a game.

Kris Hall

Coldfoot on Firearms, Romance, and Being a Sneaky SOB

From the mailbag:

Coldfoot,

You have made comments in the past that indicate your hobby was firearms before you discovered German games. I am a board gamer who has recently developed an interest in firearms, what advice can you give me?

Joe in Miami

Joe you are correct. Before I spent all my discretionary income on games I spent all my discretionary income on firearms and firearms publications.

I'll lead with the most important piece of advice I could possibly give a boardgamer experimenting with guns:

1. Check all firearms at the door when playing Diplomacy.

Every other bit of advice I give is but a minor point in comparison to #1, but here are a couple others.

2. If you like to contemplate your next move, be sure you are more heavily armed than DW.

3. When attending a gaming event in Canada you can only bring long rifles, or knives.

4. Aim for the board. Bullet holes in cardboard can usually be easily repaired with scotch tape.

Coldfoot,

I saw a picture of you on your blog. You are obviously a stud. What advice can you give me about chicks?

Loser in PA

Loser,

Chicks dig Settlers and Meeples.

If you are playing a game with two or more chicks expect them to gang up on you and think that it is cute. Just smile. Take it like a man and rest assured in the knowledge that they need to gang up on you to overcome your innate male advantage.

If you and another guy are playing against a chick do not ever give the impression you are ganging up on her. That is definitely not considered cute and will come back to haunt you, even if there is only the appearance of cooperation.

But most importantly (and I speak from experience), when a woman is taking too long to decide if she wants the large sugar mill or the small sugar mill, do not start singing, "Tell us what you want, what you really, really want. Just tell us what you want, what you really, really want."

Coldfoot,

How do I sneak a game into the house past a suspicious wife?

JP in Billings

JP you definitely asked the right guy that question.

As the last reader noted, I am a stud. If I chose I could bring a game into the house, wave it under my wife's nose and say, "See that, woman. That's $39.99 that you can't spend on smelly-soap and brussel-sprout-salad. Deduct it from the checkbook and get over it."

However, I choose not to do that until she teaches me her winning Rheinlander strategy.

I can't reveal my best secrets publicly without compromising my own safety. If these tips don't work contact me privately.

1. Women are easily distracted by flowers and Desperate Housewives. Flowers are nearly as expensive as games with much less payoff in the long run, so you need a flower strategy. Yes, flowers are expensive, but lilacs are free, and women fawn over the smell of lilacs. You won't even need to find a vase. Just hand her the lilacs, she will dote on your thoughtfulness and happily find a vase. If you are quick you can smuggle a game into the house as she is looking for a vase.

However, the lilac strategy is only good for one sneak each year if you wish to avoid suspicion. If you have cable television Desperate Housewives should be on one channel or another for 20+ hours each day. Desperate Housewives is always a good distraction, but again, use it sparingly to avoid suspicion.

2. Twilight Imperium 3 comes in a very big box. Buy it. Suffer her wrath like a man, then use that box to smuggle in other games. Better yet, play a game of TI3 with her and some male friends. Gang up on her so that she comes to despise the game. She will never look inside the box. That is an iron clad gare-on-tee.

Until next time keep those questions coming.

The Creature that Ate the (Gaming) World

There's an elephant in the room. No one talks about it, but it's there. Its name is Hasbro, founded as Hassenfeld Brothers in 1923. (Someone later had the good sense to change the name.) They sold textile remnants, and soon moved on to producing pencil boxes and school supplies. Today they control 80% of the billion-dollar tabletop gaming industry.

The story of how they did so is a tale of corporate interest run amuck and of the death of anti-trust legislation in the United States. It's summarized in a single word, monopoly, which is ironically both America's best-known game and one that Hasbro now controls through its corporate buyout policy.

When looking for causes, we can ultimately blame My Little Pony. And G.I. Joe and The Transformers. In 1983 the FCC reversed a fourteen-year old ruling, which had prohibited cartoons based on toy lines. Late that year Hasbro debuted their G.I. Joe cartoon, followed by Transformers in 1984 and My Little Pony in 1986. By beaming these 30-minute commercials straight into the living rooms of impressionable children, Hasbro multiplied their already notable success; the same year that The Transformers debuted, Hasbro began their gaming industry roll-up with their purchase of Milton Bradley.

Today Hasbro controls nearly every mass-market board game of note, including Clue, Monopoly, and Risk (which came to them from Parker Brothers via Tonka Toys), Battleship, The Game of Life, Stratego, and Yahtzee (which came to them direct from Milton Bradley), Parchisi, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit (which came to them from Selchow and Righter via the Coleco bankruptcy), Dungeons & Dragons (which came to them from TSR via Wizards of the Coast), Magic: The Gathering (which they won straight from Wizards), and Acquire and Diplomacy (which they got through a super-cheap buyout of Avalon Hill).

The following chart summarizes the most notable of Hasbro's game-related acquisitions:



As I said, that's just the most notable Hasbro purchases. I neglected the 1994 purchase of Waddington's British game rights, which locked up Hasbro's control of foreign rights for the Parker Brother games, and I left out Hasbro's acquisition of individual games like Mousetrap from Ideal Toys (1907-1982), via intermediary CBS Toys. I also didn't chart out their 1987 purchase of rights to Cootie and other Herb Schaper products. The list goes on.

And, I didn't even touch upon Hasbro's purchases of things outside the gaming industry. They own Playskool through Milton Bradley (1928-1968?) and bought Galoob (1954-1998) directly, together solidifying their share of the toy industry. They expanded into electronic toys with Tiger Electronics (1978-1998) and that encouraged them to take a run at the computer game market which included purchases of Atari (1971-1998) and Spectrum HoloByte (1983-1998), which itself included Microprose (1982-1993). (Ultimately this Hasbro Interactive experiment was less than successful and was sold to Infogrames, who promptly renamed themselves Atari, in 2001.)

Suffice to say, Hasbro is now huge, and as already noted their purchases have given them control of the great majority of the tabletop board game industry.

The Industry Today

Today Hasbro runs four different gaming lines.

