Archive

Our little group of intrepid gamers is growing! We have added two new gamers to our group, and had more activity on the part of some of Legends regulars. We currently have two tables reserved on Wednesdays for board gaming, so come and join us from 5 till 9 every week at Legends, 314 North Harrison Street in Vincennes, Indiana.

Games Played –

May 5th –
Qin – 4 times
Farmageddon – twice

3 gamers participating

May 14th –
Qin – twice
Alhambra – once
Splendor – twice
Qwirkle -once

5 gamers participating

May 21 –
Carson City – twice

5 gamers participating

May 28 –
Targi – once
Marvel Legendary – three times

5 gamers participating

Monthly Totals –

Number of games played – 18
Number of different games played – 8
Number of different gamers participating – 7

If you have some time on a Wednesday, come join us for some great gaming and camaraderie! We have a large diverse collection of games to choose from between the Legends library and what we bring. I would love nothing more than to have to reserve more tables!

Come join the fun!

Jeff Chattin

Great Gaming Gang!

The DC Museum Gamers have been busy in the month of May!

First, we held our inaugural monthly game day on Saturday, May 3rd. Overall a good time, and a success as we added a new gamer to our little group.

Attendees – Seven. Four Staffers and 3 Visitors
Of the three visitors, we had a returning gamer from TableTop Day, an new gamer and me.

Number of Games Played – Six games played a total of eight times

Activity per Gamer – 5.3   44 total plays played by a total of 7 gamers.

Games Played –
Takenoko
Splendor
Zombie Dice
Timeline Cinema
Timeline Inventions
Timeline Historical Events

New Games Introduced to the Group –
Takenoko
Splendor
Timeline Cinema

Overall a good showing!  Each new gamer added is a big win!

The DC Museum Gamers also participated in the Washington Rail Fest and History Fest on Friday and Saturday, May 16 and 17, 2014. Obviously the festival is focused on the railroad heritage in Washington, Indiana. DC Museum Gamers had five different Rail Road themed games set up on the second floor of the museum. Over the two days, we fielded several questions about the games, and managed to get in a few games.

Attendees – Well over a hundred visitors to the museum (final numbers are not in), but two staffers and two visitors played games

Number of Games Played – Two games played a total of four times

Activity per Gamer – 2.3    Eleven total plays played by a total of four different gamers

Games Displayed –
Ticket to Ride
Baltimore and Ohio
Trains and Stations
Empire Express
Trains

Games Played –
Trains
Baltimore and Ohio

While the two days were not a raging success, you have to keep doing outreach to lure in new gamers. Plus we got in a few games!

Next up, some of the DC Museum gamers have been attending Board Game Night at Legends in Vincennes, Indiana.  Currently, we have three of the Museum gamers attending the weekly event at Legends.  I will post a separate update about Legend’s Board Game Night in a separate post at the end of the month.

And lastly, two of your intrepid DC Museum Gamers went on the road on Friday, May 16, after the museum closed. We attended the monthly game night held by Saint Peter’s Church in Evansville, Indiana.

We played Timeline Diversity twice, and got to playtest a new game currently on Kickstarter, Evolution. Both of us liked Evolution very much, I came home and pledged to the Kickstart that night.

Evolution is a card based game in which you build different species of animals with different attributes, such as long neck, carnivore, burrowing, tree climbing, scavenger, etc. Each round, you can start new species, add attributes to your current species, up to three, and feed your animals. Again, I enjoyed the game very much. My only knock on the game is that it takes up A LOT of table space. But hopefully a design change will be made to the cards, which would reduce the space taken up by about 50%.

Evolution is, as of this writing, on Kickstarter, and is fully funded. The game is being published by North Star Games, the fine folks who bring you Wits and Wagers and Say Anything, among other games.

So, as I said earlier, a busy month!

If any of these events sound like a good time to you, (I know I have fun!), make plans to attend:

DC Museum Gamers Game Day – Held the first Saturday of each month from noon to 5 at the Daviess County Museum, 212 Main Street, Washington, Indiana 47501.  For further information contact the Daviess County Museum at 812-257-0301, or contact via e-mail at dchistory@sbcglobal.net

Saint Peter’s Monthly Game Night – Held the third Friday of each month at Saint Peter’s Church in Evansville, Indiana.

