The Tao of Gaming

Bleg -- Homemade Hexes?

Brian — 2008-09-02T22:09+00:00

I've got a game idea (don't we all?) and I think hex-tiles are the way to go. I suppose I could just handcut some from index cards, but does anyone have a good idea for prototyping that. (I'll need to write/draw on the tiles, of course). I may just use playing cards and get a big hex map for now, or I could paste onto cheap poker chips...

Overheard while deciding on which game to play

Brian — 2008-09-01T23:09+00:00

"What's in here ... (roots through bag) Titan, Agricola, Das Mullet, Blue Moon"
"What did you say?"

It has been agreed by all that Das Mullet would be a good game. All you aspiring designer take note.

Cardhaus Liquidation

Brian — 2008-07-31T03:07+00:00

Cardhaus is getting rid of their boardgames. Good prices.

Just another dog-dangling-day

Brian — 2008-07-23T11:07+00:00

Which is another way to say that I've got nothing at this moment. So, uh, what have you been playing recently?

Web Notes

Brian — 2008-05-17T14:05+00:00

Chris Farrell has a new post, so back onto the blogroll.

For a minor celebrity, Rich Sommers has pretty good taste in games. On an almost related note, there's the "Brushes with Fame" geeklist.

Time's up gets a deluxe edition. I'm not sold on the "fourth round" (with pantomiming) ... it's a good idea, but difficult. We tried making the 4th round simultaneous. All players on one side close their eyes and the other side poses. That stops any problems with trying to quickly open and close your eyes over 30 seconds. Still didn't quite work.

I do think that the "Titles" (instead of Celebrity names") idea is good, although everyone seems to want to put in a title that is also a name. (I liked "Tom Jones," personally).

I read the three-way discussion with Michael Barnes, Ryan Bretsch, and Eric Martin a few days ago. There was one good point (by Barnes):

That whole “different strokes” approach winds up undermining the whole point of having an opinion, discussing it, and defending it. That’s fine in day-to-day life and that’s how I live in pretty much all respects, but when it comes to opinion-making and criticism that shouldn’t be the de facto defense.

BGG has polls. Now they need to stop having so damn many (A geek-dime fee per poll. You heard it here first).

Game Pimping and Storage

Brian — 2008-04-27T02:04+00:00

Thanks to a tip by David, I went to the Container store and got a baseball card holder ... this holds up to 15 card games (sans boxes sometimes), depending on how many decks each game has. So now I can put Kutschfahrt, Vom Kap bis Kairo, Twilight, Flauschentuefel, and whatever in one long (solid) case. I'll probably take Bohnanza, Fairy Tale and a few other games out of their boxes.

Walking through the Container store was ... impressive. Lots of bit boxes, and some very nice stuff. (I didn't find a good way to organize my Strat-o teams, though). A 4x6 Index card file?

David, did you ever post a thread on how you pimped your Agricola set?

Anyway, this has been geeky even by my standards, so I'll stop.

Wabash Component Quality

Brian — 2008-04-26T15:04+00:00

Since I played Wabash Cannonball at the Gathering with Ted Alspach's set, I've never actually set eyes on a 'real' board until mine arrived this week.

And it wasn't that bad. The map is quite functional. The paper money needs to be replaced, but that's what poker chips are for. Clinky coins would be nice; but I'm not willing to spend $100 or so investing in them. Yet. I may print out nicer stock certificates, but overall I think the component quality is just fine (considering the print run, etc).

Around the Horn

Brian — 2008-03-26T00:03+00:00

Finally, a fantasy baseball thing I can follow: Each day you pick one player to hit for you, and try to keep your hitting streak alive. First person to 57 gets $1M (they have a home run hitting game, too, but that doesn't seem to be working right now).

Last night I got in my second game of Lost Valley. I think it went better ... this is still an "OK," but positive.

Happy Belated Leap Day

Brian — 2008-03-02T14:03+00:00

I don't know about you, but I celebrated by going to work. I have already gotten in my first March games of Race. So let's look around the web:

I liked this comic on BGG.

Pitchers and catchers have reported .... and so have cards. I think we're leaning towards a novel draft idea (at least, I've never heard of it applied to this format).

The Ticket to Ride card game is making the preview rounds. (Boardgamenews, Bruno Faidutti). Designers hate it when I say "That game sounds like X mixed with Y", so I'll just think X and Y really hard and let ya'll guess in the comments. (Or suggest others).

I'll eventually go to the MSC and pick the answers I like. As usual, I don't like my answer at the table. I still think Wei-Hwa's 110% is the best answer.

"Time are bad, Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book" -- Cicero

Shattering the Cardboard Ceiling

Brian — 2008-02-28T01:02+00:00

$100 for Axis and Allies?

I mean, it adds Italy (insert joke here).

Lots of people love A&A ... but $100 worth? (I guess the people who love A&A probably have lots more disposable income than when they started playing).