Milton Bradley increasingly seems to have become Hasbro's kids' line, which befits its origins as an educational and toy company. Family Milton Bradley games like The Game of Life and Scrabble, which still show the Milton Bradley logo, aren't directly linked from their Milton Bradley website any more, which now only admits to games for players aged "3 to 6" or "6 to 8". Heroscape and Star Wars: Epic Duels are two of the very few notable games that Milton Bradley has put out since their acquisition by Hasbro. Parker Brothers, meanwhile, continues to put out a more consistent line of family and party games, but almost nothing new of note since their 1991 acquisition; their biggest releases in that time period are about 50 editions of Monopoly and nearly 30 Trivial Pursuits. For Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers alike, this long period of mediocrity seems to be due to both the corporate retreading of old properties and an increasing number of products that are being sold based largely on licenses to tv shows, movies, and books

Wizards of the Coast, meanwhile, seems to remain oriented toward controlling the roleplaying & CCG industries. Since 2004 they have also been allowed to also run Avalon Hill, which has become a niche publisher of board games oriented toward gamers, drawing somewhat from all of Hasbro's other lines. The results have been mixed. New versions of Axis & Allies and Risk were well-received, while new games Rocketville and Sword and Skull were largely derided. Betrayal at House on the Hill has earned somewhat of a cult status, despite one of the worst rulebooks in gaming history, while Vegas Showdown has received perhaps the best attention from the more serious gamers' crowd. Of all of Hasbro's acquisitions, Avalon Hill seems to be the only brand doing original and innovative work that might be creating games that will still be hits in a generation.

On the downside, Hasbro has pretty liberally ignored any of their acquisition's games that weren't top sellers. The old Avalon Hill catalog has done the worst, with scores of board games totally abandoned. Acquire and Diplomacy are the rarities from AH that have survived. For everything else, trademarks and licenses are slowly being abandoned, but if Hasbro still owns core rights, it doesn't really matter: the games may never again see the light of day. Winning Moves is the only company to take advantage of this. They've received licenses for several old Hasbro games (mostly from the Parker Brothers catalog) and are thus making a business out of classics like Rook as well as "super" and "classic" editions of Hasbro games.

And that's what 80% of the gaming looks like today: a single company that's mainly resting upon past laurels and today's most popular licenses. It's hard to understand how such a short-sighted business model will result in a gaming line that's still viable in 50 years.

The Rest of the Story

The obvious rejoinder to this is, "So What?" Hasbro may be the elephant in the room. It may control 80% of the gaming industry. But how does that affect our style of gaming?

On the one hand Hasbro is the least dangerous type of monopoly. It's a horizontal manufacturer's monopoly, meaning that they have tight control only over the games being made. They don't control either materials or distribution, and via these routes it's still possible for new companies to get into the business.

Despite not actually controlling distribution, Hasbro does have a pretty good lock on sales. If you're Hasbro it's easy to get your games into a Toys 'R Us, and if you're anyone else, it's not. That's the first danger that the Hasbro monopoly offers: it puts a cap on the size of any other game company's ultimate growth through its control of mindshare.

The other danger Hasbro offers is to innovation. Hasbro really hasn't created an endearing classic since they bought up the whole industry, with the possible exception of Heroscape. They're stagnating the mass-market under a garbage heap of licenses and retreads and thus it's unlikely we're ever going to see a well-designed game come out with money behind it.

However, I think it's possible to argue that this doesn't matter, because most innovative growth comes from niches. The majority of the hit American mass-market designs (Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit) came from third parties who brought them to the publisher. More importantly, most of the broader growth and innovation in game design over the last fifty years has come from niche industries. There was wargaming in the 1960s, roleplaying in the 1970s, collectible-card games in the 1990s, and now Eurogames in the 2000s. In each case the core ideas came out of smaller, niche industries, and have slowly been adapted for the mass market. Wargaming trends have been the most successful, with Risk and Axis & Allies just two examples of niche gameplay hitting the mass market.

So it seems that even with a massive behemoth like Hasbro sitting atop the gaming industry, there's still plenty of space for growth.

For now.

I have two bigger, future concerns, however.

First of all, with Hasbro's huge size, and the current anti-anti-trust feeling in the U.S. congress, it would be easy for them to extend their monopoly vertically. What happens to our niche Eurogaming industry if they decide to start creating Hasbro game shops? Or, more directly, how hard would Hasbro have to work to cut out the other 20% of the industry, thus totally killing innovation in gaming?

Second, it should be obvious that Hasbro does see some value in niche gaming. They ended up rolling up the top two wargame companies (Avalon Hill and SPI), the top roleplaying company (TSR), and the top CCG company (Wizards of the Coast). How long can it be before they set their sites on Eurogaming? Would Days of Wonder be willing to accept a buyout? How about Kosmos or Catan Ltd? And then, if history is any guide, how long would it be before Hasbro dropped most of their new acquisition's lines in favor of the couple of best sellers?

At the start of the 21st century, we stand at a cliff. Corporate hegemony lies over the lip, wherein boards of directors rule the world and profits are supreme. Within the gaming world, we've seen this growing trend over the last twenty years, as companies disappear, and with them their less popular titles.

We often talk about the future of gaming, but if this goes on you have to wonder if there will be one at all.

Life: The Game

Games come with a wide variety of themes ranging from the ridiculous to the brilliant, from pure fantasy to the historical but I can see many aspects of gaming in our day to day lives.

Love is a game. In the search for your perfect mate, you’ll be trying to find the best balance between unwanted traits and must-have traits. He loves football, which you can’t stand, but he also loves cats. She spends too much money on clothes but she loves camping. The love game also involves some hidden information, slight bluffing and tense timing.

Travel is a game. First you must decide your mode of transportation: walk, bike, drive a car, take a bus or hail a taxi are your most likely options. In each case you’ll be forced to find the shortest, fastest route and one you can afford. For some people, the choice of routes are limited but in all cases the player must still deal with all of the other players who are likewise “traveling”. Any bad move you make could result in your elimination from the game.

Career/Job is a game. Actually, these are two distinctly different games.

Career is a game of advancement as you gather the necessary items to move to the next level. The version you’ve chosen to play will decide which items you will be required to find or tasks you’ll be required to perform. There is a unique one-sided co-operation element to this game where you decide the amount of co-operation you wish to offer and the gamer playing the “Boss” will decide if it is enough to satisfy his hidden requirements.

Job is more of a roll & move game where you will often be drawing a face-down card. Some of these cards have good events but many will have bad. How you respond to these unforeseen events will determine how well you do. Many people have tried different versions of this game before deciding on one that they enjoy playing while others have traded their copy of Job for a copy of Career. A few have gone on to be designers of some version of Job.

