Category Archives: life, the universe, and everything

It’s been emotional

game night, life, the universe, and everything

It’s been a long week.

One that’s been very emotional as well.

At the start of the week I finally had the offer from college to become a full time lecturer. Which I accepted.

However it hit me hard that the one person I really wanted to share the news with I couldn’t. I miss Nan so much.

And the working week ended that way to.

It’s not only the end of term but the academic year and my leaving class of level three students gave me a card and box of Maltesers. An unexpected and very nice thought.

But when I opened the card back in the room where I was doing my final marking of the year, my eyes nearly leaked as I read it.

The card means so much. It’s hard to express how. But it’s nice to know that all the hard work has been appreciated by the students.

After thanking the students again I just wanted to share the card with Nan. And once again the eyes threatened to leak. If it was hard to articulate how I felt about the card. There is no way I’m getting close to getting across how much I miss Nan.

Last night I got to play War of the Ring the card game with Diego. For once the free people of middle-earth (me) won. Plus it was a points win ending the game early by creating a ten point difference

But the glow of victory didn’t last long as Diego thrashed me at Star Wars the deckbuilding game as the Empire.

It was a cool evening gaming with Diego. I’m glad our life events are enabling us to play more games together. Now if only they would sync a bit more so we could game with Jonathan more.

Not your average board gaming content creator!

life, the universe, and everything, rant, still alive

I was going to write a post in response to a recent YouTube video by Jamey Stegmaier and one or two others called Tabletop Publishers, Content Creators, and Audiences: The Inside Scoop.

However this heat wave is sucking my will to live, and I can’t be bothered to share my very cheap opinions about the issues raised.

Besides I’m not a content creator in the board gaming space. Or not by any definition that most people would use.

What we have in this little corner of the internet is a personal diary where I talk about what gaming I get up to. I don’t review stuff. I share my opinions on the games I play.

If this blog is read by more than a handful of people I’d be shocked. I’d bet good money that most of those that read my posts are friends and family.

Why do I write it?

It’s for me. And maybe one day for Nathan. That’s why some of the posts recently have had a more personal “back when I was a lad” bit to them. It’s my “gift” to him. Hopefully it will help him feel closer to me if he ever decides to read my badly written words.

So no I’m not trying to make a living from this. I’m not trying to get free games (god I’d hate that pressure), and I’m definitely not trying to make a name for myself.

I’m just creating memories that one day will help my son.

It’s been a busy week

D&D, life, the universe, and everything, new arrivals, RPG, still alive

It’s been a busy and tiring week at work. Which has left me too tired to try and arrange any midweek gaming.

My attempt to get some gaming in last night failed. No one was free or interested in playing some roll and writes. And I had to turn down an invite to learn Marrakesh as it would have meant finishing too late.

So it looks like June is on course for being a slow month of gaming, and I don’t have a car issue as an excuse this time.

Work wise I’ve stepped up the job search as the clock counts down to the end of my temp contract. Apparently there is a full time contract, they are timetabling as if I’m there next year. However I’ve not seen anything yet to sign.

At the start of the week the latest promo packs and solo mode for Rolling Realms arrived. It’s getting to the point now that an alternate storage solution needs to be found for the game. I think with the Encounters promo pack that comes out at the same time as when the game does that’s it. The limit for everything in the original game box has been reached.

So yesterday out of the blue my pre-order of Tome of Beasts 3 by Kobold Press arrived.

I am a big fan of the Kobold press pocket editions of their books. I love the format. It’s so handy. Goes nicely in a bag to read on public transport or in bed. I just love it compared to the larger books like the Monster Manual.

I currently have two other of their creature books, Tome of Beasts 2, and Creature Codex. With the updated Tome of Beasts pre-ordered (out next month if memory doesn’t fail me).

For me I actually prefer these Kobold Press offerings to the official WotC equivalents. They feel fresh and fire the imagination more. The art is amazing. Which helps fire that imagination.

There is also the benefit that unless your players also have purchased the books that they are unlikely to have come across the creatures in them. So when they encounter one it’s a surprise and refreshing to them also.

I’m looking forward to flicking through the pages of this latest volume and seeing what grabs me.

Good to be back!

Fenland Gamers, game night, life, the universe, and everything

It’s felt like an age since I last did any board gaming.

With the car woes not yet resolved I was glad I was able to arrange for a lift home from the community centre. It meant I could hop off the college bus on the way home, walk to the community centre, and play some games.

The gaming drought was about to be over.

