Category Archives: tabletop

Not a hipster game night

game night, lego minifigs, Munchkin, tabletop

Last night there was another game night round mine. The wolf pack had been relocated next door to spend the evening with Nan. Well I have to look out for the safety of my guests. It wouldn't be right having a guest mauled and eaten by the attack chihuahua.

The first game to the table was Star Fluxx. Star Fluxx is a favourite of my students, and I thought might be a good start to the evening. Star Fluxx is a science fiction themed version of the game Fluxx. The game starts off with the simple rules of draw a card and play a card. After that who knows what the rules will be or how you will win. That is all decided by the cards played. One card may make it that you have to draw three cards, another may add the rule that you have to play every card in your hand each time. Some one may play a card that changes what the goal (win condition) of the game is. Basically the game is in a constant state of flux (get it?) The first game of Star Fluxx we played was probably the shortest game I've played. It lasted for about four rounds. The second game last a little longer but not by much.

Our second game of the evening was Tokaido. In Tokaido you are traveling from Edo to Kyoto, trying to have the best experience possible by visiting temples, bathing in hot springs, painting incredible views, visiting temples, shopping and eating great food at inns. Which I didn't explain very well, and at the start the other players were not getting the game or enjoying it much. But once it clicked after two or three turns they started to enjoy it. By the end of the game I think everyone was getting into the game and having a good time.

Super Munchkin is a super hero themed version of Munchkin. Even so it's still all about the loot baby! Lots of dealing, undercutting, backstabbing, wandering monsters suddenly appearing, people being suspiciously helpful to others, all the elements of a great game of Munchkin. At the end there was three of us that could of won it. But the eventual winner really did deserve the win, we threw every wandering monster, monster power up, action we could or had left to try and stop them winning. But to no avail, our attempts failed and then super leaped over the finish line to win. Did I say that Munchkin is another of my students favourite games?

The penultimate game of the evening was Cash 'n Guns 2. I'd previously only played this game once with Nath at last years Eurogamer in the table top playing area. Basically Cash 'n Guns recreates the Mexican stand off, chose your favourite movie that has one whether it's the one from the end of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in the cementary, or maybe like the one in Reservoir Dogs. The game plays upto eight players, is reasonably quick to play, quick to explain, and fun to play. It's also one of the few games I know where being the eldest pays off! Each player in the game takes on the role of being a gangster during the splitting up of the spoils of a big robbery. One player becomes the Godfather (the eldest person at the start of the game) and remains the Godfather until some-one else takes over the mantle by taking the Godfather token during the splitting of the spoils at the end of each round. It's handy being the Godfather because you can ask a player to “reconsider” who they point their gun at. But the Godfather also gets first pick of the loot. The winner after eight rounds is the player with the most loot and alive at the end. It's safe to say I didn't win, but I did last six rounds before dieing. This is a fun game to play. This game has the potential to become a gaming night staple.

The final game of the evening was Zombie Dice. A great push your luck dice game. I bet my fellow dice masters players wished I rolled like I do playing Zombie Dice. All my luck seems to happen in Dice masters. It's safe to assume I didn't come close to winning either of the two games we played.

The great thing about our group. Wow are we a group now? This is our second games night now. Do we qualify as a group? How many games nights do you have to have to qualify as a group? The great thing about last night is that we all have a similar sense of humour, love the banter, and able to take it all in good humour. A big theme of the evenings banter was whether James was a hipster. To be fair it was funny, and his denials and heated protests added to the laughs. It didn't help his case admitting he had been using beard oils recently, nor when googled that the first image of a bearded hipster with a flat cap looked like his twin!

You know me I will work lego minifigs into anything. This morning I have found the bits to make a hipster minifig of James as a present for him next time. It has to be done. When all the bits come together I hope they live up to the plan I have in my head. I think it will be better. We will see in a couple weeks time.

Anyway a fantastic evening once more, great company, fun games, awesome banter/conversation.