Politics is a game. This is a vicious, very confrontational game of negotiation, bribery, co-operation, and secret voting as well as open voting all wrapped up in an area-majority game. The toughest part of this game is determining the winner as often the winners and losers aren’t even the ones playing the game.

Raising children is a game. This is a role-playing/memory game with you on one side and all the sub-players on the other. Your job is to make up the rules as you go along and remember them throughout the entire game. The rules may change with each new player but it’s up to you to convince the sub-players that they make sense. You win when all the sub-players leave the game and go on to play games of their own.
~~~~~~~
Until next time, keep your chits in order.

Mary

Please, I'm begging you ... don't make stupid plays just to get the game over with!

Here's something that has always perplexed me...

If you're the sort of "fun" gamer who always has to keep games moving so that you can get to the next one, or can't understand why anyone would want to think about a move or play "well", then why do you even bother to play games?

I'm just saying ... sitting there rolling your eyes, folding the rules into a paper airplane, checking your email, or worse, sticking meeples in your nose, you can't be having any fun. And aren't boardgames supposed to be fun?

A moose deciding whether to roll in the grass or the lake. A fly on his back is telling him to hurry up already. The fly is now deceased.
What is it about something as simple as thinking that gets your panties all in a knot? Do you think it's fun for everyone to just roll dice, move pieces, and read whatever it says on the card? Games are an exercise in thinking. There have to be at least some decisions to make. Otherwise, you may as well set your computer running and read the results when it stops.

And if I have to make a decision, which is what "games" are all about, why can't you demonstrate the least amount of patience for those that want to make that decision? Telling someone to hurry up and finish deciding already is like telling someone to get the orgasm over with so that you can get on with the rest of the sex. You just got to the good part; what's your hurry?

I've sat at games for five minutes while some numbskull at the table refuses to shut up while I'm trying to make a decision. He keeps yabbering on about how the game isn't fun, and what's the problem, and why can't I just make any move, even a bad one, and wouldn't we rather play Sorry where people don't have to think so much.

So many times when I'm playing on BSW, some nudnik has to complain that I'm going too slow, or taking too long, or "I though this was a fast table" when I so much as take 2 or 3 seconds to consider what I need to play next. Even texting "I'm thinking" doesn't appease some people. They just up and leave. I have my strong suspicions that these people would rather not play with someone who thinks, because it makes it more likely that they will lose, and they want to preserve that illusion that they are a good player. Yessir, king of the speed 1-second-per-play Puerto Rico division. Big accomplishment.

A moose who listened to a fly when it told him to stop deciding whether or not to cross the road already and just get on with it. The moose is now deceased (so is the fly).
So I bought an egg timer, put it on the table and told people that good manners at this game club means that you can't ask me to hurry up for at least two minutes. But some people can't play this way; so be it. Even the new edition of Robo Rally comes with a timer to prevent people from being obnoxious about time!

There's this ex-wife trucker biker chick that I used to know who's pretty cool but five minutes into any game she always starts trying to end it. Every time. What's up with that? Why are you at a freaking game group if your object is to end games as soon as possible? Here's an idea: don't play games if you don't like to play games. So anyway, something about my penis, and basically, "bite me".

So here's my take on the whole subject. Essentially in most situations, there are a limited number of choices. The less choices that you have in one round means the deeper that you can look through to subsequent round. There are very few choices in Chess, and even less in Checkers. That means that a single move in these games requires four, five, or deeper turns of analysis.

It's my theory that these "no thinking" guys don't have the right type of brain for this. As far as they are concerned, there is "what's best for me this round", and that's it. There is no future, no long term panning, no concept that one plays a game in order to do well. Only this nebulous concept of "fun", which translates into "Let's keep it moving, shall we?". It's why all of the cartoons, music videos, and movies nowadays can't hold a shot for more than half a second without them losing their attention span. Goodbye New York Times, hello USA Today. If it doesn't have a ten word blurb and a graph or a sound bite, they're not interested.

What we have here is failure to appreciate.

Hasty acting guarantees you nothing but random results. When I play a game, I play it in order to see how well I can do, not how quickly I can play. By acting quickly, I lose the entire concept of, what we in the game field call: strategy. Without strategy, the game is just a series of hill-climbing tactics. Once you have mastered the various tactics, the game is going to get boring real quick.

Strategy is what makes a game playable for the long term. Strategies require you to hold a plan and execute it over a period of time. Without strategy, the game is simply phasing in during your turn and phasing out again, a series of short term interactions with the mechanics. With strategy, the game is a story, no matter how abstract it looks. With only tactics, it is the same story, over and over.

A Llama. Because they're cute.
Tactics are all discrete units; once you've played them, there is not much to playing them again. Strategies are complex and lifelike; implementing the strategy through tactics gives the tactics life and an endless possibility of arrangement and complexity. Each game can only have a finite number of types of tactics, but an endless number of finely different strategies.

What the poor sap who can't think beyond his next breathing action (Breathe in? Breathe out? Who cares? Just pick one already!) is how he has done this before; why should this round be any different from last round? Same tactics: look at the board, choose an option, you're done. Meanwhile, the rest of us who want to play an actual game are stuck with some guy choosing pathetically bad choices that will eliminate him before the game is half over and likely throw the game unfairly to one of the other players. Really; if you're going to do that, why not just stay home and play a shoot 'em up on the computer?

When I watch someone doing this, what pops into my mind is "Warning, cannot connect to the internet. Displaying the last known version of this page." Yesterday's stock quotes are good enough, right?

I am offering all the lucky readers of Gone Gaming a solution for those suffering from this sort of analysis inability problem: Thinking is good for your brain. Use it. That's what you're here for.

Take it from me folks, you'll be much happier when you realize that games are a valuable use of your time, and not just a distraction that holds no more importance than watching TV or drinking beer or picking your belly button. Or doing all three at once.

