Triple Play

Friday night gaming... three people... yadda yadda yadda.

Dominion: I won (Mike a close second, Jay a distant third) following a strategy of only buying treasure cards, highest-value territory cards, and 1-2 types of action cards (my constantly having a Market card in hand really started to irk Mike).

Small World: Mike won (me a close second, Jay a distant third). My Subterranean Halflings didn't give me as much oomph as I needed.

Pandemic: We won on medium difficulty with the researcher, scientist and dispatcher. We were able to knock off 2 diseases pretty quickly due to a favorable initial card draw. I think next time we play 3-player, we might be ready for the (assumed) mind-blowing insanity of 6 Epidemic cards.

Misfire

For I couple of weeks, I've been working intermittently on a campaign version of Gunslinger - basically just a decision-tree of shootouts where the other players would control the same 1 or 2 individuals and I supplied all the opposition. Since we had everyone there on Friday for a change, I thought it might be a good opportunity to play through a few basic shootouts as a rules refresher. The results made me glad I had only been working on this idea intermittently.

The first one we played was Thieves Fall Out, which is one we played way back when (I also ran at Nuke-Con). In it, 4 outlaws - the Kid (Jay), the Border Rider (me), the Gun Artist (Matt) and Innocente (Mike) - are gathered around their loot when violence erupts. We began arrayed in a circle, so the Kid and Border Rider, across from each other, began by taking a step back (removing ourselves from Innocente's and Gun Artist's peripheral vision, respectively). Also in the first turn (ie, the first 2 seconds of the gunfight), the Kid used his quick draw ability to get off a quick, inaccurate shot at Innocente with his revolver, and everyone else unlimbered their rifle and began to aim - Border Rider at Gun Artist, GA at Innocente, and Innocente at the spot where the Kid used to be. By the end of turn two (4 seconds into the gunfight), both GA and Innocente were dead. In the ensuing turn, the Kid winged BR in the non-gun arm with his Colt .45 despite being at long range for a handgun. Faced with a massive penalty if he tried to fire his rifle, BR drew his pistol and advanced. The Kid had plenty of time to get his Winchester ready and put BR down for a fairly easy victory, though.

After some of the "light-hearted" grumbling that was going on, I probably shouldn't have even set up the second showdown. But I did. Unfortunately. That showdown took place on a larger board, a town where 4 old enemies - the Marshal (Mike), the Mountain Man (Matt), the Dude (me) and Ike (Jay) - had gathered to settle their scores for good. Due to the setup method (everyone writes down what hex they are starting in before simultaneous placement), Ike and the Marshal ended up in close proximity, while the Mountain Man and Dude and closer to the other side of the board. The Marshal, inside a building crouched behind a window, got off a shot at Ike, who was leaning out around a corner, but missed. Despite the fact that Ike was aiming at him, he re-cocked his rifle (instead of, say, ducking below the window sill) and was going aim again, if not for the bullet that hit his head. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the Dude (armed with a sawn-off shotgun and going against a long-range specialist) was maneuvering to make sure there was as little distance as possible between him and his opponent when there was finally an opportunity for a clear shot. The Mountain Man obliged by rushing headlong around a corner and, for some reason, attempting to get the Dude into a bear hug. Two barrels worth of buckshot to the face disabused him of that notion.

As I was pondering how to maneuver next to counter Jay's long-range advantage, the complaints about how lethal the game is and how long it takes to move anywhere somehow turned into taking pictured of flipping each other off with cell phone cameras. It was about at this point I went from irritated to just wanting it over with. The Dude grabs MM's buffalo rifle and heads out into the street, get shot by Ike, and is incapacitated for long enough for Ike to finish him off. Game over.

I guess I was too polite to say no when Bang! was suggested after that. We played 3 quick games. I won the first as the Renegade. In the second game, I was the Sheriff and was eliminated very quickly. In the last game, I was again the Renegade but went out first. After that it really very close, with the Sheriff (Jay) and the 2 Outlaws each down to 1 bullet at one point. Eventually, the Outlaws prevailed. It probably would have been pretty exciting if I hadn't been too pissed to care.

Snakebitten

Corry and finished out the NLCS in our ongoing playoff simulation, and the results were not pretty. For me, at least. Game 6 saw the Diamondbacks jump all over Tom Glavine en route to a 10-2 win. Luis Gonzalez and Junior Spivey hit 2 home runes apiece, with Mark Grace adding another to power the win. Schilling went all 9 innings, striking out 11. In Game 7, Arizona built a 7-0 lead through 8 innings thanks to 2 home runs from Steve Finley and 1 from Gonzalez. The Braves tried to make it interesting in the top of the 9th, but they could only come up with 4 runs.

With the Yankees ahead 3-2 in the ALCS, it's looking like a good shot for him to advance both of his teams to the World Series.

Three Strikes

Corry has been playing baseball this summer for the high school's freshman team (baseball here is a summer sport, so the team is open to incoming freshman, of which Corry is one). Yesterday, he got the call-up to play with the JV team, playing first base for both ends of a double-header. He played really well defensively and went 1-for-4 in the first game. The second game was quite a bit more ragged for everyone on the team (we're still in triple digits for heat index, I believe), but he still did OK. I have to give him credit - he has really worked hard and improved since last year.

***

Corry's club team has its season-ending tournament this weekend, so that will wipe out gaming for me.