 

Memory Lane Winter 2015

tabletop

So it looks like once the nights have started to draw in early once more later in the year (Yep this winter hasn't finished yet and I'm already looking forward to the next one) it looks like my board gaming will be taking me back to my early years, and sparking off a real nostalgia trip.

I've already mentioned that there will be a co-operative game by Matt Leacock based on Thunderbirds. People of my age grew up watching Gerry Anderson staples such as Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Captain Scarlett, Sting Ray, Space 1999 and less common Fireball XL5. But during my youth which you got to see and when all depended on the ITV area you were in. Luckily for me on my little tv in my bedroom I could pick up three different ITV regions, Anglia, Central and Yorkshire, by fiddling with my tv's aerial.

During my teenage years in the 80s as I was discovering computers and living through the home micro boom it was Terrahawks, with the late great Windsor Davies (I think he's dead) doing the voice of the sergeant “robot” ball. Who of a similar age could forget the Blue Peter Tracey Island? The Blue Peter solution for those that could not get their hands on at the time one of the hottest toys of the day a Tracey Island.

Sadly for some kids their introduction to Thunderbirds was through the dire live action movie. Which basically should of constituted an act of war by Hollywood upon the world, and a crime against cinema. It should of been a puppet movie like the original. The creators of South Park were so incensed with anger that they shot Team America using puppets and showed what could of been, although funnier and more adult orientated.

Wednesday Modiphius released mock ups of the Thunderbird craft that will be in the game. The holes are there to peg in heads or some representation of the Tracey family that are in that craft.
On Tuesday I backed a new kickstarter project which is the other half of the gaming experience that will take me back down memory lane. That kickstarter was for Ghostbusters the Boardgame. The project has easily reached its funding target, and now with just under a month left its now down to how many of the stretch goals will be unlocked. So far they have unlocked the first two stretch goals, and I would imagine well on the way to the third.
I remember playing the Commodore 64 game in 1984 published by Activision and programmed by David Crane (author of many classic video games from the 80s such as Pitfall, Little Computer People). I remember reading an interview I think in Retro Gamer with David Crane and he didn't have long to write the game, luckily he had been working on a game that he was able to use as the basis of the game that became Ghostbusters. Of course the stand out memory of the game has to be the Ghostbusters theme blasting out of the tv being produced by the SID chip of the Commodore 64. What the musicians of the day were able to do with the SID chip was amazing, I still listen to some of the tunes on my iPod from the likes of Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway. Anyway if Ghostbusters wasn't the first it was one of the first to use speech synthesis (I think it's a close call between Ghostbusters and Mission Impossible with its “another visitor, stay awhile stay forever”), but to hear it shout “Ghostbusters!” was just amazing. And still a very fond gaming memory from the time.
The 84 New Years Eve I remember being in our dining room with my brother and a family friends daughter playing video games. One of the games I remember playing during the evening was Revenge of the Mutant Camels (one of my all time favourite games, and I believe the first commercial game to use a turbo loader). But as the clock struck midnight we were playing Ghostbusters. If my aging memory serves me correctly my resolution was to be playing games.
Back to the up and coming boardgame. There are two versions of the box, and being a complete saddo I'm going for the deluxe foil embossed limited edition kickstarter exclusive one (picture below). Yes there are other rewards with this, but I just prefer this box to the regular one.
There is currently no game play videos up on the kickstarter page but from what I can glean of the page, this game is a co-operative board game similar to Zombicide. The use of map tiles, miniatures, missions, character cards that level up abilities as the player gets more experience. It comes across as a Ghostbusters Zombicide with tweaks to the game to theme it to Ghostbusters better.

From what I can tell instead of a draw deck to place ghosts on the board they use a dice. And when there is more than one ghost of the same type in a space, they combine to form a more powerful ghost.

I am looking forward to seeing the game play video. But if it is as I have said a Zombicide variant then I'm going to love this game. I love Zombicide.

