my gaming profile (my reference)

The meetup.com website keeps changing, and my gaming profile keeps getting deleted, so I thought I'd re-post the matter here, and also embellish a bit.

Gamer from Tulsa Oklahoma. Well, backup, I am born 'n raised Triad but moved to Oklahoma, now back since '09. I was looking for you guys for a while. I now go to MACE and SCARAB. I have been a GM at MACE (NC) and Conestoga (OK).

I was looking for a gaming group like I had known in Oklahoma, which knew and played Carcassone and Catan and such games, and I found it here. I have been very pleased.

I have a collection of games now (not especially big, but quite decent) which includes Carcassone, the Catan Dice Game, Hey That's My Fish, Classic RISK, RISK 2210, TransAmerica, Doctor Lucky, Anachronism, Martian Fluxx, Havoc, my repurposed 2-Player Star Trek Card Game, my repurposed Havoc on Parade, Citadels, The Great Dalmuti, chess, Pit, In a Pickle, Bang!, Alien Abduction, Guillotine, and Jishaku magnets. Wow, I have more games than I had thought!

Anyone who has met and played with me probably knows I lean towards the so-called "abstract strategy," more chaotic games.

The Catan Dice Game was my first modern purchase, after chess and classic RISK and a large Star Trek collection. I began my hobby interest in the 90s with the Star Trek Customizable Card Game, played tournament-sytle not unlike Magic. There was a long break with intermittant chess, RISK games, and video games until I found a Eurogames group out in Tulsa. It has snowballed from there. Unlike most gamers of our type, I have never played D&D. I have joked with my girlfriend, in high school I just wasn't cool enough to play D&D. Ha ha!

Looking to someday buy Blokus, The Stars Are Right, Nuclear War, and maybe Forbidden Island

Timeline limited to my gaming background:
1997-2002 Star Trek Customizable Card Game, video games, RISK, chess
2002-2007 almost nothing
2008 awakened to Catan, Carcassone, Citadels, Fluxx, RISK: Godstorm, RISK: LotR, Nuclear War, and others
bought Catan Dice Game, Guillotine, The Great Dalmuti, Abduction
attended my first gaming convention, Conestoga, in Tulsa, OK
first attempt to preconstruct a Star Trek 2-Player repurposing
2009 less but some
2010 played many new games, first played Pit, In a Pickle,
found and joined a a few games groups on meetup.com, esp. Camel City
Gamers and Games That Make You Laugh
bought Martian Fluxx, gift of Bang!
2011 bought Kill Doctor Lucky, In a Pickle, Pit, Carcassone, Blokus Trigon
First played Settlers of America, Anachronism, Star Fleet Battles,
The Stars Are Right
First visit to SCARAB (Jan) in S.C. and MACE (Nov) in High Point
2012 It's a new year! Gift of Anachronism, bought TransAmerica
played/pleased with Forbidden Island, Twilight Imperium
Also attended Mini-MACE

Feild Report: MACE 2011

I got to play my Havoc on Parade a few times, which i was trilled about, but also Abduction, Carcassone, and also a few new games.

My time was largely used up as a GM, and then having a cold all awhile, but I did manage to tap into a few other games.

One was playtesting a newly designed game, Rape Pillage and Burn. The artwork was not finished at all, but the gameplay went quite well. The title and thematic element of rape is the biggest difficulty facing the game designer, who I enjoyed meeting. Like slavery, or lynching, rape is just too taboo in our culture to really be an accepted game theme. It's sad for the game, because it works well and was fun to play. The artwork was viking-themed, and reminded me quite a bit of the old Obelisk and Asterix cartoons. Remember them?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuSMowNHFro&feature=related
go to time index 3:15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN1mAtOD5J0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNTFSHAxAk4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN1mAtOD5J0&feature=related

I also joined a game out of curiousity called Star Fleet Battles. It is an older game, from the 70s but re-published as late as the 90s. Apparently, it was officially licensced by the owners of the Star Trek franchise, with the odd exception of the words "Star Trek". But it had Klingons, Gorn, Tholians, Romulans, and even collaboration with the Star Trek Manuel.
Except for the lack of miniatures, it could be called a miniatures game. I beleive they called themselves a "simulation" game. It wasn't my style.
http://starfleetgames.com/sfb/sfin/Lets_Play_SFB.pdf

In other news, I finished up Gateway a few days ago, and started on Hadon of Ancient Opar. Hadon is by Farmer but based on certain Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but taking place in 10,000 BC rather than modern day. One thing that makes it so much fun is that is really does feel like a long-lost ERB pulp-fiction type novel. He imitates and gives homage to ERB.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadon_of_Ancient_Opar

Games: Expedition ***must see***

http://www.history.com/interactives/expedition-game

This game plays for FREE online, and it really suprisingly fun!