***

We have only managed to get in two more games of our playoff simulation. Game 5 of the NLCS featured a pretty good pitcher's duel between Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. Arizona took a 4-2 lead (on 3 hits,1 walk, and 3 Atlanta errors) into the bottom of the 9th, but then gave up 4 runs - capped by a 3-run Rafeal Furcal homer - without recording an out. To add injury to insult, earlier in the game the D-Backs lost Reggie Sanders (RF) and Jay Bell (2B) for the rest of the series after they collided going for the same pop fly. Atlanta is now ahead 3-2; the series heads back to Arizona and will most likely feature Curt Schilling against Tom Glavine in Game 6.

Over in the AL, Seattle pulled to 3-2 with a Game 5 win behind Jaime Moyer. The Mariners got to Game 1 winner Andy Pettite early and cruised to a 7-2 victory. The good news for the M's is that the series now moves back to Seattle. The bad news is that the Yankees will have Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina for games 6 and 7, and Seattle is in the "pray for rain" section of their rotation.

Potpourri

We were still down a man for Friday gaming, so we played several short 3-player games.

Dominion: It went more smoothly than the last time we played it, but it still seems a bit too bloodless for my tastes. I beat Mike by 1 victory point, with Jay a distant third.

Small World: Somehow, Mike and Jay only fought each other once the entire game - I was the one that was always getting caught between them. Mike ended up with 108 to Jay's 100 (I was back in the 70s somewhere).

Carcasonne: My big city never got finished, and I was never able to connect the fields that had 2 of my farmers in it to Mike's big farm to poach it away. Mike won going away, with Jay a distant second and me an even more distant third.

Pandemic: Medium difficulty (5 Epidemic cards), as the medic, researcher and scientist. We actually won relatively easily (I think our first 3-player win on medium difficulty), helped tremendously by being able to eradicate red pretty early. We hadn't played this in a while, I now I can't remember why - it was easily my favorite game of the night.

Master of My Domain

Matt was still out of town for game night last Friday, but Corry filled in so we had 4 players. Mike had recently acquired Dominion and wanted to try it out. We played 2 games, although in the first we botched the rules pretty badly (Corry won that one going away, so I'm not counting it). The second game was played with the "interaction" card set, and was much closer - I won with 36 points, Mike was second with 34, Corry had 30 and Jay was pretty far back for last.

It was... OK. I would play it again, but I don't know that I would look forward to doing so. Even with the "interaction" cards, it still feels like you are playing competitive solitaire, which isn't always my favorite type of game. It could very well have been that I was in the mood for something different, and that is coloring my perceptions, though.

Almost as Frustrating as the Real Thing

Not much gaming recently, but Corry and I have been playing more Dynasty League Baseball (ironically, the reason there has been no gaming is that Corry has had baseball games the last couple of Fridays). We're re-playing the 2001 league championships series, and will eventually do the World Series.

After 4 games, things are tied up in the National League. The Braves (me) took the first 2 games in Phoenix, with Maddux out dueling Schilling 4-1 and Glavine beating Randy Johnson 4-2. Then they came home and dropped the next 2 games, 3-2 (Albie Lopez and Kevin Millwood in an unlikely pitcher's duel) and 11-7. The good news for me is that Maddux and Glavine are my next 2 pitchers up again, but this series could still go either way.

Things are looking a bit grimmer for me in the American League, where my Mariners are down 3 games to 1. They dropped the first three, 3-2, 10-4 and 5-1, before finally getting a 5-0 win behind Freddy Garcia, who came back from the close game 1 loss to pitch an absolute gem on 3 days of rest - a complete game, 1-hit (damn you, Paul O'Neill) shutout. I'm not sanguine about my chances of winning 3 straight against the Yankees (or, as I like to refer to them, the "fucking Yankees"), but at I least I won't be swept.

A Night of Unrelenting Horror

Mike was gone for game night this week. Before we got started, Jay and I were talking about Guitar Hero for some reason, and it occurred to me that nobody was using the TV downstairs (the one with the Wii attached to it). So, for the first time ever, game night went video.

However, when setting up the drums, I discovered that the wire the connected the yellow cymbal (very important in GH) to the rest of the drums had caught on something and pulled free from the plug head. It was then I came to a realization that even years of Lovecraftian gaming could not have prepared me for. One of us... would have to sing. The less said of that portion of game night the better, other than that I am a poor singer and a mediocre lead guitarist, Matt is a mediocre singer and a terrible lead guitarist, and Jay is a mediocre singer but otherwise awesome.

After that, we played a couple of games of Small World. The first game saw my first ever defeat as my first race (Berserk Dwarves) failed to get anything done and I was playing catch-up from the get go. Matt was the winner in that one. For the second game, Matt had to leave but Corry was back so we were still at 3 players. I won that one going away. Jay tried a turtling strategy, and Corry was more worried about Jay than me, which meant there weren't a lot of conquests coming my way (I still had several Spirit Halflings, my first race, on the board at the end of the game).

Going, Going... Going... Going...

Corry and I have been playing a lot of Small World lately (he has yet to beat me). As a change of pace, I dug out my copy of Dynasty League Baseball (which is more or less a refinement of Pursue the Pennant) to introduce him to the wonderful world of statistics-based geekery. We played the Braves versus the Astros (2001 versions, although we were in the Astrodome since I don't seem to have the stats for Houston's current ballpark). Thirteen scoreless innings later, we were still at it. Finally, in the top of the 14th, Atlanta plated an unearned run (followed up by a completely gratuitous Chipper Jones 3-run homer a couple of batters later). Even though I lost, I was just kind of relieved it was over.

I used to play Dynasty League with Mike quite a bit, and my brother-in-law has some experience with it as well. I am tentatively putting together some ideas for something more structured than a series of pick-up games for 4 people, probably recreating a post-season (yes, this is all an elaborate plan to experience the vicarious thrill of an '01 Mariners World Series title).