 

Apps and boardgames some thoughts

tabletop

I'd been thinking about saying something on the matter of Boardgames and apps, I'd wanted to mull my thoughts over on the subject and present a coherent and thoughtful piece on the subject (which would be a first for me). However after watching last nights Board Game Breakfast (episode 62) where one of the segments was “Barry puts his head on the block” talked about this subject and was pro games using apps. But his argument was shallow, concentrated on one point and missed a major flaw. His presentation was meant to be entertaining. Which some may consider it was but in reality it was a poor segment that didn't really address the issue.

Last year started to see one or two major games come out or announced that relied heavily on the use of an app on your iPad or iPhone (Apparently there are lesser tablets and phones on the market but why you would have them I have no idea). The games were the new XCOM Boardgame that has just come out and Golem Arcana (well they are the ones I know about).

This is a trend that I don't think will go away and will become even more popular I think. For me I'm not interested in games that rely so heavily on an app for game play. Ok to be fair owning one, I'd happily play one if some-one else has forked out for the game.

In the said poor piece I mentioned above in the Board Game Breakfast segment, the main point the guy made was about how it would cut down on components, possibly box size, and set up (potentially) and remembering rules/sequence. I'm not sure it would mean that games become cheaper because of the reduced components etc. Apps don't develop themselves, they have development costs. Then once released they have maintenance costs as bugs have to be fixed when they are uncovered by players (although I'd hope they are minor bugs at this point), making sure the app gets updated so it is compatible with new releases of the os. Then you have porting costs as you port the app to new platforms, and then the support of the app on the new platform.

All that is not cheap, even if the game publisher out sources the work to a third party app developer. Which is going to be the case for most publishers because I'm not sure that they have in house software developers. So this development cost has to be covered. How would the publisher cover these costs? By the only way they can by including them in the cost of the game they sell. It won't be on the App Store because that has to be free. Imagine the uproar you pay £40 for the game, get home then find you have to pay for the app that makes the game playable on top! No the cost of the app will be included in the initial purchase.

Now I have seen a comment or two about how some players already have a problem keeping fellow players out of their phones while playing. And they only see this new development as an extension of that, and helps take players out of being immersed in the theme. I can see that argument, but I'd also side with the segment I don't like very much in saying that the app could also help immerse a player more in the game. Whether it's in the use of atmospheric music, sound effects, dramatic readings of story, all can enhance the experience of players while playing. Look at Zombie 15 and its use of an MP3 track to run the game. It completely gets the player immersed and builds tension while playing.

In the video game world there is a retro scene, where middle aged folks like myself like to relive the games they grew up with by either running their original computers/consoles and playing the tapes/disks/cartridges of the game. Or using emulators and images of the games. However this is all made possible because there is a physical version of the game and they stand alone. In recent years games have as standard come with multiplayer options that require a server to connect users up to be able to play the game. The issue we have for preserving these games for future generations is that when these servers are killed off by the publisher/developer that game or the multiplayer portion the game is dead.

Then there is the issue of moving away from physical media to purely digital. Which then gives the problem of archiving games and running them and making them available. This problem only gets amplified with the app stores and mobile gaming.

Now we all know boardgames go out of print. Sometimes they get reprinted other times they stay out of print. What happens with a boardgame that relies on an app to be playable? Will the publisher keep it going indefinitely? I don't think so as it would be uneconomic to do so. It's why the likes of Nintendo etc shutdown servers for their games for old patforms eventually. You can't play multiplayer over the Internet in Mario Kart on a DS now. Let's face it the resources of Nintendo are greater than probably all the boardgame companies added together. And they find it uneconomic to keep such services going. Then I think it not unreasonable to expect at some point in a games lifetime that the app for it is no longer supported. How long we are looking at I don't know. One, two years after the last printing?

This is my major issue with using apps with boardgames where they are so integral to the game. I like the idea of helper apps, where they help keep track of life or stats, even provide virtual dice. However it doesn't matter if these apps get dropped the game is still very much playable.