Yehuda

GAME STORE CONFIDENTIAL ~ Please, I'm begging you...take your turn before something horrible happens!

Here's something that has always perplexed me...

If you're the sort of Sad Sack who is habitually stricken by total neural shutdown, known in board gaming parlance as analysis paralysis, when faced with decision-making, why the hell do you even bother to play games?

I'm just sayin'... sitting there, brow furrowed, looking like you're contemplating a bowel movement, or worse, while beads of sweat pop out on your forehead and friendly jokes from your table partners about "analysis paralysis" become bitter threats against your life, it can't be fun. And aren't board games a pastime that is supposed to be, you know, fun? Now that I think about it, isn't the whole idea of a hobby or pastime all about having fun?

What is it about something as simple as "it's your turn" that it becomes a fork in the road of your life that is worth sacrificing huge chunks other people's precious time? When you boil most decisions in board games down to their bones there are usually only a few choices. Sometimes there are as few as two choices. And I've sat there for an agonizing 5 minutes while some numbskull at the table refused to accept the fact that he really had NO choice whatsover. He was screwed anyway, so, just take the frickin' move you dope!

When Robo Rally originally came out one of the regulars in my game group, a largish irritant named Troy, continuously destroyed every ounce of fun that was possible in the game. You have to place five cards. Five. Not 112. Not 37. Just five. At most you have what? Nine cards to choose from? But Troy never, ever, ever decided what to do until everyone else was so annoyed and impatient that we were close to just putting the game away, grabbing him by his largish head and repeatedly hammering it against the table. Then, finally laying the cards down, he'd laugh at our ire and remind us that he usually won. Which was true.

So one night I explained to Troy that he didn't win Robo Rally, or Settlers of Catan, or any of the other games that he won at - which was most of the ones he played - because he was smarter or a better player than us. He won because he stole everyone else's time and used it to run a slow, tedious and painful series of potential outcomes to each and every minor decision he had to make. In short, as I explained it to Troy (having clocked it the previous Saturday and noted the results down), in the average 6 hour game night at my house, with 6 players present, Troy sucked up 50% of the total time. Three hours out of six were spent waiting for Troy to decide. Carrying my explaination to a deeper, more meaningful level, I further explained that he was stealing two hours of life from five innocent people. He was robbing 10 total hours from other soul's lives... just so he could win a stupid game of Robo-F'ing-Rally.

So I pulled a one minute egg timer out, placed it on the table and announced that if anyone, especially Troy, was still deciding what to do after everyone else laid their cards down, the egg timer would be deployed. And if that time thief failed to lay cards down when the sand ran out we would all shuffle his cards and lay them randomly for him.

Troy got up and left. I have never played a game with him since... in over twelve years. And the reprint of Robo Rally added the egg timer. So there!

Then there was a guy named Bob who played about 6 times with a small group I had in California in the 70's. Bob was so stricken with his own sluggish mental processes and so totally devoid of even a the slightest vestige of consideration for anyone's time but his own that I set out one night to piss him off so badly that he would never return. It worked. One of my life talents is an uncanny knack for pissing people off. It also helps that usually I figure that most people I piss off have it coming... and those that don't shouldn't have been in the line of fire to begin with.

Bob had a degree in enology but no winery would hire him. So he worked for a dairy. That should have been my first hint. We lived in freaking wine country! Grapeville. Gallo Wine had a facility the size of Detroit three miles from my house and there were no less than 35 other wine producers in the county. And this guy couldn't get hired. Manuel Labouror, direct from Mazatlan and speaking no English got hired, but Bob had to get a job at a dairy. Dude. I did that same work at my Grandpa's place in Texas when I was nine.

Anyway, thankfully Bob got so pissed at me that he stormed out of the house in the first 30 minutes - he still hadn't decided what to do on his turn yet... and he had the first turn - he never returned. Yay!

So a week or so back I brought out Conquest of the Empire and we began to play the Martin Wallace rules... the ones with actual decisions rather than just chucking handfuls of dice. Normally I don't consider RoBee too bad when it comes to deciding. But he was down with a nasty case of mental dysfunction that night. Add to it that a new guy, Jared, was there and that fellow BGG'er Jon and his boy Austin were there... and only Jumbo and I had played... and you see where this is headed. I've played this game with 6 people in about 120-150 minutes. It only has so many turns. Sixteeen in all. You get two actions per turn. That means each player is going to make a total of 32 whole decisions. I make that many decision each morning before I get around to shaving. And frankly, the decisions in CotE are pretty straightforward. The rules restrict so much of what you can do that you really have to sort of have an overall plan and then stick to it... alllowing for some flexibility for when things go sour, or perhaps turn sweet. That's it. It's a simple, simple game.



This is what RoBee normally installs in his skull every day when he leaves the house. While not a large unit, it is functional and it's compact size leaves plenty of room for him to hum along to his favorite Gangsta Rap tunes.





So about 4 hours later, when the carnage was over, and everyone was slapping themselves to wake up and restraining their hands from slapping RoBee, my affection for CotE had hit a rough spot. I still like RoBee, sort of, but I'm going to have to reconsider what games I will willingly play when he's in one of those "moods".

And don't even get me started on Ken, another "college boy" grad who works at a microchip manufacturer in Boise. This guy must be running 90 weight oil thorugh his brain instead of blood. His synapses must spark at about the same clip as a mountain range erodes. Ken used to come and play in our Formula De league about five years ago. Thankfully... and I do mean thankfully... Ken's wife keeps his huevos in her purse at all times and his appearances were blissfully rare. Usually he played only when she was out of town, or perhaps when she was happy with the lick job he did on her boots... or whatever other degrading thing guys like that have to do to "get permission". Ken could not, ever, never, not once, make a decision in anything under about 5 minutes. And I'm talking about the first turn in Formula De... you know, the one where EVERYBODY starts out in 1st Gear? And then when it came his turn to "shift to 2nd Gear" he'd actually pause... and contemplate it.


Here are some Formula De dice. Look closely at the yellow one. Note... it has two possible results. "1" and "2". Anyone who has to "think" when using this die needs to be electrocuted repeatedly and frequently.