My ulterior motive, though, is to line up a replacement gaming fix. Matt is going to be out of town for all of June and the last half of July. Starting in August Mike will be resuming his Friday-night refereeing gig. We haven't had a regular rpg campaign in over a year, and probably won't for the foreseeable future. I am afraid that our group dynamic has , much like a scoreless baseball game in the 13th inning, gotten to the point where you are just sort of waiting around for it to end.

Cards & Conquests

After having to cancel the week before, the poker game I had been planning went off as (re-)scheduled Saturday night with the usual suspects (Matt, Jay, my dad, my brother-in-law Chris and me) in attendance. We led off with a HORSE tournament that Chris won. He built up a pretty big stack during the first round of Razz, taking every hand and putting out Matt, then busting Jay during Stud. I temporarily passed him in chip count during the second round of Hold'Em, but he took a large-ish hand off of me and took out dad to regain the chip lead going into head-to-head. That only took about 2 hands, when I went all-in with pocket 8s against 2 over cards (I lost that race when he paired a Queen).

We played a straight Hold'Em tournament after that, that I don't quite remember all the details of. Dad was knocked out first, followed by Matt then me. Jay ended up beating Chris in head-to-head. I was kind of hoping that we would play some dealer's choice instead of a second tournament, but I think dad and I are the only ones who are into that. Still, it was a nice evening.

...

I've also been enjoying Small World quite a bit. Most of the games have been 2-player ones against Corry. He hasn't beaten me yet, but he's getting closer. We also managed to get in an impromptu session with Jay and Mike. In the 3-player game, they got tangled up with each other, and my Forest Wizards had one side of the board pretty much to themselves, which allowed me to build up a huge lead and cruise to victory. In the second game, Corry joined us. Defying my expectations, he tangled with Mike and then Jay instead of vindictively coming after me (although, in his defense, both times they messed with his territories first). I only used two races the entire game, but my Seafaring Elves were doing so well in decline that hated to get rid of them. My other race were Pillaging Ratmen, and I had more to gain by conquering new territories than holding old ones with them, so I got into the habit of abandoning the map every turn and attacking somewhere new. Jay had (I think) built an early lead, but I was hard to attack and wound up with the win again.

I really liked how it plays when you get more people involved. Unfortunately, I don't think Mike was overly enamoured with it, so I don't know what that means how much playtime it will get in the future. I think it will definitely be going with me come convention time, though.

Beware the Alchemist Amazons

Somewhat on a whim, I picked up a copy of Small World last night. Corry and I gave it a run through to test out the rules. We didn't get everything exactly right, but it is fairly easy to pick up (we'll see exactly how easy when/if I play it with my 10-year-old). I think it's going to scale to 3 or 4 players pretty well.

I won out test game pretty handily. I think Corry stuck with his Berserk Halflings too long before allowing them to decline, especially after they got marauded by my Spirit Orcs. He brought on Merchant Tritons in turn 9 (out of 10), but they were blindsided the very next round by the Amazons I brought on. Despite the inevitable grappling with the rules that go with a first session, it was fun. I am definitely looking forward to playing it again.

Misery & Pestilence

Missing Jay for game night this time around.

Mike brought over Descent again. I think it took longer for him to set up the game than for Matt and I to be utterly demolished by it. Well, we cleaned out the first room in one round, but it was all downhill from there. I think (and this is purely speculation on my part) that part of the problem might be that the scenarios get progressively harder, relying on the treasure gained in previous adventures to compensate for the increased difficulty. However, since Mike won't run any of the scenarios we've attempted previously (it'll give us an "unfair advantage," because the last thing the players need is any sort of advantage), we are stuck with using beginning characters in an advanced adventure. Or, it could just be the game is supposed to be impossibly frustratingly hard to the point you'd rather stab yourself in the eye with a pencil than play it again. Either one.

We wrapped up with a quick game of Pandemic. We played on the Normal difficulty (5 epidemic cards), and we controlled the researcher, the medic and the dispatcher. We managed to cure 3 of the 4 diseases, but were never able to get enough red cards together for a cure. The last Epidemic card triggered an immediate outbreak in a city that had 1 disease cube from a previous outbreak. We still haven't beaten the game on Normal, yet, but we're getting closer.

In somewhat exciting news, there is going to be an expansion for Pandemic (On the Brink) coming out soon with new roles, new variants for virulent and mutant disease strains, and a bio-terrorist variant that reminds me a bit of the old Scotland Yard game. The new rulebook is available at the Geek. I'm pretty excited about it.

Mo Money (Fewer Problems)

After taking Easter weekend off, the gaming group got together again last Friday, although we were without Matt. Lacking anything better to do, I hauled out Noble House again. I had been working on some fixes to make things run more smoothly than our last attempt at playing it - primarily re-jiggering the turn order and making sure contracts came up on a routine basis. It worked, but perhaps a bit too well. By the end stages of the game, everyone had such a surplus of cash that there didn't seem to be any tough choices left (making the endgame a bit tedious). I probably should have limited the number of contracts available. Or it could just be that only having 3 players gives you enough interpersonal dynamics.

Even though this session was a bit bloodless, I still think there is a kernel of a good game in Noble House somewhere. Many, many years ago (back in my AOL days) I attempted to put together a business-oriented PBEM game, but it fizzled in the way so many PBEMs do. Given the amount of player downtime (not to mention math - I used a spreadsheet Friday to speed things along) I still wonder if that isn't a better medium for this sort of game.

As In 'Slightly Better Than Mediocre'

Good news: all 4 of us were finally there for game night. Not as good news: we played Descent again.