Saint Peter’s (Highland) UCC
7014 Darmstadt Road,
Evansville, IN 47710
Phone: 812-867-5271
Email: stpetersdarmstadt@att.net
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stpetershighland

Legends Board Game Night, held weekly on Wednesday’s from 5pm till 9pm.    Legends Family and Hobby Games  314 N. Harrison St., Vincennes, Indiana 47591  Phone 812-255-0574                                        https://www.facebook.com/legendsgames

Jeff Chattin

Great Gaming Gang!

“If it is to be, it is up to me” is a great line used often if various aspects of our life, and that is my gaming motto for the 2014. I’ve been at this board game thing pretty hard now for the past two years. As discussed in previous posts, I’ve always been a gamer, but the past two years have seen me going hot and heavy after the board game aspect of gaming, taking up a large amount of my leisure time. But gaming has always been hanging on by a thread, up until now that is. That thread has turned into several threads, and when wound together, have become at least a string, and maybe a cord.

Thread One – D&D – I have been running a D&D campaign for the past 34 years with my wife and my three kids, with various others thrown in due to moving six times during my adult life. We averaged playing at least four times a year during that span, with spurts playing once a month. Right now we are at about four times a year, adding my son in law and our two grandkids as regulars.

Thread Two – Extension – The same group above also played board games as a natural extension of family activities. We played basic board games such as Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Axis and Allies, Taboo and so on. My son in law brought in Zombies to the mix, and later Settlers of Catan.

Thread Three – Miniatures – My son and I started attending miniatures conventions together  in 1999  when he was thirteen. Over the years, we have attended about 30 various cons put on by Historical Miniatures Gaming Society, Great Lakes, of which we are both members. During that time, I took various co workers to one day events, including one who would later become my son in law. While we haven’t been to a con in 4 years, we all have various miniature armies, including DBA, Napoleonics, moderns, Starship Troopers, Star Wars miniatures, Uncharted Seas, Warhammer, and Firestorm Armada. We play these about three times a year.

Thread Four – Legends – Board gaming became my number one activity when, in the span of a month, I saw the first two episodes of TableTop, found Board Game Geek, read a review of Quarriors on BGG, and went to the game store owned by the author of the review, Legends,  met the author, Jason Cline, and played Quarriors with him.  I walked out that day with three games, and I was in deep.  At the high point of my Legends obsession, I was at the store four to five times a week.  We had a core of four gamers that showed up each week for Board Game Night.  Then Jason sold the store and moved, and activity dropped off to just one visit a week with one other core player, Travis Price.  Looked like this thread would be broken, but we stuck with it, and participation started to increase in Game Night.  We are back up to four core members, and have moved nights to accommodate more players.  We are on the rise again.

Thread Five – Immediate Family Activities – Our immediate family, my wife and I, and our two daughters and son, all live in different towns, but we plan family activities together once a month.  Gaming is the center piece of those activities.  On a recent get together for my Grandson’s birthday, we got in 19 games over the weekend.

Thread Six – Spreading the Love – I visit my daughter Chris’s house once a month to put on a game day for friends of hers.  Last month Chris bought a new dining room table and chairs specifically for her game days, great comfortable chairs, and the table has rounded corners so she can get more people around the table.  My other daughter, Hailey, called me and discussed starting a board game group at work during lunch.  We came up with a list of easy to learn short games, she bought some games and I gave her a few, and she is off and running with her lunch time group.  My son John has an extensive group of friends he gets together with, and he often takes Cards Against Humanity, which is a big hit with this crowd.

Thread Seven – Extended Family Game Night – Once a month, my brother and his kids and friends get together for a game night.  We started having the night at my house, but we now rotate venues.  We have a family calendar with the game night scheduled on it, and game night has been a big success.  We had had as many as 18 family and friends attend.  Every once in a while other things come up and we are forced to cancel, but we usually manager to get in 5 game nights every 6 months.

Thread Eight – DC Museum Gamers – The local Daviess County Museum participated in TableTop Day in 2014.  When I found out, I visited the museum and offered my services to assist.  The museum director declared TableTop day a success, and has started a monthly gaming group to play at the museum on the first Saturday of each month.  One of the TableTop attendees, Andrew Brochin, has become a regular at our weekly game night at Legends.