It's a dice game, basically, but played on the computer with fun graphics. There is quite a story element to this, which is an improvement over most dice games I know.

The story is set in colonial Africa. Another way in which this game excels is the fun "flavor text" included along the way. "I am plagued with worry" "I can't find my sewing needle."

This would actually make quite a good "stone-and-mortar" dice game (aside from the fact some of the apparently 6-sided dice have 7 faces! haha!)

It reminds me a lot of my Catan Dice Game, but like I said the "immersion" and story factor are greatly improved upon.

I HIGHLY recommend you try it. No downloading involved. I don't know how long this game will be on the website, but I hope it lasts awhile! Beware: addiction.

Catan: Settlers of America

Well, although it *is* under the Catan name, it is very much it's own game, simply borrowing many game mechanics. Players of the classic Catan will definately slide right in with many of the vagarieites of the game, such as the "robber" who has a new name but identical funtion.
Also, the dice rolls and recource aquisition is performed via the same game mechanic
A major departure is the that there are NO victory Points. NONE. The game is over when the last player completes all their objectives, which I will explain in a moment.
But the largest departure is the railroads and shipping. These are not new themes in boardgames, but are very new for Catan. That there is a two-step process to acheiving each step towards winning (getting rid of all your wooden blocks, via shipping on railroads) just complicates the matter. But I do not critize the game for being a little complicated! I would even congratulate the game designers for adding another level of strategery to the game, while not making the game tedious. A balancing act, accomplished in part by the removal of score keeping.
That is an amazing accomplishment. If I have any readers, they may have noted I have a large obection to lengthy score totalling and complicated matchematics. I always feel someone may be cheating ahead in the scoring, maybe unintentionally. And I feel lost and helpless, a feeling I abhor.
So, in a manner I am grateful to see, the winner is merely made known and incontrovertably. Either they have a wooden peice still to use up, or they don't.

That's not extremely in depth as reviews go, but those were a few short comments.

Something I have noticed in all Catan-like games: a "land grab" is essential to a well-played game. In some games, taking your time so you don't overextend is vital. In these games, however, there are no attacks, and if you take your time, if you snooze, you loose. Be a sooner, as the Okies would say.

At SCARAB (a convention in SC last month) I played Catan: Struggle for Rome, which was also not at all a Catan remake, but it's own game, despite it also borrowed many of the same game mechaincs, as did Settlers of America. I see a trend, and it's not a bad one.

Games: A Game of Thrones

It is curious to have the word game in the title, so that the actual description would be The game 'A Game of Thrones'. That's just one aspect of the appeal of the game, based on some fantasy books I'm not too familiar with.

I've played this twice, at the generosity of another gamer at my local game night, and I have won it both times, although I'm not sure why. I suspect because the "teaching" gamer didn't want to play too vicious, and I was one of the first newbies to catch on with how someone won.

There are two ways to win, and so far I don't even know what the "normal" winning condition is. Both my wins have been won by reaching a game stopping action, which is inserted into the rules but never (or rarely) expected to be reached.

A good game, with some good game mechaincs. Turn order is pretty varied depending on circumstances, and rarely would a player be sitting out for a while while other players took their turns.

For the completeness of my records, I also played a game called 'War on Terror' 2nd Edition on Saturday. It has a number of potential striking disadvantages, but I don't know that they can't be overcome. The game's "replayability value" is an unknown for me, although I have to wonder. It is bound to become dated, but maybe that's a virtue. Best of all of all, no players are left uninvolved after they are out of the game, but rather take on the mantle of the forces opposing the players, the terrorists, endowing the terrorists with wetware's unpredictability and craftiness. Through the terrorist activities against the players' empire building, the theme and story are done pretty well.