I went into it this time with a better expectation of how the game would play, but it didn't stop it from getting rather tedious. Especially since Mike, as the Overlord, employed a brutally effective two-part strategy - concentrate all your attacks on the weakest hero, and do everything in your power to make the other heroes waste their turns. As a result, my character spent the entire game running in circles not accomplishing anything and Jay's character spent a lot of time respawning. Effective for getting the win; not effective for inspiring me to want to play again.

Afterwards, we played a couple of games of Bang!, in which I (as an outlaw both times) still wasn't able to accomplish a damn thing. In the first game, Jay had about the easiest victory as the renegade that I'd ever seen. I almost won posthumously the second game but sheriff Mike outlasted my fellow outlaw Matt for the win.


This week: role-playing?

Into Madness?

Three people for gaming again last Friday. This time Jay was the missing man. One of these days...

Mike recently acquired Descent (plus some of the expansions), so we broke that out. As expected, it played a lot like Doom, but with swords and wizards. Unfortunately, that means it also shares Doom's fundamental weakness - in attempting to hew so closely to the video game experience, it makes you wonder why you aren't just playing a video game.

There are two areas of game play that ended up bugging me that I think are linked. The first is that you are constantly in "encounter time," ie there is no time to stop and catch your breath after clearing a room. There is no reason to expect that there would be, other than the fact than that's how it works in pen-and-paper RPG dungeon crawls, but I did have that expectation. The second was the way in which characters can die and respawn. We won the scenario (the first one in the book, I believe) because one of Matt's characters kamikazeed the boss monster's lair, which he only did because we figured out we could probably afford to lose 3 whatever tokens.

Rather nakedly, both of these reminded me that the theme didn't matter - the skin was stripped away from the resource-management wireframe. The tension at the end of the game didn't came from seeing if the heroes could complete their quest before the giant overcame them. It came from determining if the 2 tokens in the 2-square wide map area could survive an attack from the 4-square based named threat so that on the next player turn the other 2 token could advance from the respawn point into attack position. Intellectually interesting, but not viscerally exciting.

I'm sure we'll probably play it again sometime. I'm sure it will go more smoothly as we become more familiar with the rules. But I'm also pretty sure that I'm glad I'm not the one who shelled out a bunch of money for it.

That Thing We Did

For the first time in 3 weeks, we got together for gaming last Friday. This time, we were without Matt, so we did the board game potpourri again.

First up was Pandemic. Corry sat in, so we had all the characters except the operations expert. We also bumped the difficulty up to 'normal' (5 epidemic cards instead of 4). It did not go so well for us. We spent the first couple of rounds without a coherent plan, then were unable to keep up with black disease. We chain-reactioned into our 10th outbreak about halfway through the player deck.

Next up was Ticket to Ride, where there was a lot more competition for routes than in other games I had played. I once again committed the cardinal sin of going back for more route cards once i had completed the ones I started with (both western north-south routes). The best of the lot was New York-Seattle, which I wasn't able to complete. Jay ran away with the victory.

Last, we played Carcassonne. I won, but it didn't feel like a true victory because Jay had never played before and hadn't caught on to some of the nuances. The difference maker turned out to be that all of out farmers ended up in the same humongous field, but I had more meeples in it than Mike or Jay. The 30 or so points for adjacent cities proved to be my margin of victory.

We are off again this weekend (I've got way too much going on), and the next weekend is up in the air. Maybe some day we'll get back to a regular schedule.

Financial Disaster

Jay was unavailable Friday night, so I cajoled the other 2 into trying out Noble House. Big mistake.

It could be that the game just doesn't scale particularly well to fewer than 4 or 5 players. Or maybe there is a little to much opportunity to screw with the other players (or maybe, it was just that all those cards happened to be dealt at about the same time). Perhaps it was just a bit too complicated for what people were expecting, or they just didn't care for the theme (apparently, to Matt, all financial games are like Monopoly, and therefore stupid). Hell, maybe it would have gone better if I had pre-separated all the cards and other playing pieces and we could have launched right into the game instead of 15 minutes of busy work.

Whatever the case was, this particular game was a disaster. The first time you play through a game is always rough, but it really doesn't help when you have a player that responds to a setback by employing the nuclear option - indiscriminately dumping every single 'penalize another player' card in his hand. And then asking "Is this game over yet?" The third he asked that, I didn't take it as a hypothetical.

It's a shame, because I think there is a seed of a really good game in there somewhere, but I'll probably never to get to figure out what needs to be done to get the game there. I don't think I would try it with less than 4 players again, and even if Matt ever did want to play it again (doubtful), I'm not sure that I would want to play with him.

We played a hand of Battle of the Bands after that. I think I won, but I was so pissed I wasn't really paying attention.

Games Were Moderately Fun

Scheduling for last Friday's game night somehow got completely FUBARed. By the time we got all 4 of us together in the same place, it was about an hour after when we normally start. The uncertainty of what was happening, when added to my general mood previously in the day, meant we stuck with board games for the night.

First up was Pandemic. Things got a little hairy towards the end when we were being overwhelmed with the black disease and only had one cube left (having to place a cube you don't have caused you to lose). Other than that, things went pretty smoothly for us. I think we are definitely ready to move up to the 'Normal' challenge level - we'll see if everyone thinks it's easy then.

After that, we played Settlers of Catan. It pretty much came down to a race between Matt and Jay, with Mike and I being non-factors. I swear I went about half an hour without getting a resource card (and this with being next to an 8). Very frustrating.

We finished up with a couple of games of Bang! In both, Mike was the sheriff, Matt was the renegade, and Jay and I were the outlaws. The outlaws won both games.