Thread Nine – Traveling – I was invited to attend a monthly game night At Saint Peter’s Church in Evansville, about an hour away.  The host, Jim Jones, saw my post about DC Museum Gamers on a guild on the Board Game Geek website and extended me an invitation.  After my first visit, having a great night of gaming with friendly folks at a fine facility, I have added the monthly event to my calendar.  I have also committed to participated in their annual fundraiser for the ExtraLife charity, which is held each October and benefits Riley’s Children’s Hospital.  Jim also informed me about a Sunday game day held weekly at a local game store, The Gaming Guild.  I plan to attend as many of these as possible, hopefully at least once a month.

Thread Ten – Participating – I have recently joined an RPG of Serenity, and am soon participating in a Warhammer summer league.  Both will stand on their own for fun, but at the same time I am spreading my contact net a little wider and helping the game store at the same time.

Thread Eleven – Stay Informed – I listen to the Dice Tower each week, watch each new episode of TableTop, watch Board Game Breakfast each week, and listen to the Blue Peg Pink Peg podcast every other week.  I watch game reviews from various reviewers, and spend at least 15 minutes a day on Board Game Geek.  I can talk intelligently about this hobby of ours by staying up to date.  I have fielded requests about what games would be good for church groups, lunch time games, and games for kids.  I have had coworkers ask me about board games and what I do with them.  I am always happy to indoctrinate, err, I mean discuss, board gaming.

Thread Twelve – The Gift of Gaming – I give board games as gifts whenever possible.  Everyone in my family who has received gifts from me in the past two years has received some of those gifts as board games.  I have given them away as birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, conformation gifts, thank you gifts, going away gifts, and wedding presents.  I put board games in the Toys for Tots barrel at Christmas.  The more games that are out there, the more gamers that I can game with!

While I did not start all of these threads, I am sure taking advantage of them.  I am always looking for more threads to add to my string, or cord, so that someday it will be a rope. I may have to cast 1000 times before I get a nibble, but it is sure satisfying when I do get that bite!

We are living in the best time ever for board gaming, games are more innovative, are based on more diverse topics, have better quality components, and better licensing agreements.  I mean to take advantage of what we have to make my hobby the best I can for me!

Jeff Chattin

Great Gaming Gang!

I’ve come to this point in my gaming life largely due to Legends Family and Hobby Games in Vincennes, Indiana, and it owner at the time, Jason Cline.  I had always been a gamer, as detailed in a previous article on this website, but I do not believe I would have risen to the level of gamer goodness (or the depths of gamer despair, depending on your outlook) if not for a visit to Legends in June of 2012.  When I saw a picture of their board game collection on their website, I realized they were more than just a Magic shop.  I read an article Jason had written about Quarriors, and decided to visit the shop.  Jason greeted me when I walked in, I told him I was interested in Quarriors, and he said if I had a few minutes, he would play the game with me.  Two hours and four plays of two different games later, I walked out with 3 games and a smile. The rest as we say, is history.

Over a period of the next year, I became very involved in Legends and gaming.  I often visited the shop 6 days a week, playing in two board game nights, two role playing games, pick up games and other events.  I was in gamer paradise!

Then over a period of months, things started to change,  Jason and his wife, Jamie, had their first child, Betty Jean.  Then Jason got a better job (he ran the shop on the side), and moved out of the area.  He sold the shop to his manager and another gamer.

The shop slowly started to slide away from board games, focusing more on Magic.  Less board gamers were coming in.  It became increasingly difficult to spend money there, as the inventory dwindled, they were always out of soft drinks and snacks.  The store became cluttered, disorganized, and dirty.  The limited staff often couldn’t help with product questions as the owners were off at some Magic tournament.  Soon the small group of active board gamers dwindled to two, meeting one night a week.

Then the shop lost its lease, and had to relocate.  Leaving Main Street in Vincennes, they moved to a location, while closer to the Vincennes University, had limited parking, and if you didn’t know exactly where it was, would drive by it. The shop quickly became a carbon copy of the previous location, cluttered, disorganized and dirty.  And DARK.  Travis and I both had trouble reading card text and rule books.  The only time they had new games in stock was when they ordered it by mistake.  If you ordered a game, you were lucky if you got it in 6 weeks.  I’m still waiting on a game I ordered in December, that I paid for up front.  Lots of excuses, its everybody’s fault but theirs.