But imagine ten years from now, you have friends over that you went to college with. You are all reminiscing about the old days, and the boardgame nights you had. You remember the adventures and narrow escapes. Then some-one says “do you remember what a great time we had playing that XCOM boardgame?” You reply “oh do I, I still have it”. You disappear for a minute or two letting your friends entertain themselves down memory lane. You return with the game. Everyone expresses disbelieve that you still have it. Then a voice suggests “let's play it for old times sake”. You crack out the contents of the box, you all gather round the table excited to be playing the game again. Only you can't as the app is no longer available and the game can't be played without it.

That in a nutshell is my problem with the whole boardgame and app trend. As I said near the start of this post I can't see myself spending my hard earned pennies on this type of boardgame. But I'll more than happily play the game if some-one else has got it.

I think the issue is a complicated one, with implications that seem at the moment in the places I hang out on line to be missed. I hope I have been more balanced here on the subject. I'd love to know your thoughts on this.

 

 

Firehouse Baby

flash point, game night, lego minifigs, new arrivals, tabletop

“Get the firehouse

'Cause she sets my soul afire

Get the firehouse

And the flames keep gettin' higher”

KISS – Firehouse

As part of my expanding lego minifig collection four lego minifig firemen arrived. Luckily these can be picked up relatively cheaply on eBay. So why have I got firemen? The photo above kind of gives it away really. It's mainly to use in playing the game Flash Point instead of the little plastic figures that come with the game (the blue figure in the photos is one of them). And also for when I do posts about the game I'll use them for a little photo shoot to illustrate the post.
I'm not claiming using lego minifigs as replacement game counters as my original idea. I had been thinking about it since getting Imperial Assault ( and ruled out because Star Wars minifigs aren't as cheap as firefighters). However over Christmas I did see a post on the UK Imperial Assault Facebook page where some-one had done exactly that and used Star Wars lego minifigs instead of the provided miniatures. It looked pretty cool.
In fact I'm half tempted to use the scientists I have in Pandemic games also. One thing I'll have to do is get a female minifig head or two to convert one or two of the firefighters into female ones. Why? Well it's the right thing to do, plus there are female characters in the game already. So to be true to the game I think some of the player counters should also be female.
I kind of like the idea of using lego minifigs as game counters. For me it adds an additional fun element to the game. It means I can create personalised minifigs that represent the person playing the game. So it can add that personal touch and be used as a cool memento of the evening (although that could get expensive – unless they bring the minifig back with them for subsequent games). Before I start doing this for my gaming evenings I must find a cheaper supply of minifig parts and accessories. eBay and the sites I use online aren't suitable for this as a long term project. Nice thing is if I can source a cheap supply of parts for my own projects, I can use them also with students in induction weeks (I mentioned this idea in a previous post).
Who would of thought I'd find a cross over between lego minifigs and boardgames. It was pretty dam obvious really.

 

Writing about boardgames

tabletop

Even though it's a youngster compared to other forms of entertainment and art, videogames have a rich vein of writings about them. From the superficial to the indepth. Some of my favourite writings are the indepth ones. They look not at if the game is any good, but they look at the impact of a game, the theme, how the author feels while playing them. Great examples of the sort of writing I like is the really indepth writing of Brendan Keogh in his amazing analysis of Spec Ops:The Line in his book Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops:The Line , or the e-magazine Five out of Ten. These writings are not reviews, although I do tend to like the more mature reviews of the kind done in Edge and Games TM magazines.

Then there is another branch of writing about videogames where the author breaks down a game and analyses its design. Which is also interesting to read, especially when they look at a classic game I have fond memories of.

Now boardgames have been around a lot longer than videogames, however I would argue that the current “golden age” has been around a lot less longer than videogames. Which brings me to the current crop of writing about boardgames. In my opinion the writing about boardgames is not as mature as the writing about videogames. There is often the lamenting about videogame writing that where are the equivalent writers that compare to popular writers in the film world. But I feel that writing about videogames is getting there. However I haven't really come across this in boardgames, and feel there is still a long way to go.