In a fit of nostalgia, I recently acquired a copy of James Clavell's Noble House. Unfortunately, nobody seemed up for learning a new game that night. I was really sort of hoping to get into a longer, more involved game. Short games are a good change of pace, but they seem like all we have been playing recently.

That's a Lot of Sheep

For Friday game night, we were missing Jay and I was too lazy, errr busy, to prepare anything for our role-playing campaign. So, it ended up being "Board Games What I Got for Christmas" night.

First up, we broke out Settlers of Catan. I took the win with 5 settlements, longest road, largest army, and a 1 VP development card. Mike was a close second, with 4 cities and a 1 VP card. His cities were placed every 2 corners though, and he would have had to build 2 road segments to accommodate another settlement (all of which required wood, which he had a hard time acquiring). I, on the other hand, had a hard time acquiring ore (Mike was the magnate, but wouldn't trade it to me, so I had to rely on a 3:1 port), which made upgrading to a city difficult. Mike eventually caught on to my strategy of buying as many development cards as possible in hopes of picking up a VP card. I just happened to win that race. Matt was a distant 3rd.

After that, we played Agricola, which Mike had brought over. Unfortunately, Mike had only given the rules a quick read-through so it was figure-it-out-as-you-go, which I don't really care for. Apparently I won by a single point over Matt, but I couldn't really tell you how or why it happened. It seems like it could be a fun game, but large parts of it felt like 3 people playing 3 different solitaire games, which again, is not my favorite.

Last up was Cowboys: Way of the Gun, also one of Mike's new ones. Again, it was figure-it-out-as-you-go, but the this one was pretty rules-light so it wasn't as hard. In one scenario Matt and I attempted to re-create the death of Wild Bill Hickok while Mike figured out the rules. All 3 of Matt's special cards gave him townsfolk as minions, though, so it ended up being a 6-on-1 fight that didn't go so well for me. In the second scenario, Matt and I were a sheriff and deputy who had to face down a lynch mob (16 townsfolk, 1 of whom was removed from the map each turn, and a 'real' character). It ended being a shooting gallery - could Matt and I kill them before they got in enough lucky shots to whittle us down? Answer: yes, primarily due to some well-timed special cards from Matt's hand. Overall, the game felt a little light to be interesting for too long. I would prefer Gunslinger for my western gunfighting needs, even if it is a bit too weighty.

---

On Saturday, I played a couple games with the kids. In Carcassonne, Maddie and I ended up tying, with Corry a distant 3rd (we almost lapped him). In Settlers of Catan, I was the winner but I don't recall the details (I think I was distracted by football). Maddie (10) is right at the bottom of Catan's age range so she gets the game, but I think some of the larger strategies elude her (she does just fine at Carcassonne, though). Corry (almost 14) not only gets the game, but actually stopped me from building a settlement only 1 corner away from one of his (I was trying to break up his road) by citing the rules. As a part-time rules lawyer myself, it did me proud.

So That Was Christmas

It just wouldn't be a holiday at my house without some form of sickness. This time, it was "only" a cold (and thus, much better than Thanksgiving), and Susi and I were the only ones seriously affected by it. So I guess that is better?

On the gift-reception front, Christmas was pretty geek-friendly for me. My parents (with some help from some pretty specific hinting) got me Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan. I had played each before, but not recently. I figured that they qualified as new classics, though, and should probably be part of my collection. From Susi and the kids, I got The Dark Knight (plus, Corry got Iron Man) and Lego Batman for the Wii. The game that is getting the most play, however (even though, technically, it was a gift for Corry) is Guitar Hero World Tour. Some day I will master you, drum part of R.E.M.'s "The One I Love." On Easy, at least. Maybe.

Maddie, my older daughter, and I took Carcassonne for a spin last night. It was as easy to learn (and teach) as I thought it would be. Too easy - she won the second game we played even though stole one of her farms away from her.

Also, since last report, I have played 3 more games of Pandemic and won them all. The first was a game with Maddie and Corry, and amazingly we didn't have a single outbreak the entire game. The second win, with all 4 of us from game night, was much closer and came only 2 turns before the game would have ended due to running out of cards to draw. The last win was with Corry and I in a 2-player game where we tried out the Normal setting (5 Epidemic cards instead of the 4 in the Easy version).


Edit (12/31/08): Now that the Geek is online again (thank heavens!), I can can provide links for the games.

Battle Nuns?

Astoundingly, we finally had a game session where all 4 of us could make. I think the last time that happened was late summer. To celebrate, we played a quick game of Pandemic, in which we got our butts thoroughly kicked (we cured blue and eradicated eradicated red before the Middle East went kablooey on us). After that, the Tuatha de Danaan campaign.

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On the drive home from the impromptu vision quest, mysterious stranger Ben explains to Ted and Jerome what will be happening next. There are signs that the Fomorians, ancient enemies of the Aos Si, have begun to return in force. In order to defeat them, the Tuatha de Danaan will need to recover the Four Treasures from their resting place in Eire. However, the Tuatha themselves are prevented from returning to Ireland due to mystical barriers erected by the Catholic Church. Their half-human children, on their other hand, face no such impediment.

Over the course of the next two days, Ted and Jerome are both very sick, first suffering from high fevers and then lapsing into a near coma-like sleep for almost a full day. However, upon awaking, they feel refreshed and more energetic than they have in their entire lives.* They meet Ben and one of his colleagues, anthropology professor J.D. Killborn,** at a local diner for an immense late lunch (it is by now sometime on Sunday afternoon). While eating, Ben and J.D. explain the real history of the Irish gods to them and warn them that indiscriminate use of the reality-altering powers they will soon be developing might draw unwelcome attention. Finally, they are told that J.D. will be escorting them to New York City as soon as possible to meet with the cailleach, who will help them develop their powers.