Travis and I saw the writing on the wall, granted we are a bit slow.  We started discussing our options for playing somewhere else on Thursdays.

Then things changed.  One of the two owners left and moved north.  I came in 3 weeks ago, and the shop was clean….and organized.  It is still dark, but they are working on that.  I got my game.  I was approached to play on Tuesday nights in a role playing game.  The next week, I was asked to participate in a Warhammer league on the weekends.  The shop has also started a Pokeman league, and expanded their Magic play.   Travis and I have renewed hope for the survival of the shop.

Up to this point, you might think that Rebirth refers to the shop, and to a certain extent it does, but I am really talking about me.  At the beginning of the year, I sat down and wrote goals for the year, and a 5 year and 10 year plan.  (Yeah, I’m one of those).  It has personal, family, financial, and health goals.  My wife and I sat down in early January to finalize them.  And yes, I have gaming goals.  I have a 14 in 14 for games, 5 Jeffcons, (solitaire game conventions), purchasing targets and overall game play.  One of my goals was to start a game group in Washington, and it looks like that is going to happen via the Daviess County Museum.

So, I am very optimistic.  Other than my limit of purchasing only 14 new games in 2014 (I’ve already missed that target, don’t tell my wife 🙂 ) I’m on target to hit my gaming goals.  I have a tendency to be positive, but I feel really good about the future on all fronts.

I feel reborn!

Jeff Chattin

Great Gaming Gang!

I’d really like to title this “Hot Lava Birth” but that might be pushing it just a little.

This is to announce that the Daviess County Museum, 212 Main Street, Washington, Indiana,  will begin hosting a monthly

GAME DAY

To be held on the First Saturday of the month, at the Daviess County Museum, from 12 pm to 5 pm.

The first GAME DAY will be held on Saturday, May 3, 2014.

Based on the success of the museum’s participation in International TableTop Game Day, Vince Sellers, Museum Director, has announced the monthly gaming event.  The Daviess Room on the second floor of the museum is a spacious area with 11 tables available for gaming with room for over 60 gamers.

Traditional board games, modern board games and children’s games will be provided along with a knowledgeable staff to teach the games.  All are welcome.  Bring your favorite game, bring a friend, bring the person you want to trounce in a game, but come!

Smiles, laughter, good natured taunting and fun for all available to all who attend!

For further information contact the Daviess County Museum at 812-257-0301, or contact via e-mail at dchistory@sbcglobal.net

Great Gaming Gang!

OK, I have been a major slacker and not posted in a long time, letting fellow gamer Travis handle all of the duties with his excellent “After Action Reports”.  No excuses, consider me kicked out of Tokyo with no life points.  I’ll try to begin making restitution today with a few posts.

About two months ago I started checking the TableTop Game Day map to see what game stores in my area were going to be holding events, secretly wishing, hope against hope, that Legends, the closest game store to me, would pop up.  For about 2 weeks, the closest event was in Evansville, at Comic Quest.  Then Game Knight in Ferdinand popped up, closer but still not Legends.  Then on a Saturday I bring up the map, and there is a golden meeple hovering over Washington!  No way!  Inconceivable!  So I clicked on the meeple and it comes up the Daviess County Museum.  A museum?  A game store, a library, a community center I get, but how did a museum find out about TableTop Day?  So I read the info on the site and find out they are looking for games, they have a few but are looking for more.  To steal a phrase from Travis, “Now we’re cooking with butter!”, because I have a few games.

The following Tuesday I stop at the museum, just to make sure its not a mistake, and to offer my services and games to the cause.  I meet Ken Graber, the Assistant Director/Docent/Man of Many Hats (Travis later told me a Docent was a person who gives tours at a museum).  After a short discussion, I was “In Like Flint” . Ken is a big fan of the TableTop web series, and convinced Vince Sellers, Museum Director, this would be a good event to participate in. We exchanged e-mails and met several times over the next month, planning and introducing games to the team at the Daviess County Museum, Doug and Joe Burke, Sarah Roberts, and of course Vince and Ken.  Many thankless hours were spent playing games that would be available on TableTop Day to make sure we would be ready.  (At least that is what I tell my wife, how much work it was to get ready 🙂 )

We really didn’t know what to expect for turnout.  Flyers were put up in Washington and Vincennes, Ken had a couple of articles in the Washington Times Herald, and Vince  talked about TableTop Day on his video posts on YouTube and on the radio show Take 5 For Your Community on WAMW.  And I talked to anybody who would listen about the event.