Now I'm not a believer in Karma, but if it does exist Ken got his Bad Karma payback by becoming a silent partner in a game store that opened in the wake of my move out of Boise. Not the type of Silent Partner you're thinking about though, Ken is known by the customers, it's just that if you ask him a question on Tuesday and then drop by the store on Saturday he answers it then. And this guy works for a place that manufactures microchips! Little things that are fast. Very, very fast. Well, maybe not the ones he makes.

So here's my take on this whole subject. It's very simple... essentially in most situations there are a limited number of possible choices. Let's take board games, I'd guess there's no more than about three to six choices at each decision point for the average game. This can get convoluted with Action Point systems where you have pieces spread around, but even then, choices are mostly obvious. The normal gamer will mentally "list" all the choices in his head. This is where the problem starts for the dullards. The function of a list is usually to give the Lister (you) a quick overview of choices so you can make an informed decision. It's my theory that the Troys, Kens and Bobs of the world have no problem when it comes to the list part of things. Their issue comes when they realize they have to commit to something. And if they make a mistake... why, they might lose!

So what the poor sap does is get caught up into a feedback loop, running up and down the list endlessly looking for the one choice that will guarantee some unspecified, but obviously vital, result. Well frankly my friends, most choices have a way of guaranteeing something. A poor choice guarantees a poor result and a good choice, a good result. Usually. But not acting, or acting only under the duress of angry stares and threatening mutterings from the other players, will usually end up poorly for you. While I watched RoBee struggle with CotE the other night I could smell his brain cells overheating as he ran up and down his little list of the three or four possible choices each turn and what popped into my mind was this familiar message for all you Windows users - "Warning: Virtual memory is low. Windows is increasing size of virtual memory"

Except that RoBee was not running Windows. He was running an analog system of some sort. Probably something organic.


This is what we found inside RoBee's skull a couple of weeks ago when we cracked it open because he was too slow in taking his turn. This discovery answered two questions; a) why Analysis Paralysis stinks and b) where RoBee's brother Jumbo had been hiding the mistakes their dog made on the carpet




I am offering all the lucky readers of Gone Gaming a solution for those suffering from this common form of dullness and for those really unlucky gamers who play games with indecisive gamers. And I'm not even going to charge you for this vital information. Here's DW's simple solution to Life's Lists:

The right decision is always the 1st or 2nd item on your list.

That's it. It's that simple. Here's why this works... let's assume for a moment that you aren't really too stupid, perhaps you have a degree in enology or maybe work for a big high tech company... we all know anyone who even knows what enology is or works in "High Tech" is automatically smart. Right? So, assuming you're not a complete dumb ass, you probably have good instincts. And those instincts will naturally cause you to "see" the best choice in a game, or for that matter, in life, quickly. So if there are five choices, it's likely your native intelligence and good instincts brought the best ones to your surface awareness early on.

So why not trust yourself? Pick the 1st or 2nd choice you see and go with it. What the hell? It's just a game. Winning or losing, it matters very little in the grand scheme of your life. And look at how happy you'll make the other players. Not to mention, your decisiveness will also generate an underlying fear of you. Quick decision-making emanates confidence. Confidence makes opponents fearful, surly and suspicious. As the game plays out you'll discover a few things... That you actually have more fun. That you probably don't win less, in fact, you may win more. That other players will have more fun.

I think this fun thing was what we all became gamers for to begin with.

I have used this list shortening theory for most major decisions in my life as well. I'd say I'm running about 60% to the good. And even the things others might see as terrible... a longish string of ex-wives, half a dozen failed businesses, being forced to legally change my name twice, the rigors of living under the witness protection program... even those things have created much more fun in my life than most people like, say Ken, have when they have to beg their wife to lend them their balls when they want to go "Hang with the Homes".



Even if my solution to Analysis Paralysis doesn't win you more games, it can be productive. This is a picture of some of my ex-wives at their annual "Liberation Day" getogether... which just goes to show you, even bad decisions can be fun for a while.






Loosen up. Trust your instincts. And punish severly anyone who steals your personal fun time.

Take it from me folks, you'll be much happier and games will be thrilling and fun once more. And if you do this right, you can even look forward to a whole series of new wives... and we all know how much more fun wives are when they're new.

Bring 'em Back Alive!! Big-Game Hunting for fun & profit.

Thanks to Dwayne, aka okiedokie (The "66 Bowl" animated avatar guy from Boardgamegeek) for the following. His blog is AKA Mike Horsehead.


I walk into the store, gently lifting on tip-toes, looking over all the racks and racks of..... thrift. Normally what I look for is in the back, sometimes they have signs on the wall "Women" "Men" "Housewares" "Kids" and sometimes, just sometimes, "Toys" . I make my way to the back, hoping that the games are up on a shelf, far out of reach of grubby little hands that will pull all of the wooden pieces out of a copy of Diplomacy and then, in a very undiplomatic gesture, shove the said wooden pieces up their collective noses.

I have learned to scan the shelves quickly once, and then a second time more slowly. Once I would have bypassed a copy of Twixt (because I already have 5 copies) but on closer examination I discovered that the box was almost square! It was a first edition, complete. It was now mine. I have also learned to look elsewhere for games. They can be secreted behind the checkout counter, or maybe even with the books. I have even located a copy of Kensington among the records!! I used to buy almost everything I saw, hoping that it would bring a sweet return on ebay ("A Sweet Return" Def. clearing more than $10 after ebay & paypal fees) but sadly I now have a garage full of things that I can't even sell at a garage sale. Spending $2-$4 doesn't seem like much, but if you do that about 100 times you have about $900 worth of junk (that would be $400 worth of actual goods plus the $500 of pain & suffering brought about by my Lovely Wife's "gentle reminders" that I'm supposed to be selling this stuff and making room in the garage for her car.)