Jonathan had bought along Letters from Whitechapel. A Game I last played with Jonathan back in 2016. Back then it was a three player game with me taking on the role of the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. In that game Jack managed to avoid capture, carry out his crimes, and disappear into the night, never to be caught. In other words I won, Jonathan and Debbie lost.

Last night Dave was to be Jack the Ripper whilst Diego, Jonathan, Charlene, and myself would be the boys in blue trying to stop Jack.

The first game was over during the first night with Jack running out of time to get back to his hideout.

It was a learning game, and refresher. So can we really count it as Dave was learning how to play, and be Jack at the same time?

Our second game went to the third night with Jack being arrested by me. But he had already claimed four victims by this point.

Charlene’s crime board had worked, but sadly it had not been effective enough to save more lives.

But our collective deduction skills had been more mighty than Dave’s tricksy skills.

These were two really fun games.

Good grief I look so old in this photo. When did that happen?
Photo copyright Jonathan Warren

A big thank you to Jonathan for the lift home. Without it I wouldn’t have been able to go.

A brief car woes update. I have wheels again.

Green Flag got the car started again, and found the fault to be the battery. So once at the garage I passed on the info. It was lucky it was the that. I was prepared for something more expensive like an alternator (whatever one of them is).

A big thank you to Jonathan for picking me up and dropping me off at the garage. Without him getting the car woes sorted would have been a lot more eventful, and longer. Mainly because of a flaw in my plan that didn’t foresee not getting a loan car while the work was being done.

The universe conspires against me…

life, the universe, and everything

But at least it let me get my work clothes washed!

Late yesterday morning the washing machine decided enough is enough and threw in the mechanical towel.

The only fortunate thing was the car isn’t due to be fixed until next weekend. So this weeks pay packet has been redirected to buy a new washing machine. Which should arrive sometime Wednesday.

I’m glad I had the new Zelda hotness to play this weekend. It’s been a bit depressing not playing any boardgames. Which looks like being repeated next weekend.

My gaming stats for May are going to be so low.

I have started putting the Tapestry Folded Space insert together. I’m a long way off from completing it and putting it in the box. Basically I’m doing a couple bits a day, letting them dry over night, before doing the next small batch.

Right that’s the “life” update for now.

Brief car woes update

life, the universe, and everything

The car woes are going to drag on for another week because the garage can’t fit me in on a Saturday until the 20th.

Which means I will have to go board game cold turkey until the car is fixed.

It really is a pain not having that flexibility that a motor vehicle gives you.

I’m even having to use online shopping for the food shop.

In the meantime the cards for that Mindcrank and Duskmantle Guildmage combo deck are slowly arriving in dribs and drabs. Although the main stars of the deck haven’t arrived yet!

The A Game of Thrones Mother of Dragons playmat turned up. But as you can guess the planned gaming session to give it an outing for this Saturday has had to be cancelled until the woes have come to an end.

That’s it for now. Hopefully better news in the next post.

Still here,possibly,maybe…

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

A week is a long time in something or other. Especially when this blog appear to go all silent.

It’s been busy at work. A different kinda busy being in education again.

Yesterday was a great day because I got to do game coding with the students. But we aren’t here for that sort of chat.

There have been a couple of new arrivals in the week.

At the start of the week another copy of the 2004 edition of Doom the board game arrived that also had the expansion with it. I had to buy it like this as the was no way the seller would have separated the expansion out.

Midweek I decided for some reason that I’d get the War of the Ring card game to play with Nathan. There is no way Nathan has a table large enough to play the War of the Ring board game. He likes the Lord of the Ring movies. So War of the Ring the card game arrived Thursday. I can’t wait to play the game with Nathan at the start of the Easter holidays.

I’m not going to write now about last nights gaming. That can wait until I do a weekend gaming post. However I did do a bit of board gaming business last night.

Marcin had been after a copy of Outlive so we came to a deal last night that saw the game leave my collection and join his. In return on Sunday my collection gets a copy of Conan the board game.

In conclusion I’m still alive! And leading a pretty boring, mundane life. See you in the next post, I’ve got a D&D session to plan for.

Doomed Civilisations

Game day, game night, life, the universe, and everything

It’s been a great weekend of gaming.

Friday evening saw Doom the board game, 2004 edition get to the table.

We had a blast but you know I’m not going to say anything about that now. I’m saving that for a future Doom post (is anyone reading them, or finding them interesting?)

The 2016 edition and another copy of the 2004 edition with the expansion haven’t arrived yet. But I’m looking forward to their arrival.