TableTop game day came and the museum was ready.  Joe and Doug had eleven  tables with chairs set up, Ken had card holders on each table with description and information about the games, and the games were set up in all of their glory.  At noon Vince came down to check on us and the first game began.  The first game was all staff members, Joe, Sarah and new volunteer Kim Ridge started rolling dice in Zombie Dice.  Several shotgun blasts and brains eaten later, Joe was the winner.  He asked his usual question, “What do I get for winning, a million dollars?”  Alas, I had left my checkbook at home, so Joe had to settle for candy bars as his booty.

Overall, the stats for the day are as follows:

Attendees- 20  Seven staffers and thirteen visitors played games

Games Played- 25  Thirteen different games were played a total of twenty five times

Activity per Gamer- 3.8   76 total plays played by twenty gamers (ex: a gamer plays 4 games, activity per gamer would be 4.)

Fun- Countless   Many smiles were seen, numerous dice rolled, cards drawn, laughs heard, and such things as “Don’t touch my cards, you are cursing them!”, “I didn’t see that move!”, “I don’t want to die!”, “Not another Water Rising card!”, and the often heard “I win!”

Humility- One gamer reportedly played fifteen games and only won two, including losing six straight games of Hive.  This gamer shall remain nameless, but it is reported he ate a big dish of crow when he got home, served by his loving wife.  It is also rumored he brought all of the games he lost.

The Best News- Every attendee was told the museum wanted to hold a regular Gaming Event, possibly once a month.  If they were interested in participating, there was a sign up sheet they could put their contact information on.  EVERYONE who attended signed up with contact information.  More on this in another article.

So what’s the feeling about how it went?  Was it the dream of people milling around waiting for a game to end so they could start a new one, with all of the tables full? No.  Did some people come to the museum who hadn’t visited before?  Yes.  Did the event generate any new members for the Daviess County Historical Society?  Yes.  Did the event generate any new volunteers for the museum?  Yes.  Did Joe get his million dollar prize money?  No, I still can’t find my checkbook.  Did some previously unknown to each other gamers meet and make plans to game again?  Yes.  Is the museum going to have an event they can add to their calendar on a regular basis?  It looks that way.

That’s four yes’s, a no, an “Its never gonna happen, Joe’s going to figure out another way to get a million bucks”, and an “it looks that way.”  So I guess it depends on how you look at success.  If your an all or nothing, hare to the tortoise, go big or go home kinda guy, then it was not a success.  But if you are like me, a tortoise to the hare, something is better than nothing, I’ll get better at Hive kinda guy, it was a success.

Lao-tzu, an ancient philosopher once said, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”  We have taken that single step.

Great Gaming Gang!

As I mentioned before, as I add games to my collection, if they’re alphabetically before my current place in my list, I will jump back to include them.  This is the first of two such additions, before I get back into place.

I played Agents of SMERSH twice before buying it.  Travis (who posts the wonderful After Action Reports here) had picked up a copy, and we got to try this a couple of times before I moved away from that group.

In Agents of SMERSH, you play a U.N. “SuperSpy” trying to shut down Dr. Lobo before he does something to destroy the planet, or something to that effect.  You travel the globe and have semi-random encounters (based on your location, reaction, the state of the board, and a random element).  You’re given a scenario, and a test to perform (By rolling specialized dice equal to your rating in the skill to be tested).  If you succeed good things (usually) happen, and if you fail, Dr. Lobo gets closer to his goal.

I’ve played this game 3 times, with 4 players each time, and I’ve not succeeded yet.  That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it immensely.  I love the “Choose your own adventure” flavor of it, especially with the adventure book that (optionally) comes with the game.

The path to victory includes facing some heavy hitting “Lieutenants” several times, while collecting intelligence tokens with random symbols on the unrevealed underside.  Once you’ve defeated the lieutenants a number of times (5 in a 4 player game), you may reveal the intel, and if you have collected all the symbols that match the symbols on the current “threat” level, you win.  Else, you lose, and Dr. Lobo unleashes his own version of the apocalypse.