Once at the 'game section', I smile, wince & grimace. Sooo many copies of Trivial Pursuit, both old and new. How many of these were happy games in happier times? Channel Surfing, what a great idea to incorporate TV, fighting for the remote, and screaming party fun into a game. It's such a great idea that it's taking the thrift store by storm. The Ungame, if games were people, the Ungame would be the large fat guy in his underwear shuffling towards the house in Night of the Living Dead. Or maybe it's the woman with the terrible facial wounds that eats a centipede off a tree. But once you eat that bug, tell us how you feel about it. Or Unfeel about it.

My pulse quickens when I see an Avalon Hill bookshelf game. Perhaps it's Acquire, Feudal, or Squad Leader. Nope, it's only Outdoor Survival. Other things that can make my thrifting heart go pitty-pat are copies of Heroquest, Stop Thief, Bandu, Raise the Titanic, Mystery Date, or even Dark Tower. My thrifting heart has learned not to covet these games to keep, but to move them quickly to ebay. Then there are the games I look to keep, Polarity, Survive, any good Euro. But every one in a great while I gaze upon a game thinking "What the ever-lovin heck were they thinking?". I pick it up, thinking it's funny or odd, and later find I have picked up ebay gold. Into this group falls Gusher (a precursor to King Oil), 3 original copies of Skip-Bo printed by Skip Bowman, and the Bill Gaither Homecoming Game.

This time I walk out, nothing in hand. Hoping that the next store may have what I seek, some huge stash of childhood/high school/ college fun that is being cleaned out by an unsuspecting loved one. I envision myself walking out with games stacked to the sky, gently hearing the wailing cry of the previous owner when he realizes what terrible fate has been dealt to him.

Inaugural Australian Games Expo

The inaugural Australian Games Expo will be held next weekend, in Albury.

The work, planning and thought that the organiser, Phil Davies, has put into this event is truly incredible. Whether his vision of "An Australian Essen" will be realised remains to be seen, but in the meantime it looks like the 3 hour drive North will take us to a very solid weekend of gaming.

For starters, the event will feature sanctioned "national championships" for Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. I'm not sure how much prestige will actually attach to either title, but the prizes are well worth the $25 entry fee -- the first place getter in each tournament will be flown to Essen to play in the world championships (and, presumable, attend the Messe as well). Second prize in each tournament will be a Settlers of Catan anniversary chest, and third prize is a copy of Settlers, signed by Klaus Teuber. They're pretty incredible prizes, and definitely enough to make me wish that my skill at those games matched my desire to win the trip. (Sadly, not the case).

There will also be a large (20 or so tables) open gaming area, with a game library and tame game explainers on site, courtesy of the local Border Games club.

The event has been widely promoted to schools as well as through game shops and gaming groups, with the hope that members of the public as well as die-hard gamers will attend. Our Biggie, at seven, is annoyed that she won't be attending - we're taking my parents with us as tame babysitters - but I hope to be able to bring her in for part of the event, at least. I had to tell her that the minimum age for the tournaments was sixteen or we would have never heard the end of it!

One big advantage of the venue and location is the support that Phil has received from the local council. I'm impressed that the event makes the front page of their site, and I believe that there may be more support from them over the weekend.

There will, of course, be traders and demonstration games, and an alliance with the ChiTaG game fair will see them attending this event, which Phil will then promote at their fair later in the year. Hasbro's VP for Research and Development will also be attending as a special guest.

In the evenings, gaming will be available at the Border Games clubrooms. We're staying at the same hotel as at least 3 other gamers, too, which gives us a nice local group if we don't feel like going out, or if mum and dad need a break for a while. Discussions about what to take started about a month ago, and I expect them to continue all week.

I'm feeling pretty excited about the event, and am pleased we decided to make the trip, logistics of managing children and aging parents aside. It's easy to find flaws in a grand plan like this - there's been some muttering about the location, as Albury is a 3-hour drive from Melbourne and a 6-hour drive from Sydney - but in general people seem pretty happy to be going away to play games. Let's face it, who WOULDN'T be happy to be doing that!

Most of all, though, I'm excited to be catching up again with friends met through BGG and to be meeting others for the first time. That alone has to be worth the trip.

And if anyone wants to teach me an unbeatable Settlers and Carcassonne strategy that doesn't involve giving everyone else at the event severe food poisoning or some communicable illness (hmmm, Otto has had vaccine-beating chickenpox this week... sadly the incubation period for that is longer than a couple of hours though), then I'll buy you a drink in Essen.

Or maybe not.

See you in LupusLanding (or Albury - take your pick)

Melissa.

Trading Places

For those of you who missed the announcement on Sunday, we at Gone Gaming have put out the welcome mat for anyone who would like to submit material.

Guidelines are here.

-------------------

Gaming and gaming. Eating and eating.

That was a good article, wasn't it? A thought provoker. I've been thinking about it all week.

I'm not a boardgame snob, I'm a boardgame connoisseur. Yeeeeah, that's the ticket.

For those of you who are left scratching your head, all I can say is, "Miss a day, miss a lot."

-------------------

I don't have anywhere near enough of these taxi/game stories for a series. In fact I only have two. This is the second:

So, I'm driving a taxi one afternoon. I picked up a man and his son at the Comic Shop. He got into the cab and asked, "Who else sells games."

Hmm. This could be interesting, I thought. A gamer perhaps? "Well, the Comic Shop has the best selection," I said, "what game are you looking for?"

"Star Wars Monopoly."

"Star Wars Monopoly." At least I didn't get my hopes set very high before they were dashed. "Did you try WalMart or Fred Meyers?"

"We've been there. They didn't have it. Is there anyplace else that sells games?"

As I looked at him I just couldn't help myself. I put on my stupid face, which, by the way, is the same as my happy face and replied, "What game is it again?"

"Star Wars Monopoly."

"What kind of game is that?"

"What?"

"I've never heard of it. Is it like Settlers of Catan?"

"It's Star-Wars-Monopoly."

As much as I wanted to tell him Star Wars Monopoly is a dime a dozen at Value Village I shrugged and asked, "Is it a card game?"

"No, it's Monopoly. You know... Do not pass Go, Get Out of Jail Free."

"Monopoly."

"Yeah. Monopoly."

"Never heard of it."

No response. So I continued, "It's a Star Wars game, huh? I know there are some Lord of the Rings games in the Comic Shop. I think he carries Star Wars Miniatures. Is it like any of those?

"I don't think so. Anyway I need Star Wars Monopoly."

"Is it like Dungeons and Dragons? If it's like Dungeons and Dragons the Comic Shop is the only place that will have it?"

He just looked at me like I was goofy and asked, "Is there another store that sells games? The clerk said Toy Quest might have it."

"Yes, Toy Quest carries games." (Toy Quest is a superb, local toy store btw.)

"Do they sell Monopoly?"