Although initially hesitant to leave before Tuesday's election (Ted is an Obama organizer), they decide that, unless they meet an untimely end, they will have forever to worry about school and politics and will leave the following morning. That evening, Jerome calls his sister in Paris to let her know he is dropping out and quietly says goodbye to his friends. Ted, meanwhile, tries for a goodbye score with Delilah, sometime vocalist for the jazz combo. When that fails, he gets both of them invited over to Jade's (the other girl he has the hots for) apartment. Between the wine, marijuana and Aura of Power (a supernatural aspect that enhances your charisma) Ted manages to summon***, he ends up in a goodbye threesome.

Across campus, Jerome is walking back to his room to finish packing when he notices a black SUV driving slowly behind him. Trying to reach out with his mind, he detects a very vague malevolent presence. Just as the SUV is rolling to a stop near him, it suddenly speeds away. Spooked, Jerome hurries to his room.

In the awkward silence that follows Ted's evening, he says goodbye to the girls and leaves, only to be accosted at the door to Jade's complex by a 2 black-clad women wielding staves. He hurriedly slams the door shut and races to the back door. There are 2 more assailants by the back door, but Ted barrels through them with unexpected strength and begins running towards campus.

Jerome comes out of his room to load his bag into the car to discover Ted being chased by 4 dark figures and the SUV from before. By now J.D. has also sensed the previous use of power and has come to the quad to investigate. Seeing the situation, he runs at one of the attackers and tackles her into the ground hard. A follow-up punch to the head knocks her out. The 2 assailants who were farther back seem to slink off into the night at the sight of J.D. Meanwhile the final mystery woman is clobbering Ted pretty well with her staff while Jerome (ineffectually) attempts to pepper spray her. J.D. resolves the situation by coming up behind her and body slamming her. J.D. informs Ted and Jerome that these were battle nuns, an order of religious trained from childhood to combat 'evil' half-breeds such as themselves. A mutual decision is made to leave for New York City immediately.


*Over the course of the next few sessions, they will find their attributes increasing to borderline superhuman levels.
**Jay's character.
***It took me forever to goad someone into trying to use their powers. The specific use was all Matt, though.

Deities & Disease

There were three of us again for game night. Jay (easily the hardest working person I know) is inundated at work, so he will be spotty for the next forever. C'est la vie.

We started off, as promised, with a game of Pandemic. I was slightly worried that, after having to wait for 2 months to get my hands on the game, it wasn't going to live up to how fun I remembered it being. I needn't have. We didn't win, but we came extremely close - we literally would have won on the next turn if not for an unfortunate draw from the infection deck. The other 2 players took to it right away and (I think) had as much fun as I did.

---

After that we started on the modern weirdness campaign we created characters for a while ago. Our protagonists are Theodore Lux (Matt) and Jerome Maxwell (Mike), two students at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Theodore, a junior computer science/philosophy major, and Jerome, a sophomore math major, know each other from playing in the same jazz combo.

In the days leading up to Halloween, they get it in their head to explore some steam tunnels that Theodore's roommate found* (Trig the roommate, Miles the sax player from their band, and Jade the girl Theodore is trying to impress are also along). They become spooked by strange grunting and shrieking noises and turn back before long. As they are heading back to their respective rooms, they hear shouting and screaming. Rushing to the scene, they find a distraught Jade and an unconscious Miles. They learn that Miles was attacked by "some sort of chimpanzee thing" and thrown against a tree, causing a concussion. Jerome takes him to the hospital.

The next day, Theodore is obsessed with the tunnels, and drags Jerome along with him that night to explore some more. They get further than they did the evening before, but don't find anything unusual. After returning to the surface, they circle back to where Miles was attacked the previous evening and spot a bearded, shabbily dressed stranger sitting on a park bench. Theodore approaches him carefully, and they have a conversation filled with many vagaries. After the stranger leaves, Theodore discovers blood on the park bench and tries to follow him, but he is gone.

The next day, Halloween, the characters attend to some business before attending a costume part/kegger at a local campground. At some point in the evening, the party is attacked by a small giant** (8 feet tall, or so). As people are fleeing, Theodore and Jerome hang back because they can see the bearded stranger striding towards the giant, sword in hand. He motions them away. As they run for Jerome's car, they see at least one simian-looking thing*** stalking them from the edge of some trees. It leaps on top of the car as they attempt to drive away, but they manage to lose it by slamming on the brakes then taking off again.

As they make their way back to campus, they spot the bearded stranger walking by the side of the road. They pull over to give him a ride and demand answers. He responds by asking them to drive him to a field in the neighboring county. Once there he offers them a drink from a clay jar before he explains, which they accept.**** He tells them that the Tuatha de Danaan, the gods of Irish mythology, are in fact real (though the stories about them are not necessarily accurate). And not only that, but both Theodore and Jerome are actually the offspring of one of these gods.

It is about this time that the beverage they drank, which is something like a rye whiskey laced with ergot, kicks in. Theodore finds himself walking through the woods following a red doe. Finding a pond, he looks in it to see a much younger version of his mother in the hospital, evidently just after giving birth. He sees a nurse wheel the baby down to the nursery, then sees a red-haired woman appear from nowhere. She takes the baby, places a different baby in the bassinet, and then disappears. Meanwhile, Jerome wanders across a field until he encounters a large dog. Lying down, he looks up at the stars and sees, as if from overhead, a younger version of his mother in bed with a man who is not his father. As they come back to consciousness, the stranger ("Ben") informs them that Jerome's father is actually Lugh, the god of light and skill. And while his father is actually his father, Theodore's mother is actually Brigid, the goddess of fire, poetry and wisdom.

