I spent Martin Luther King weekend at UnPub 4, the fourth annual unpublished games convention for designers in Magnolia, Delaware.
Friday night - designers dinner
I had the privilege of an invitation to a designers and publishers dinner the night before UnPub, which I attended with my friend and fellow designer Keith Ferguson ("Santa's Workshop"). It was so great to see so many other designers and publishers again, many of whom I hadn't seen since UnPub 3 last year. UnPub founder John Moller passed the reins to Darrell Louder (designer of Compounded), who hosted the designer-publisher dinner and directed the UnPub 4 convention admirably, with the able assistance of his wife Lesley Louder, Stephanie Straw, and other volunteers.
Ridere, ludere, hoc est vivere.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
An evening after work
A number of my friends typically get together after work almost every Tuesday for gaming at our local game store, Game Parlor Chantilly. I don't typically make it as often as I like, but this week was a pleasant exception.
I arrived early and met my good friend Glenn W., who happened to have a copy of Lost Cities (designer Reiner Knizia, artist Claus Stephan, publisher Rio Grande) in his car. I'd played this once or twice at PrezCon years ago, so I was familiar enough with the rules to get reacquainted pretty quickly. We jumped right in and played one hand while we waited for others to show up, and I think I won by a pretty narrow margin. Most importantly, this re-exposure has rekindled my interest in picking this up as a candidate for Kathy and me to play during our frequent cocktail-hour games. For some reason it had fallen fairly low on my wishlist, but now I really think it's a good option - not quite as brain-burning as Battle Line, but still a good two-player card game to try out.
(c) Rio Grande Games |
Saturday, January 4, 2014
New Years gaming
The holiday season continues with more socializing around boardgames. On New Years Eve, our friend Sheila D. hosted Glenn W., Jeff W., Kathy and me for dinner and games. After a wonderful Mexican rice bowl dinner with shredded beef, we sat down to spend the last six hours of 2013 playing games.
- We started with Guillotine (designer Paul Peterson, artists the late Quinton Hoover along with Mike Raabe, publisher Wizards of the Coast), which is a lighthearted favorite. I don't remember who won, but it was a great way to start the gaming evening.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Holiday gaming
The holidays provide plenty of opportunity for gaming time with friends and family. (Sadly, for all the gaming we did in the last week, I have no pictures. What's wrong with me?)
Last Friday our friend Theresa H. came over for a game. We had several options, and when I described Le Havre (designer Uwe Rosenberg, artists Klemens Franz and Uwe Rosenberg, publisher Lookout Games [website in German]) as a "deeper version of Agricola," Theresa
chose that to play. We played the three-player shortened version,
which has a few different buildings from the two-player that Kathy and I
usually play. This time Kathy really got her coal-coke-shipping engine
going and made all kinds of money, but I was hot on the building
strategy and constructed enough high-value buildings to eke out a win by
five points. Theresa made a good showing for her first game and had a
good time.
(c) Lookout Games Used by permission |
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Boardgames by candlelight
Early this week a sequence of winter storms came through northern Virginia, and my house lost power for about 45 hours. My kids were pretty bored without their usual sources of electronic entertainment, but one nice thing about boardgames is that you don't have to plug them into the wall. So as we sat by the fireplace trying to stay warm, we broke out the games and had a reasonably good time by lanterns and candlelight.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Qwirkled
Susan McKinley Ross at Speil des Jahres 2011 |
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Saturday afternoon Triumvirate
Joe C. (l.) and Frank H. |
Friday, November 15, 2013
Dice Tower News Interview - the uncut version
Chris Kirkman (l.) of Dice Hate Me Games is introduced to Brew Crafters for the first time by designer Ben Rosset at UnPub 3 in January, 2013 |
[Update: I'd previously tried to post the interview here on this page, but due to technical difficulties, I am just including a link to the interview posted on boardgamegeek instead.]