I have been given to understand that thse are some of a games vital factors: replayability, fun, story/theme, unpredictability, all-player-involvement, Endgame-conditions.

Gaming review: Risk 2210 A.D.

Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Risk 2210 was an unexpected Christmas gift, and it's one of the few games I'd appreciate stocked in "normal" stores, although Catan is becoming rapidly widely known in American households.

To find out what I mean by "normal" and what I play, I refer you to boardgamegeek.com, a website I barely know about, don't use, but nonetheless have respect for.

When first seeing the gift, I had mixed feelings, because of the handful of modern, alternative Risk games to emerge in the last decade this was not one that I had played nor had an intent to add to my collection. I had high opinions of Risk: Godstorm and Lord of the Rings Risk, and still do. But I ended up pleasantly surprised.

Well, to quickly compare and contrast this game (2210) with Risk: LOTR and Godstorm, I think this game falls somewhere in the middle, having some of the characteristics of both. Like LOTR (Lord of the Rings), there are leaders who grant you advantage and strongholds which give you greater defense. But in LOTR the cards don't really affect gameplay, as I recall, just endgame scoring and player strategy. In Godstorm, the cards effected gameplay which I really liked but I don't recall the "Gods" being as easy to get into play nor as useful in and of themselves. And 2210's Moon seemed much more useful and productive than the Afterworld of Godstorm. I haven't played eiher LOTR or Godstorm in over a year, so I might easily be misremembering some things. It could very well be that the players years ago just weren't using the Afterwolrd to good effect.

One bonus 2210 has that neither of the others do: it can be played according to the classic rules. The map is basically the same, just renamed. Players simply ignore changes to the board and to newer peices, ignore the ocean colonies and the moon. I think that's a great effeciency.

I need to do some googling on my subject matter, so I will put more here later. Time is running out on this computer. Sorry.

Catan commentege

Lest I forget...

Everytime I play Catan (or Endeavor, or a few other games) I forget everything I learned last time I played, especially from the mistakes I made.

Well, I've decided to make a concerted effort to provide myself with a log of my gaming mistakes so I can learn from them.

In my recent game of Catan (a week ago by now; I've had trouble getting Internet time), I made my biggest mistake in allowing my opponents to cirsumvent my, by choosing too early to focus on upgrading into what I call castles. Roads before castles, moron! *Hits head* Second, I always seem to forget about my 4:1 trade with the bank. Its a bad option, but at least it's an option, that is if I remember about it. Third, although I don't think it was a crippling choice, placing my starting settlements distant from the key resources of lumber and brink was an oversight. I could have done trading for the early on, but going back to my other mistakes I built castles before roads, which allowed other players time to cut me off.

It was actually a very close game, and a good time, but I would have leaped into the lead if I had not made these oversights. And I don't like making mistakes, win or lose.

In short:
1) Roads before castles!
2) Brick and wood!
3) Remember the 4:1 option!

Quick update on my STCCG so-called Transwarp game.
Well, I have been making semi-frequent "tweaks" for quite a while now, and I need to post the newest deck list. I just added a Klingon with both SECURITY and Honor, both very Klingon traits. As a compromise to TrekSense, I removed the two Kazon-related dilemmas I had had, and that gave me the wonderful opportunity for Conundrum and Temporal Loop, both improving the game significantly I think. Players want an opportunity to battle, it seems, and temporal quicks are an essential part of the Trek experience.
Not that that will make much sense to people other than I and a few others like me ... haha

While I am blogging about gaming, I thought I'd comment on something I thought of more overtly recently than before. I would consider Catan, Citadels, and Carcassone to together be a milestone for the modern gamer. Once aquainted with these three, they have acheived what I consider a important familiarity with the gaming culture. To be frank, I am basing this on my own experience, my own entry into the gaming culture I didn't realize existed. And in large part I can be forgiven, because as I've heard tabletop board gaming as it now stands is a fairly recent thing, ushered in by Catan itself. At least for the American crowd. There have been "gaming culture" elements for a very long time, but the Catan-generation is something distinct.
Oh, and I am still reading "Intimate Lies"