"I don't know. Probably not. They don't have much of that obscure stuff. They don't have anything like Dungeons and Dragons either."

"What do they have?"

"They carry children's games. You know, like Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit, cribbage boards, stuff like that."

"Take us there then."

On the way to Toy Quest I learned that the fellow had been tasked by his wife to buy Star Wars Monopoly for a child's birthday party that evening. They didn't have it at WalMart? Go figure.

The Italian Design Scene, Part Two: The Reference

Eurogames have gotten a lot more Italian in the last few years, and that's formed the basis of a spotlight on Italian game design this week and last.

Last week I started things off with an analysis, talking about style of design and the connectivity of the designers. This week I've put together a reference, listing Italian game awards and Italian game companies ... plus a fun geographical listing of Italian-themed games, whether they're Italian-designed or not.

Again, thanks to Andrea Ligabue for comments. He gave me the most help in this part of the article, in the section on Italian game companies. Also, thanks to everyone who offered comments on the first article, especially Andrea Angiolino, Frank Branham, Bruno Faidutti, Paolo Mori, and Angelo Porazzi. You all helped to make this second part better researched and more comprehensive.

Six More Degrees

Before I get into the meat of today's article, however, I want to include an update to my Six Degrees of Italy chart that I published in last week's article. Andrea Angiolino was kind enough to explain some additional connections that came about through GiocAreA, a gaming magazine published by Nexus. As a result the chart has been rearranged a bit to show both this magazine and the fact that Domenico di Giorgio also published with Quality Games. I also added Bang! due it its importance to the Italian game design scene, even though Emiliano Sciarro's only connectivity is through the company daVinci.

Just click on the thumbnail at right to view the complete chart. For comparison purpose, you can also view the original chart.

Italian Game Awards

One way to get familiar with the best Italian games is to look at Italian award winners. Currently there are three notable Italian awards: the Lucca Best of Show, the Lucca Best Unpublished Game and the Archimede Premio.

Lucca Comics & Games is a convention held in Lucca, Italy.

Each year Lucca awards a "Best of Show" award for the best (Italian) game of the year. Most of the winners have been board games, though there's one RPG winner too:

• 2000: Warangel by Angelo Porazzi
  
• 2001: Le Saghe di Conquest by Paolo Vallerga & Valerio Porporato
  
• 2002: Bang! by Emiliano Sciarra
  
• 2003: Sine Requie (RPG) by Rose and Poison
  
• 2004: War of the Ring by Marco Maggi, Francesco Nepitello, and Roberto di Meglio
  
• 2005: Siena by Mario Papini
  

Lucca also gives an award to "Best Unpublished Game" in association with daVinci Games. Contestants are given a theme that they then design a game around, and the winner is guaranteed publication. Winners thus far are:

• 2004: Lucca Citta by Alessandro Zucchini
  
• 2005: F.A.T.A. (forthcoming) by Martina Mealli
  

Premio Archimede is another notable Italian award, and is also awarded for undesigned games. It's sponsored by Studiogiochi. The award is currently held every two years. The past winners are:

• 1994: Algoritmo by Giacomo Dotta
  
• 1995: Svicolando (unpublished) by Claudio Serravalli
  
• 1996: Krakatoa (unpublished) by Walter Obert
  
• 1998: Giano (unpublished) by Furio Ferri
  
• 2000: Bisanzio (unpublished) by Alessandro Saragosa and Gnomoni by Duilio Carpitella
  
• 2002: Magma (unpublished) by Carlo A. Rossi
  
• 2004: Terra Nova by Rosanna Leocata and Gaetano Evola
  

Though the winners of the Premio Archimede don't necessarily have the greatest publication record, in most years 1-4 games from the top several were published. The 2004 awards are particularly notable, with the top four finishers all being published

Italian Game Companies

In closing up this overview of Italian game design, I've written a a quick overview of the game companies currently influencing the market. They show an interesting amount of variation. Some are American style design-and-publication houses, where designers create a company to publish their games; others are purely German-style development houses taking in game designs from external designers; a few are indie design houses who may or may not publish depending on whether they have to; and one even seems to be a Rio Grande style republication house. A fairly unique element in Italy seems to be the "studio", which is a group of designers working together, but who may not necessarily publish their own games.

Surely, game design is booming in Italy.

First here's the Italian game companies that are making an impact as far away as the United States:

Acchittocca. Solely a design studio with no publication plans, Acchittocca is a collection of four German designers. Thus far they've sold Leonardo da Vinci and Deadtective to Da Vinci Games as well as a deduction game to What's Your Game.

Angelo Porazzi Games. An indie design & publication company led by designer & artist Angelo Porazzi. Angelo's WarAngel game won Best Game not just at Lucca, but also at conventions in Acqui, Bolgona, and Milano. It's now being produced in a 10th anniversary edition. The Warangel Card Game, meanwhile, was one of the first indie games pick up by Hasbro Italy. Angelo's website also has some nice photo-reports of conventions in Italy and elsewhere.

Clementoni. A toy and puzzle manufacturer that's also put out a few interesting games.

Cogito Studio: A game design studio run by Carlo Rossi and Alessandro Zucchini which has since been absorbed into the Venice Connection and Studiogiochi. Zucchini of course won the first Lucca unpublished game design contest with Lucca Citta.

Da Vinci Games. A collection of over a half-dozen designers, Da Vinci is pretty much the definition of a designer-oriented publishing company. They burst onto the scene with the very American Bang! which won the 2002 Lucca Best of Show and was a huge success in Italy. It then won two awards at 2003 Origins, which speaks to its appeal in the States. Since then Da Vinci has knocked out a huge number of games and thanks to a distribution deal with Mayfair Games, most of those games have made it into the U.S. They games seem to generally be pretty light and family oriented, but with more recent releases like Fredericus, Oriente, and Palatinus, da Vinci seems to be pushing more toward Germanic fare, though of filler length. Leonardo da Vinci may be a considerable expansion into serious Eurogames. Together with Lucca Comics & Games, daVinci sponsors the unpublished game design contest at Lucca ... and publishes the winners.

Ghenos Games. Publishers of the car-racing game, Bolide, which got some attention last year, but nothing else to date.

Kidultgame. An Italian design & publication house led by Spartaco Albertarelli that is making games for the German market. Some of their games, including Diceland, Dice Run, and Polterdice are being sold in the U.S. by Mayfair. Although not well known in the United States, games like Coyote have nonetheless had an impact in Europe. They've also produced Leo Colovini designs, like Druids.

Mind the Move. Emanuele Ornella's development house which seems to do some publication too, with markedly higher production values beginning with Il Principe. He also did Fantasy Pub and Oltremare