Maybe I haven't come across the right blogs yet or authors. If you know of any then please let me know in the comments below. I'd love to be proved wrong. But most of the stuff I have seen are just reviews, that follow a particular formula, introduce game, explain rules/game play, comment on components, likes/dislikes. Not too dissimilar to a videogame review. I think the area of boardgame writing is due disrupting and moving on to include the sort of indepth writing I enjoy.

Will you find that sort of writing here? Maybe. I don't feel I'm upto the task. I'm not as wide read, I can't quote philosophers and apply them. Heck I'm not that deep or self aware as has been pointed out to me over the years. I'm just a simple flawed guy. I will try, just don't expect me to be successful. Possibly I'll get there, but hopefully the journey will be entertaining anyway.

In the meantime I hope others see this call to arms and accept the challenge.

 

 

New Arrivals, New Arrivals (Jan15)

comic books, lego minifigs, new arrivals, tabletop

The payday splurge has happened!

Boardgames

Last Wednesday I finally found a shop in the UK that had Tiny Epic Kingdoms in stock. Which was very lucky because Friday when I went back to check that I hadn't imagined it and done a pre-order, it was out of stock. When it arrived this morning and I opened it, it did seem slightly unreal that I actually had a copy. Then I had a little epiphany (yeah I know I don't have these moments very often, self awareness, contemplation is over rated), I like the thrill of the chase, the hunt, call it what you like. But the harder a game is for me to get the more I want it! It's a character flaw for sure. But the excitement and euphoria of that moment of finding a copy of the game (especially at the retail price or less) after weeks or months of hunting.
Back in the early nineties I was in London for work, and somehow ended up at the Virgin Megastore and in its comic department. There behind the counter hanging on the wall was the 1977 KISS Marvel Special. This was the first ever dedicated comic book to the group ( their first appearance had been in the Howard the Duck comics), to mark this monumental occasion the group had some of their blood mixed into the ink that the comic was printed with. I'd been after this comic for years. Well I'm a big KISS fan, and a comic book fan, so this was like the perfect comic for me. When I saw it there behind the counter, I knew I had to have it. I just went up to the counter spoke to the member of staff the following words “I'll take the KISS comic please”. I didn't even ask how much it was. The price was irrelevant to me. I handed over my bank card to pay, I don't remember hearing the assistant say a price, I remember signing the authorisation slip (this was way before chip and pin had been introduced), I never looked at the amount, I was focused on the comic. I finally had it, and couldn't wait to get home to read it. I seem to remember from the bank statement that the object of my desire had cost me £40.
Another example of this addiction also involves KISS and comic books but while I was in my final year of my HND at Brighton Polytechnic. As I mentioned above the groups first appearance was in the Howard the Duck comics. I was under the impression that appearance was in issue eight of the comic. So when I bought that comic from I think it was Forbidden Planet if I remember correctly, I was disappointed when I read it back in my room that KISS were not in it. But I knew they were in one of the issues. So I did the only thing I could at the time (remember this was before the internet). I started at issue one of Howard the Duck and bought all the issues in its thirty two issue run. I knew that way I would get the issue I wanted. It turned out their appearance was spread over two issues (I can't remember the issue numbers), but it was the last panel of one issue and the first couple of pages of the following issue. A side affect of this hunt was I became a big Howard the Duck fan (and yes I'm excited about the new comic, and was delighted with his cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy).
It was like this with the game Space Hulk. I'd wanted to get a copy to play with Nath, but it was out of print, copies were going for stupid money on eBay and Amazon. But I kept looking, trying to find a bargain, or to be more honest a reasonable price I could justify. If Games Workshop hadn't done the reprinting last year, I was a month or two away from caving and paying the extortionate prices being asked for the game. Even then the buying of the reprint was a roller coaster of a ride. Games Workshop announced the reprinting at a weekend, and had sold out on their site within hours before I could order a copy. My only hope was if The Rift were going to get any copies. Luckily they were and I was able to get one.
Sometimes I do feel that companies exploit people like me with this character flaw. At least I am aware I have it, and try to not let it rule my life.
The other two games I got Bang the Dice Game and Cash and Guns 2 are both light games for groups. I've not played Bang the Dice Game, but it's had great reviews. Cash and Guns 2 Nath and I got a chance to play this at Eurogamer last September and we really enjoyed it.