Saturday saw Tapestry hitting the table with the third and final expansion Fantasies and Futures (F&F) thrown in with everything else. So it was a true all in experience.

We were using just the new civilisations from F&F so we didn’t need to take into account any civ adjustments.

Our starting civilisations

Also I used my usual trick of mixing the new cards in so that we get to see the new stuff during play. Which basically means the new cards were shuffled in with the top third of the respective deck.

The house rules were used for the game were the usual get two civilisations, choose one. The other being when drawing a tapestry card draw two, keep one.

I felt my first two tapestry cards were very thematic for my civilisation. But at a couple of points in the game I did top deck some pretty good stuff. One was the tapestry card Tapestry! Plus the Elder Ones civilisation, or a space tile that gave me 13 victory points.

My first two tapestry cards

Despite not going up on the exploration track that far. I didn’t get out of the first era. I still made it into space thanks to a tapestry card.

The Illuminati civilisation I can see being adjusted later in the year. It was very powerful in this game I thought. I’m either getting extra stuff if the opponents use the dice. Or I’m getting up to 18 victory points an income phase. It does force your opponents into making difficult decisions about what to do.

My final two civilisations (top) and Dave’s (bottom)

Add in getting the Elder Ones basically giving me an extra turn after I’ve done my fifth income phase.

I loved the new stuff F&F bought to the game. Charms are cool. Making the decision of which tapestry card to play and when even harder. Plus having stuff trigger on the fifth era income phase.

In terms of what it adds to gameplay it’s perfect as there is no real overhead to using them.

And OMG the new rulebook! So flipping good. Half the physical size. But the complete reference for the whole game including the expansions.

As you can see the final scores below show a comprehensive victory.

Final scores

That’s my highest score ever in the game. Wow!

Now all I’ve got to do is build the folded space insert!

Little life update

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

As I’m working on the next part of my Doom epic for this weekend I thought I’d just ramble on about stuff.

I’m getting the board game side of the Doom project in place so that I can get it to the table. Which naturally will then feed into the posts.

I’m not sure what folks think of the Doom posts they are a bit out there for this blog.

The latest Tapestry expansion and folded space insert have dropped through the letter box. So I have an excuse to get that back to the table but before I do I have an insert to build.

A few Marvel Champions also arrived. Which means I have all the big expansions now along with a few more heroes. But I’ll talk about that once I’ve finished organising the cards I already have. Which I’m in the progress of doing.

A lot of card sleeves are on their way so I can sleeve the Doom games when they arrive and the just arrived Tapestry expansion.

I’ve got the expansion for Deep Sea Adventure (Charlene got me a copy while at Airecon). Well I will have once I see Charlene. I owe her one Hostage Negotiator play mat too.

That’s about it for now laters.

Cake, Mars, and Crows

Fenland Gamers, game night, life, the universe, and everything, still alive

I know my usual posting schedule has once again gone out the window.

Despite having had a half term to recharge the batteries. This past week I’ve been particularly tired in the evenings. Often falling asleep whilst watching something.

I’m not sure folks appreciate how draining the day can be. Especially when you are still adjusting.

However yesterday was the end of the week and once again the fortnightly Fenland Gamers Friday game night.

Which means I go straight from work to where we meet up and play some games. Well that’s the new routine for club night considering the time I finish on a Friday, and it’s on the way home.

Plus it means I get there early, and have time to get something to eat before the majority arrive. I also get to set up the tables ready for some gaming.

Last night I got to play a four player game of Portal.

I’d been wanting to play the game with more than two players.

Our game was shorter than I expected and not as cut throat. But I put that down to one of our players not being a “gamer” and not really paying attention to what was going on. More importantly putting all their eggs into one basket so to speak by having both of their test subjects in the same test chamber. Which opened them up to Ben placing a turret in that chamber and ending the game. At that point in time Ben had the most slices of cake out on the laboratory. Giving him the win.

The second game of the evening saw Ben grab his second win of the evening when he won Alien Frontiers.

The latest edition to the collection, Murder of Crows was my final game of the evening.

The game had only arrived the day before. So naturally I hadn’t had time to read the brief rulebook.

So as I shuffled the cards Ben quickly read the rulebook, and was first player. After all first player was meant to be the most shady looking person!

Murder of Crows is a nice light take that card game, that plays in less than thirty minutes.

It definitely has a spot in the roster of filler games in my collection.

Harrison won the game.

It was a good evening of gaming.