I’ve played this with both gamers and non-gamers alike, and have enjoyed it, though I’m not entirely sure the non-gamers were as thrilled with it as I was.  They said they had fun, and I think I can get it to the table again, but I hope we can win it soon, or I fear they’ll give up on it.

In that play, by the way, I streamlined things a tiny bit, by acting as “GM”, and read the adventures for each player except myself, so as not to have to pass the awkward spiral bound book around the table too much.

It all started with A Game of Thrones.  My friend Kent had collected the base game and the first eighteen (yes, eighteen) expansions because he liked the art.  He never played the game, just collected the cards.  Last summer, he traded the collection to me, so we reassembled it into the base set and expansions.  We then sat down with the rulebook and tried to get into it.  It was a bit daunting, especially after I looked for the FAQ and found it to be a larger document that the (large) rule book.  The book explains from the start, the 4 player setup, with all the extra trappings, but doesn’t point out how much easier the 2 player experience is, which the tutorial video does much better.  We came back to it from this angle, and eventually the 4 player setup made a lot more sense.  It also helped that between the first play and the second, I read the first three books in the Song of Ice and Fire series.  I’m not going to go too heavily into each system, but share some early thought, having played a few games of each, and planning to expand each game.  I will start with the oldest ones first, and finish up with the newest members of the format.

A Game of Thrones (1 Base Set,  6 Deluxe Expansions, 46 Chapter Packs) — This is a very cutthroat game, with a lot of focus put upon messing with what other people are doing.  It plays most thematically with 4 players, but more smoothly at 2.  My collection started with the base game and the first 3 cycles of cards, but we played several times with just the base decks that came with the Core Set.  I like this game a lot, but find it to be a tough sell to a new player.

Call of Cthulhu (1 Base Set, 5 Deluxe Expansions, 42 Asylum Packs) — My friend Shane brought this game into the shop the first time I met him, and left it for us to try.  We played a handful of times, again with just the base game.  This one has a more straightforward 2 player experience.  You’re trying to claim “story” cards by committing characters to them, and then facing off against your opponent.  There are a lot of cards in circulation now, though, and I’m not sure how much I should collect, to put together a decent handful of decks to play casually with friends.

Warhammer: Invasion (1 Base Set, 4 Deluxe Expansions, 36 Battle Packs)  — This one is probably the most “in your face”.  It allows for more than 2 players, but plays best as a head to head game.  Each player has 3 regions in their home that they are defending, as the other player builds up their forces, and attacks them.  Lose two of your regions, and you’re eliminated from the game.  This one probably plays quickest, and I’ve seen the balance of power change on a dime.

The Lord of the Rings (1 Base Set, 2 Deluxe Expansions, 2 Saga Expansions, 18 Adventure Packs, 2 Print on Demand Expansions) — The only cooperative game in the lot.  2-4 players play against a “Quest Deck”.  In theory, each quest has its own feel and play experience.  In practice, the game is a lot of resource management and number crunching.  I don’t dislike this game, but I think it’s the most difficult one to massage the theme out of.

Android: Netrunner (1 Base Set, 3 Data Packs) — One of the two newest members of the format, Android: Netrunner has been at the top of the BoardGameGeek “Hotness” for the last several months.  It features truly asymmetrical gameplay, with each side taking vastly different types of actions, as the noble corporation tries to defend its assets against criminals.  Or perhaps, as the digital freedom fighter tries to stick it to Big Brother.  It really depends on your outlook.  This is another game that I feel isn’t for everyone, but is probably the most unique of the six.

Star Wars (1 Base Set, 2 Data Packs) — Despite early claims that this would be a cooperative game, Star Wars released as a “light” versus “dark” game, with 3 different factions on each side.  This one probably has more similarities to Warhammer: Invasion than any of the others, but I feel it holds its own theme very well.  I’ve probably played this one the most, and have enjoyed it immensely.  It also features a unique deckbuilding method that I like a lot, though others have claimed it too restrictive.

One thing all of these games have in common is STELLAR artwork.   Granted, the Call of Cthulhu art gets reused throughout Arkham Horror, Mansions of Madness, and Elder Sign, but the artwork is good enough that I certainly don’t mind. The Star Wars art all has a great illustrated style, and really bring out the “feel” of the original trilogy.  Lord of the Rings uses all unique artwork, and pulls nothing from the movies, not even inspiration.  Considering how bad the art is on just about every other Lord of the Rings game these days, that’s a wonderful thing.

