I actually played some RPGs! I’ve been talking about this for a long time, but I finally got to play both Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition and Savage Worlds. I had been very hesitant to do so last year at Kublacon, because I just didn’t want to sit down with total strangers, who could end up being total dweebs, and be stuck there for six hours.

I got up early Saturday morning and got in on the first Kublacon dungeon crawl of the day. The dungeon crawl had a four hour time limit, so I figured I was pretty safe. Actually, I got up early every day. Gamers are notorious for sleeping in, and it was wonderful to get up and have breakfast alone in the beautiful atrium at the Hyatt in Burlingame. There were a few of us early morning folk, and we would silently nod in understanding of our elite club. I especially appreciated the recommendation for the Eggs Benedict made by my buddy I referred to as “Old Breakfast Guy.”

Anyway, after breakfast, I played Dungeons and Dragons for four hours. I lucked out, and of the five other people involved, there was only one dweeb. Everyone else, including the Dungeon Master was great, and I had a wonderful time. We played on this gorgeous 3D terrain set-up. All of the pieces were from Dwarven Forge. It was very impressive and took up two large tables. I’m sure it would be well over $1000 to purchase this kind of set up. It was crazy cool. If anyone wants to order some of this stuff for me as a gift, you have my permission. I hope to run my own game soon, real soon, even without the cool 3D terrain.

I also signed up for a Savage Worlds session. I lucked out and inadvertently got in on a game run by Scott Alan Woodard, who ended up being a friend of a friend, although I didn’t know that until afterward. He was a fantastic storyteller and this was an even better RPG experience than the D&D dungeon crawl. In terms of actual roleplaying, the Savage Worlds system beats 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons hands down. The system is simple and flows easily from encounter to encounter without getting bogged down with minutiae, and the basic rule set is available for under $10 as opposed to the $70 that you have to drop for the Dungeons and Dragon rules.

I spent time with some great people! Not only did I travel with some good friends from here in the Central Valley, I also got to play some games with friends from the Bay Area and beyond. I met a lot of new folks as well. Gamers, for the most part, are a very social group, which makes sense, right? On the last day of the con, I played The Adventurers with two good friends and some dude that walked up and thought we were doing a demo, and talked to the owner of the Game Kastle who was watching us play. (He’s a nice guy. Go buy stuff at his store.) That’s how it was the entire weekend. I met nice people. I played great games. The Kublacon staff was very helpful as well. They really did a nice job this year.

I found some great deals! I did well at the Friday night and Monday morning flea markets. You have never seen such a mass of geekmanity fighting for bargains. There were no deals to be found in the dealer’s room, ironically, but that’s not a big surprise. I did pick up a couple of games at the auction. That was amazingly fun. I’m not sure why, but I sat there for a couple of hours and just enjoyed bidding and watching. I only won two games, but I got them for cheap! I’ll tell you what was not cheap: food. I was falling asleep at a table Sunday evening while we were playing Forbidden Island and went off in search of coffee or an energy drink. I love this hotel, but geez, give me a break on the prices for food and drink. It’s worse than an amusement park.

My game won the design contest! Yes, after all that moaning about my prototype, my game was chosen as a co-winner of this year’s Kublacon Game Design Contest. I was very surprised, because all of the games looked really good. The game that was also chosen was really impressive. I don’t know what’s going to happen with my game now, but winning the contest was a wonderful way to end the weekend. Will it be picked up for publication? Who knows? I had at least one publisher that showed some interest. Now I need to make some more copies and start knocking on doors, I guess. Special thanks need to go out to Julie Haehn, the designer of Living Labyrinth, for all of her support.

I’m just rambling now, so that’s it. Happy gaming!

The last couple of months have been filled with household/automotive/work disasters. I’m talking big disasters, costing a lot of money. Just this week, the air conditioner broke, and we just started hitting triple digits here in Fresno. Well, okay, so I schedule that to get fixed and then the house fan breaks, which was making it bearable at night. “Seriously?” I asked nobody in particular. I’m sure it will be fixed soon and all will be well, but right now it’s really uncomfortable here.

We’ve been playing a lot of games though. The big hit right now is Forbidden Island. This is a really great game, and we’ve played it multiple times in the last week. For the price, you get a fabulous game with lots of replayability. Look for it at your local game shop, or find it online. Hey, if you order through the link shown, I might even get a few pennies to help pay for my air conditioner.

Here are the nominees for SdJ this year along with my random opinions.

A la Carte, designed by Karl-Heinz Schmiel. This is a light game that as far as I can tell is over a decade old. How does that happen? I can understand when a game is published in German for the first time that it can then be considered even if it was previously published in other languages, but this game received the Deutscher Spiele Preis in 1990. I don’t understand the SdJ judges at all. Why would I? When it comes down to it, I haven’t played it. It looks like wacky fun, and I would love to give it a try, but it doesn’t seem like a game that should be the SdJ.