Comic Books

I don't think I've spoken about comic books before on here. I tend to buy trade backs these days. I can't afford to relapse. I was an addict.
I owe getting these four to a conversation between a couple of friends on Facebook (thanks Steve and James). They were talking about how good Alex + Ada was, and how the trailes for Ex Machina reminded them of this comic book. So I thought I'd give it a try. You know what Amazon is like with its “others also bought” or “you may like this also”. Well I'd been looking at Sex Criminals and Saga on and off, the reviews were pretty good for both, so I thought I'd give them a go finally. Deadly Class looked interesting too, so that was added to the give it a try list for this time. I'll do a post about these once I've read them.

Lego

Amazon Prime let me down (and they will be paying for that later, usually in the form of extending my Prime membership by a month – it's worth complaining) by not deliverying the first volume of the Minifgure Customisation book. However volume 2 did arrive as the DK Lego Star Wars The Dark Side book. Can you tell why I bought this? Yep the minifigure of the Emporer. I'll let you try and guess the first photo I'm going to do with him is, you will find out soon enough.
So wow an interesting mixed bag of arrivals today. I hope you have liked this post. It kind of ended up slightly different to what I imagined it would when I thought I'd blog about the new arrivals.

 

Fighting Ebola by playing a game!

charity, pandemic, tabletop

Last night was the Pandemic Party in Wisbech at The Entertainment Centre. Eight of us got together to play the game Pandemic by Matt Leacock to raise funds to help fight Ebola. One customer of The Entertainment Centre had kindly donated some cakes for the evening, which were rather nice. The crew at Bossa Studios creators of Surgeon Simulator the game (it's a great fun game available on multiple platforms click here for more details) kindly donated some “injection” pens to help raise funds for the evening.

Only one of us (not me) had played Pandemic before. So the game was setup for an “easy” setting.

For a first time playing I think we did pretty well. Three of the deadly diseases were cured, before we ran out of player cards (one of the three lose conditions). At the end of the game even though we failed to save the planet from being wiped out by deadly disease, we'd had a fun time.

We finished the evening off by playing a quick game of Zombie Dice. Which amazingly I won! Usually and this will surprise those I play Dice Masters with, I roll badly playing Zombie Dice. During my first two goes my rolls were true to form, and I was not scoring. Then I rolled eight brains before sticking. That's the best I've done in one round ever at this game. A couple of players had decided they liked playing Zombie Dice so much that they are planning to get their own copies. I also think they also took a shining to my dice tray and may also be looking at getting one of those too.

It's nice to see people like a game so much that they plan to get their own copy. Zombie Dice isn't a complicated game. It's a press your luck game. But in a group it's great fun to play. I just didn't warn them this is the start of a slippery slope.

The remaining pens from the evening are being sold off in the shop to add to the total of money raised. Which reminds me once I have a final total raised I'll put it up on here.

So a great evening, great company, all in the name of charity a win win situation if you ask me.

 

 

Not So Random Stuff About Expansions

pandemic, star realms, tabletop

I've mentioned in a previous post that I like games that have expansions. They expand the game! Add new options, modes of play, more players, new scenarios, etc. Basically add more variety. They aren't necessary on the whole but for the odd game they are to make the game more enjoyable.

New Arrival

Today the Harbour Expansion for Machi Koro arrived. It adds the cards to allow a fifth player, new cards and play modes. I'll do a more indepth look in another post.

In the Harbour Expansion is also a teaser for the next expansion coming out later this year!