I’ve found myself to be a fan of all of these games.  I’m actively looking for people to play them with, though I’d likely have to play at home, at least for a while.

I will be touching on each of these games as I get to them in my regular “Collection” articles, but I wanted to say a few things about these now, and hopefully start a dialogue, that will give me more opportunities to PLAY these games.

Cheers!

I collect games.  Whether I like to admit it or not, I collect games.  My collection has grown so much over the last two years, I certainly can’t deny it.  I’m trying to limit my game buying to games I actually KNOW I’ll play, now, but that’s still a pretty big list.  I’ve been thinking about my collection lately, and how much of it has been influenced by what’s newly coming out. (more…)

I’m going to take a bit of a departure from my normal format tonight. I’ll be going back to it,but for now, I just want to share a few thoughts about my last couple of years as a board game enthusiast. When I started this blog, I didn’t ever intend for it to be read by anyone besides people who already knew me. To that end, I never really introduced myself. My co-contributors have all introduced themselves. I guess I should follow suit.

I’m a 38 year old new father. I’ve been gaming since the late 1980s, and have been involved in the industry, at the retailer level, since 1994. Like most people, I had games as a kid, but nothing more in depth than Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. My first introduction to tabletop gaming really came in 1988 when I borrowed my uncle’s basic D&D set (which he’d never played). I ran the game for a few neighborhood kids, and was hooked pretty quick. This was the pre-red box version, and I only had it for maybe a couple of weeks.  Role playing remained a pretty strong hobby for me, and I found myself immersed in systems like Marvel Super Heroes, Twilight 2000, Rifts, and Vampire, as well as a regular ongoing D&D campaign.

In the ’90s, I went to work for a local comic shop, and was introduced to Magic: the Gathering. At the time, it was the only game they carried. I played heavily from The Dark through the Urza block. The store changed ownership in 1996, and eventually, we started moving more into games. When I took over ownership in 1998, we eliminated comics altogether, and became a full-blown game store. When I say game store, I mean CCGs and Roleplaying games, mostly. I remember seeing solicitations for games like Settlers of Catan, but not thinking much of them. We continued until 2002, and closed when the building we were located in was sold.

When I opened a new shop in 2003, we still followed the same model, though we carried some of the collectible minis games like HeroClix and MechWarrior. Sadly, that shop didn’t stay open very long either, and I missed the opportunity to expand my horizons. During this time, games like Raw Deal (the WWF/WWE card game), Star Wars d20, and Warlord: Saga of the Storm dominated my time. The shop re-opened in 2006, almost completely focused on Magic: the Gathering. In 2008, we moved to a larger location, and re-introduced comics to our lineup.

It was in this location that I started to see some of the great things that were going on. Finally, I discovered Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride, and all the other great “gateway” games. Still, I moved slowly into board gaming as a hobby. Games like Pandemic and Forbidden Island became staples for us. Indeed, when Jamie and I got married in 2010, we had board games on each of the tables at the reception, and gave out custom d6s as wedding favors. I had personally drifted away from Magic as a player, but continued to run events on a weekly basis. I also had gotten into Warhammer Fantasy Battles and amassed a decent sized Vampire Counts army. I wasn’t very good at it, though, and never got knowledgable enough to teach it very well. Our latest D&D campaign had ended, as well, and the next one never quite got started.

I found myself without a steady hobby for the first time in a long time. I turned to board games as a “one-off” kind of thing, as I had access to a smallish collection, with a decent amount of variety. I can’t say there was any one specific board game that sucked me in, but in the last two years or so, I’ve really found a hobby that I can love.  All types of games, with so many ways to interact with friends and new faces. I also feel that I’m a passable teacher for these games, so in general, I really feel at home with board games. At the beginning of 2013, I started a quest to talk about each of the games in my collection. Give my thoughts on the ones that I’ve played, and at least talk a little about the ones I haven’t. I’m still in the As, so this might take a while. I don’t think I’m quite done with this interlude yet, however.

In my next segment, I plan to talk about new games, old games, and the direction I plan to go with my hobby.