Dixit, designed by Jean-Louis Roubira. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this game before, but I own it and love it. It’s one of my favorite party games ever. Players receive a collection of cards with very interesting images and then proceed to try and score points by coming up with words or phrases that will get some but not all to choose that particular image above the images that the other players will secretly by adding into the potential choices. That’s a crappy description, but game play is really fun and with the right people, this game is outstanding. If they are going to choose a party game, then I think they should choose this one. In fact, I’m just going to go ahead and choose this one as the winner. There. Done.

Fresko, designed by Marco Ruskowski and Marcel Süßelbeck. I had the chance to play this one a couple of days ago at KublaCon and I really like it. This is exactly the kind of game I expect to be a finalist for the SdJ. It’s beautifully produced, like most Queen games, and it has a wonderful balance of decisions that mesh perfectly with the theme. It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome and it includes not only a great base game, but also a couple of expansions. I like this a lot and I will be buying it very soon I think. This is the obvious choice for a winner, but I think that’s just what they want me to think, so I’m going with Dixit.

Portrayal, designed by William P. Jacobson and Amanda A. Kohout. This is being published as Identik, so I imagine that this was one of those games that was not available in German before now. This is another party game where players draw pictures and score points according to how many specific elements of the task were included in the drawing. I’ve wanted to play this for a while now, but I don’t know if anyone owns a copy locally. This looks fun, but there’s no way it’s better than Dixit, so it won’t win. What’s with the party games? Are the problems in the global economy creating a need for silly family games? Who wants to worry about collecting stones or building zoos if we can’t pay the rent? Is that it?

Roll Through the Ages, designed by Matt Leacock. I reviewed this some time ago. You can read that review here: Roll Through the Ages. I still love this game. I’ve played this game dozens of times, and I still bring it out every month or so. It’s a wonderful dice game about building up your civilization. It doesn’t have a lot of interaction between players, but it has enough that you don’t feel like you are playing group solitaire. It’s being published in Germany as Im Wandel der Zeiten – Das Würfelspiel, which sounds somehow better than the English title. I really like this game. Mark Jackson and I once played this while driving. That’s how much we like it! (He rolled the dice and I knew the game well enough to not have to look at the score card, so I did not risk our lives in any way.) I would be fine if this won the SdJ, but I feel like it just doesn’t fit the profile. Screw it. I am sticking with Dixit.

That’s what I think about the nominees for this year’s Spiel des Jahres. I’ll talk about this year’s list of recommended games sometime this month.

Have fun playing games. Play a game with your family. We are going to play Matt Leacock’s Forbidden Island tonight. I hope we make it to the helicopter in time!

I love the superhero genre, but I’ve always been disappointed that there has never been a good superhero game. I’m talking board games, not role playing games. I think the superhero RPG is well represented. I just never get to play any RPGs, or I suppose I should say I never choose to make the time to play an RPG. Someday, I may talk a bit about superhero RPGs, and when I do I will interview my friend, Mark Johnson, who may not realize that I own dozens of GURPS sourcebooks from the second and third editions. Anyway, I wish there was a good superhero board game out there.

I should at least mention the Vs. System CCG, which is a great two player card game. I enjoy playing it, but it is strictly a fighting game. My friend John has made a superhero fighting game that’s better than anything out on the market, in my opinion, but I want a superhero game that has more to it than beating up your opponent. There should be some kind of storyline or plot.

I may just have to create one.

Early last month, I started playing more games online through play by web services like yucata.de; however, I’ve realized just how unfullfilling those games are for me.

I am not a very competitive gamer. I tend to experiment as I play. If my strategy is successful, that’s great; otherwise, I had a good time trying something different. I love to play games that are interesting, but it is not the mechanics of a game that bring me back to the table. What I enjoy is the social contract of face to face gaming.

When you sit down to play a boardgame with friends, it’s like you are all saying, “Okay, we are going to hang out together and do this activity until it’s done.” It’s that hanging out aspect of gaming that I just cannot find in the play by web sites.

I’ve had some fun, but I think I’m done with it. It isn’t a substitute for real face to face gaming for me. It’s usually just distracting, and taking my turn has become just another tack for my already busy day.

Things should get better soon, and I can start to get back into playing a bit more face to face. Hopefully.

My job is super insane right now, so 90 percent of my brain is either in fix this problem mode or what’s going to happen if I don’t fix this problem mode. It’s all I can do to not just curl into a ball.

But I planned on submitting my game prototype to a design contest and I am quickly running out of time. I thought I was done, but my streamlining had managed to eliminate most of the actual fun from the game. I went back over my notes, and rediscovered some ideas I had a year ago, and I think it’s much much better now.

But I need to finish the rule revisions so I can mail it off. Busy.

Go play.