Nexus Games. Founded way back in 1993, Nexus has been a contender in the Italian game market for a long time. As with most of the companies at that time, they started out publishing RPGs. (I actually had some of my RPG reviews published way back in their Nov/Dec 1993 issue of their Kaos magazine, #1.4.) By 1998 Nexus was publishing GiocAreA, a monthly gaming magazine founded by Domenico Di Giorgio, Roberta Barletta, and Andrea Angiolino. Under CEO Roberto di Meglio, Nexus really took off with the release of War of the Ring in 2004 (and its 2004 Lucca Best of Show win). Nexus nowadays seems to generally be producing serious games in the later American style, which explains their close relationship with Fantasy Flight Games. Where FFG publishes Nexus' War of the Ring, Marvel Heroes, and Wings of War, Nexus publishes FFG's Arkham Horror, Game of Thrones, and Runebound.

Venice Connection. One of the oldest surviving Italian design & publishing houses. Founded in 1995 by Leo Colovini, Dario de Toffoli, and Alex Randolph, it's primarily published games by Colovini and Randolph, with a few collaborations with one-shot designers. Venice Connection is a sister company to de Toffoli's Studiogiochi, which organizes the Premio Archimede. This year Studiogiochi-Venice Connection also acquired Studio Cogito.

What's Your Game. A small Italian publishing house that thus far has done new editions of foreign games, including: Big Manitou, Fairy Tale, and Reef Encounter. The latter two were reprinted for the U.S. market by Z-Man Games, while the former was published with Rio Grande, so as far as I can tell they don't have any regular U.S. distribution deal. They also seem to be putting out Italian editions of Caylus and Puerto Rico, so perhaps they'll turn out to be an Italian Rio Grande, except doing a few new games of their own too.

Zugames. According to their web site, Zugames is "a group of Italian authors that self-produce their ideas". To date Zugames appears to be an indie development and publication for one author: Mario Papini. He put out Feudo in 2004 and Siena in late 2005; the latter was also picked up by Z-Man Games.

And here's the companies that are making inroads into Europe, and have attended at least one Essen, but haven't made it to the United States yet:

Adesso ci Penso. Small producer of party games.

EG Games. Editrice Giochi. At one time a gamer's game company. They published Spartaco Albertarelli's Fair Play and Kaleidos as well as a few Alex Randolph designs (and even some Kramer & Knizia reprints). Now they seem more directed toward the mass market, with Italian versions of Monopoly and Risk and family games leading their catalog.

Hasbro Italy. The Italian branch of megacorp Hasbro. Besides Italian-language Hasbro properties, they also distribute the Warangel Card Game.

Postscriptum. A tiny indie design & publication house with just one game under their belt.

Red Omega Studio. A game design studio led by Piero Cioni, and publisher of games such as Crazy Rally and Tortuga.

Scribabs. Paolo Vallegra's indie design & publishing house. His La Saghe di Conquest is a Talisman-like game that won a Best of Show at Lucca 2001. The Scribabs games are being pretty actively sold in France and Germany.

Tenkigames. A brand-new company that's thus far been publishing the works of Piero Cioni and Red Omega Studio. Their works are multilingual and are being distributed all across Europe, so they may well be the next company that jumps the pond.

Finally, here's some defunct Italian companies. Most of them were part of the wargaming/roleplaying movement, spinning out of the successful movement in the United States:

International Team. 1979-1988. A publisher of wargames, and later the roleplaying game VII Legio, led by Renzo Angelosanto. By the mid-1980s they were occupying a similar niche in the Italian market as that held by Avalon Hill and SPI in the United States at their height. However, unlike more traditional wargaming companies, IT's simulations were often faster and simpler--some of the same paths that the German Game movement would later take. After International Team's bankruptcy in 1988 French/Italian Duccio Vitale picked up some of the games as the basis of Eurogames. (Years later, after Eurogames passed through Jeux Descartes, was briefly distributed by Cafe Games, and finally utterly absorbed by Asmodee, none of these games are still available.)

Quality Games. 1994-1998 An older Italian publishing house that was more roleplaying oriented, with fewer board games among their titles, and those mostly pretty small press. They're best known for their "giochi del 2000", a set of 23 games, including roleplaying games, game books, war games, and card games. Each cost just 2000 lira (or about a buck and a quarter USD at the time). A few of their authors have since done work for da Vinci.

Italian Game Reviews: Abracadabra (C), Bang! (B), Beetlez (D+), The Bridges of Shangrila (B), Cartagena (B-), Clans (A-), Dancing Dice (B+), Fredericus (C), Go West! (C+), Il Principe (B), King Me! (C), Lucca Citta (C), Lupus in Tabula (B), Mister Bill (C+), Moby Pick (B), Oltre Mare (B+), Oriente (C+), Ostrakon (C-), Palatinus (B-), Siena (C-), Tuchulcha (B).

Other Italian Resources

Besides awards and gaming companies, there also a few other elements of note to people interested in Italian game design.

Convivio in Bercatora. A designer's gaming convention. This link is to a session report by Piero Cioni.

Cosa Bolle in Pentola? Liga's regular column at BoardGameNews highlighting Italian designers.

IDeA G. A yearly meeting for Italian game designs founded by Walter Obert. This link is to a report from the 2006 second edition.

Inventori di Giochi. Apparently the biggest Italian web site about game design, but it's all in Italian so not of much use unless you speak the language.

The Games of Italy

One of the interesting things about so many new games coming out of Italy is that we're also seeing many more games with Italian themes. Sure, we had our Princes of Florence and Traders of Genoa before, but just in the past several months I've played Lucca Citta, Il Principe, and Siena, all Italian designs about Italy. Il Principe was particularly cool because you can can look at the map and see other games there. Siena, Venice, Florence, and Lucca all appear.

So, in closing up this article I've decided to deviate slightly from Italian designs to look at all the games about Italy.

Venice is the most popular location for games, with San Marco probably being the best well known, but Canal Grande, Venezia, Inkognito, The Venice Connection, and Doge all take place there as well. I'm sure there's smaller games that do too. The Patrons of Venice was one that I'd never heard of before, and there are doubtless others.

In surveying games, I managed to find eight other Italian cities for which mass-market games had been published: Florence, Genoa, Lucca, Ostia, Pisa, Pompeii, Rome, and Siena. Beyond that there are any number of games with maps of northern Italy (The Princes of the Renaissance, Il Principe) or all of Italy (Vino), and that doesn't even cover Italian-themed games without a solid geographical basis (La Citta, Palazzo).

I've put many of these games together into a single graphic:



Conclusion

There's a lot going on in Italian game design, and more and more of it seems to be making it to American shores. I'm looking forward to seeing what else this new Italian Renaissance has to bring.