* This was entirely player-driven. I just rolled with it.
** A fir bolg.
*** A gruagach.
**** They pretty much accepted a drink from a strange container from a shabbily dressed stranger they had previously seen wielding a sword uncritically. It will be retconned into Ben using his powers to influence them, but I think they just wanted to get to the plot.

---

The first session was pretty much entirely improvised, with no dice or anything. Although it really only served as a springboard to the main plot, I think it went OK as a session in and of itself. Hopefully, next week Jay will be available and his character will be introduced. He is someone who is already in the know of what is going on, and is actually quite a bit more powerful than Matt's and Mike's character is right now (our rationale is that, given how spotty Jay's attendance might be, he may need to go and Gandalf around while Theodore and Jerome pursue the main plot). We'll see how that works out.

Imminent Outbreak

I've been jonesing to play Pandemic again ever since I played it at Nuke-Con. The problem was that it was completely unavailable due to being back-ordered. No longer. It is, even as I type, in my hot little hands, just waiting to be sprung on the gaming group tonight.

I Hardly Knew Her

We had six people for poker Friday night (besides myself, there was my dad, Matt and Jay from regular game night, and my wife's nephews Andy and Phil) and decided to go with straight Texas Hold'Em.

For the first game we started with 5000 in chips. Personally, I like playing with a deeper stack because you have a little more time to get something going. I remember some of the first tournaments my dad put together where we started with 1000 chips; if you didn't hit a big hand in the first two rounds you were too crippled to get much farther. Anyhow, I got some good hands early, then cruised a bit through the middle rounds, never down but never up too much either. I started hitting again about the time people were busting out. I put dad out for third place, which gave me about a 3:1 chip lead over Phil going into heads-up play. Heads-up only lasted one hand though. Phil put in a big raise, and I re-raised with pockets 5s large enough to put him all in. He called with Ace-Jack suited, but couldn't make his hand.

For the second game, we went with 2000 chips to start for a quicker game (in theory). Dad built a huge lead through the middle rounds but went cold and wound up going out in 4th place. Andy and I had similar (small) stacks at that point, and I put him out for the honor of facing Phil as a 5:1 chip underdog. Heads-up play lasted for over a full round this time. I got as close to 2:1 in chips, but I could never quite get even footing, and Phil could never quite knock me out until the blinds got big enough I was basically all in with the big blind.

It was one of the more successful nights of poker I've had in a while, and I wish I could say it was because of skill. Actually, I thought about what I was doing a lot less than I normally do. So maybe I overthink when I play usually. Or maybe I'm overthinking now... Whatever the case, I'm sure all the good cards I was getting helped.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

It was a pharmacy, by the way. In case you are a lonely DEA agent and have been reading this hoping for a hot tip.

So anyhow, since I last committed electron to screen (lucidly, at least), I have had to have a tooth extracted, an unknown virus involving just a few too many bodily fluids rampaged through 80% my family (I was not the lucky 20%), and there was a large-ish meal involving a couple of birds, some pie and grumpy in-laws.

On the gaming front, we had a character creation session for the new modern weirdness campaign I've been working on, but only Matt and Mike could make it. With my recent misadventures, that's as far as we've gotten with it, though. We had a quick session of Battle of the Bands after that, but I can't even remember who won it now. We also played '80s Edition Trivial Pursuit on Thanksgiving, which underscored yet again why I am uncomfortable playing any sort of trivia game with family (long story short, I tend to be ludicrously good at games like that).

Tonight... poker?

Trains, In Vain

Another weekend, another session where someone couldn't make it.

We started off this time with another game of Ticket to Ride. Corry played with us again, and he ended up winning, even when Jay and I started trying to block his routes. Just like last time, after completing the two tickets I started with (Atlanta-San Francisco and New York-Seattle), I drew more that I wasn't able to complete. It was closer this time, though. I needed a 6-train white route to finish Santa Fe-Calgary, and had 3 whites and 2 wild cards, with another wild card available to draw when Jay played enough of his remaining trains to trigger the endgame (everyone gets one more round). Completing that ticket would have given me the win, but instead I was stuck in last.

After that, we played Arkham Horror, which Mike brought over. This is the second time we've attempted to play this game. Note the word attempted. There is a very steep learning curve, and it is not really clear to me how to even go about winning this game. I suppose with a thorough read-through of the rules and more experience it would go smoother, but the bottom line is that it just isn't enough fun for me to want to put in that sort of time. At about hour 3, with no end in sight, I finally had to call it quits or risk falling asleep at the table.

This weekend... everyone, maybe? Stay tuned to see how it falls apart.

Rowboats, Trains and Automobiles

After some scheduling difficulties, we ended up with 3 for game night. Again.

We started off the evening with some Mille Bornes. My stepson, Corry, filled in as Jay's partner, and Matt and I were a team. We started off strong, leading 2500-500 after the first hand without even getting a completed trip (we had all 4 safety cards). Jay and Corry took the next 2 hands though, leaving us tied at 4200 after 3. Momentum was not on the 'Us' side, though, and 'Them' won the 4th hand and the game.