A Brief Rant

One game I'm playing a lot of at the moment (admittedly using the iPad app) is Star Realms. There are two main expansions for this deck building game, Gambit and Crisis. But can I buy these in the UK? Nope nowhere has them in stock. Ones I can find are in the US and with postage (and possible import duty) really expensive. The Crisis expansion is made up of four individual themed packs, each costing (if available in the UK £3.95 – yeah back to the $1 = £1 exchange rate). However buying them through eBay means each pack is pushing over £10! The Gambit expansion is roughly £20 for a £10 game. It's rediculous. So why is there such a shortage in the UK? This is making the Marvel Dice Masters Avengers vs X-Men shortage last year look like a small blip. I won't even mention how hard it is to source an official play mat for Star Realms, or how my heart sinks at the thought of how hard it is going to be to get the storage box (with exclusive promo card) and the official card sleeves. Poor supply is such a frustrating thing, and there is no excuse for it in this day and age. I understand that companies can be caught be surprise by being a lot more popular than they thought they would be with a game. But still I think the writing has been on the wall that Star Realms would be a popular game.

A Bit of Gaming News(ish) Or What Matt Leacock Did Next

Later this year a new co-operative game based on Thunderbirds is coming out. The game is design by Matt Leacock and published by Modiphius. Matt is famous for such games as Pandemic, Pandemic the Cure, Forbidden Desert, and Forbidden Island. All great co-operative board games. So the early indications are this should be a great game, great theme, great designer that excels at co-operative games, a theme that is suited to co-operative play.

It does look like Matt has a busy year ahead of him. Matt also has Pandemic Legacy coming out later in the year, which he has been developing with Rob Daviau ( designer of Risk Legacy). And is highly anticipated by Pandemic fans ( that includes me ).
As the image above shows there are plans to have two different boxes with different art work on. There was another game last year (name escapes me at the moment) that was released also with multiple variants of the box art. I'm not sure I like this trend. It reminds me a bit of the comic book industry and how they do this a lot (just look at how many variant covers there are for the new Marvel Star Wars comic issue 1). It strikes me as trying to milk money out of collectors.
Then finally in the first part of this year there is a new expansion for Pandemic coming out called State of Emergency.

So there you have it a brief “look what's just arrived”, a rant venting my frustration, and a “look what I'm excited about coming out later this year”.

 

A Book A Month Challenge

book challenge, tabletop

On my way to drop off some bits for this Thursday's Play Pandemic to fight Ebola event I passed a sign in a local Christain bookshop window promoting read a book a month list of Christain books. This got filed away for later today in my mind. Unlucky for you dear reader I remembered this and my thoughts that went with seeing this sign.

I've seen this sort of thing before in other places, such as Twitter where some teachers are reading an educational book a month as part of their CPD. I've read in newspapers about book groups etc doing this. So it seems a popular thing to do. Seeing that sign earlier reminded me of this. And I'm never one to miss jumping on a bandwagon, even when that bandwagon has nearly come to a halt.

So then the cogs started turning in mind and I thought “wait why don't I do something like this for this blog?” But are there enough gaming books to do this? I'm not sure, but I know four to start with.

  1. Chicks Dig Gaming: A Celebration of All Things Gaming by the Women Who Love It
  2. Modern Perspectives on Game Design
  3. Eurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board Games
  4. Boardgames That Tell Stories: The funniest Guide To Game Design

So starting in February I'm going to read the first book on the list Chicks Dig Gaming. Then at the end of the month I'll write a blog post about the book, and have a discussion in the comments for that post about the book. Then in March I'll read the second book, write a post and repeat.

In the meantime if there is a relevant book about gaming you think should be added to the list leave a comment below with your suggestion. I know there is a book looking at the history behind the game Monopoly. Which even though I don't enjoy the game I think could be very interesting. So I will find out the books title and author and add it to the end of this post as an update.

Hopefully this post has made you think this is a cool idea and would like to join me in this challenge.

UPDATE: The Monopoly book isn't out until mid February and the other I have as an audio book (yet to listen too)