Friday, November 8, 2013
Latest micro-game addition - Council of Verona
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Boardgame marketing in the 1960s
3M edition, 1968 |
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Revisiting Brew Crafters
Ben Rosset and Kathy Owen in a three-player round of "Brew Crafters" |
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Congress of Gamers 2013 Part 5: Five-player "East India Company"
Wrapping up my Congress of Gamers coverage from almost three weeks ago, I've got a five-player playtest of "East India Company" and just a few other odds and ends to close things out.
Clockwise from left foreground: Jason Tagmire, Marty, myself, Alf Shadowsong, Kiva Fecteau, and John Weber as I facilitate a five-player playtest of "East India Company" - Photo by Mike Mullins |
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Congress of Gamers 2013 Part 4: Tiny Battles and Big Battleships
Tiny Epic Battles
One of the cool things about the UnPub ProtoZones is that you get to meet new designers and discover their creations. I met Alf Shadowsong and Kiva Fecteau, who had a couple of prototypes, and the one I got to try is called "Tiny Epic Battles." The way Alf tells it, he designed this little card game as a method to teach tactics to Kiva. The exercise evolved into a stand-alone two-player deck-construction game. Each player starts with an action deck, a resource deck, and three "houses" face up in a tableau that he needs to defend. A player loses if he exhausts either deck or loses all of his "houses."
One of the cool things about the UnPub ProtoZones is that you get to meet new designers and discover their creations. I met Alf Shadowsong and Kiva Fecteau, who had a couple of prototypes, and the one I got to try is called "Tiny Epic Battles." The way Alf tells it, he designed this little card game as a method to teach tactics to Kiva. The exercise evolved into a stand-alone two-player deck-construction game. Each player starts with an action deck, a resource deck, and three "houses" face up in a tableau that he needs to defend. A player loses if he exhausts either deck or loses all of his "houses."
Monday, October 14, 2013
Congress of Gamers 2013 Part 3: "New Bedford"
Anna Rutledge and Nathaniel Levan demonstrate "New Bedford" |
Monday, October 7, 2013
Congress of Gamers 2013 Part 2: "Firebreak"
At the World Boardgaming Championships last August, I met up briefly with Charlie Hoopes but never got a chance to play his game Fill the Barn. I had also missed out on playing "AtataT" at UnPub 3 last January. Fortunately, I was able to make up for it at Congress of Gamers last week by playing his latest co-op prototype, "Firebreak." We were joined by Bruce Voge of The Party Gamecast and Aaron Honsowetz and Austin Smokowicz, designers of "Post Position."
Bruce Voge, Charlie Hoopes, Austin Smocowicz, and Paul Owen playtesting "Firebreak." Photo by Aaron Honsowetz |
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Congress of Gamers 2013 Part 1: Mares and Mariners
Last weekend I made my annual trek to nearby Rockville, Maryland, to participate in Congress of Gamers, a friendly little weekend convention run by Eric Englemann of the Games Club of Maryland. A series of Eurogame tournaments make up the convention's big draw, but CoG also features a number of other events, including the "Copyright Office," a game designer's prototype playtest room run by UnPub.net as a "ProtoZone" event. That's where I spent virtually all of my time during CoG.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Summer game photos
Now that summer is over, I thought I'd compile some photos of games we've played over the last three months.
We love Pandemic, but we have such a hard time winning. Late last June, the yellow plague took root in remote Santiago, and we neglected to deal with it until the outbreak counter reached the critical point.
The yellow plague outbreak gets away from us. |
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Game Theory: A simple multi-player case
Earlier this week I was listening to Episode 36 of the Flip the Table podcast, which discussed the obscure 1979 Bruce Jenner Decathlon Game (publisher Parker Brothers). The game consists of ten mini-games using an eclectic variety of mechanics. One of them caught my attention as an elegant bluffing and second-guessing procedure used to resolve the "foot races" in the decathlon.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Podcast debut: The return of Dice Tower News
Monday, September 9, 2013
Friends of Mars
Ben Rosset (l.) and Stephen Craig UnPub 3, in January 2013 |
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Targi: The women prevail among the Tuaregs
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