After that, we played a game of Ticket to Ride. Matt and Jay seemed to be competing for the Midwest pretty heavily, so my Toronto-Miami route was pretty easy to complete. New York-Seattle was a bit more of a challenge, though, and I ended up having to go all the way up through Canada to connect. I then made the mistake of taking more route cards, hoping to get some easy points off of connections I had already made. As it turned out, every card required going through the middle of the country, where Jay had created a circuitous mess. I picked the lowest point value card since I would have to eat it anyway. On my last turn, I played a superfluous 6-car route that gave me the longest route ticket, which prevented Matt from overtaking me on points.

For the last game of the evening, we broke out Betrayal at House on the Hill. The haunt we played involved the house slowly sinking into the swamp. In order to escape, the heroes (Jay and I) had to retrieve a rowboat from the Attic, and move it to either the Tower or the Balcony. Unfortunately for the Traitor (Matt), Jay's character was only 2 rooms away from the Attic, and the Balcony was only 3 rooms away from that. It ended up being a very short haunt that Jay and I won easily.

Nuke-Con '08

The good things about this year's Nuke-Con were that: a) it was back back at the convention center about 10 minutes from my house; and b) I was actually able to attend this year (two days of it at least - Sunday was my daughter's birthday). When deciding what events to run, I was inspired by our recent sessions of Gunslinger and decided to have a Western theme to my games this year - 2 sessions of Bang!, 2 sessions of Gunslinger, and a Mutants & Masterminds adventure with a cowboy superheroes.

Day 1:
It turns out the room we were in wasn't the same as the one as before. This one was slightly smaller, which was good, but it also had bare concrete floors. Between the echoes and the ambient noise, I had a hard time hearing all weekend, and my voice was shot by Sunday from having to speak loud enough to be heard. Also, it got crazy cold in the room intermittently, especially on Saturday.

6:00 - Bang! It went fairly well, but early Friday sessions always seem to be chaotic with people just arriving, wandering away from the table to talk to people they haven't seen since last year, etc. We had 5 players including myself, but only got through 1 game. I was the Renegade, and got it down to the just the Sheriff and me, but he ended up winning.

8:00 - Gunslinger. We had 5 players (including myself) for this one as well. I would have sat out, but 5 makes a better dynamic for "Thieves Fall Out," the scenario where a gunfight breaks out when a group of outlaws is dividing the loot from their last score. The Drifter made a break for the money, but was gunned down by Border Rider (me) . After grabbing the money myself, I 'made the mistake' of stopping to try to plug Gun Artist, who had run for the edge of the board so he could snipe. We killed each other with simultaneous shots. The left the Kid and Innocente to preform the dance of death (almost literally the way they were moving around); Innocente came out on top of that game, winning the scenario.

10:00 - Dead Man's Hand poker. This was a tournament playing a variation of 5-card draw where in order to win the pot, you had to also beat the best hand that could be created out of the cards that had been discarded during the draw. Unfortunately, my previous game ran a bit long, so I was stuck at the table opposite from all the people I was acquainted with (and at one where the level of poker-seriousness seemed quite a bit lower). It was OK, but started to drag a bit - 5-stud is one of my least favorite forms of poker. I think I would have won ( I was getting ridiculously good cards for a while), but my table insisted everyone go all-in on the last hand before time was up (why?) and I went along with it. Oh well.

Overall, there seemed to be a fairly steady but not overwhelming number of people in attendance. There were a number of people that I had seen there very year since 2003 (when I started attending). Having missed last year, I don't know whether that makes this year an anomaly or part of a trend.

Day 2:
8:00 - "A Hole in the World" (Todd Furler's Unknown Army game). First off - 8 AM? Apparently, it wasn't Todd's first choice either. According to what somebody told him, the RPGA events accept unlimited number of players for each game, so the organizers need to hold tables in reserve in case of overflow (of which I saw very little). Thus, Todd's Friday night preference somehow became an early Saturday morning slot. Anyhow, the adventure was fun enough, but felt a bit compressed. The 3 other players besides myself arrived as a group, and there was some pretty good chemistry as far as the interplay went (I think the guy playing my brother and I had some good moments).

12:00 - This would have been my Mutants & Masterminds game, but before I left Friday night (around midnight), I checked and saw that I had absolutely nobody signed up for it, so I decided to cancel it. I used this time to check out the auction (sparse), art show and dealer's tables. I was momentarily tempted by the new Wild Cards book for M&M, but I left without buying anything. I know, I was surprised, too.

2:00 - Lacking anything better to do for while, Todd and I went to lunch.

4:00 - Pandemic. An extremely fun cooperative board game that Todd demonstrated. We apparently were somewhat screwed by the initial set-up (2 cities with 3 disease cubes right next to each other) and suffered some additional setback by two fairly early Epidemic cards. We had battled back to find 3 of the 4 cures, though, before the yellow disease overwhelmed us. It was extremely tense. Great game, probably the most fun I had all weekend.

6:00 - Tannhauser. After playing it, I'm sort of ambivalent about this one. The path system on the board seemed ingenious at first, but it seems like it might be somewhat limiting after a while to have everything tied so heavily to the components. I would probably play it again given the opportunity, but I don't see myself laying out any sort of money for it.

8:00 - Bang! I had 6 players for this one, including 3 players from the previous night's game of Gunslinger. Despite having one more player, we got through two games the session. In the first, I was the sheriff and was made pretty short work of. In the second game, I was one of the outlaws which was again the winning side (even though my win this time was posthumous).

10:00 - Gunslinger. The 3 from the previous night who just played Bang! were back (one of them was even in my Friday Bang! game, as well), plus 2 more. They selected a team scenario instead of an everyone-for-themselves, so I played as well. In this scenario, 3 members of the cavalry (of which I was one) were trying to escape off the far edge of a long, narrow board. In their way, 3 angry member of the Sioux nation. My teammates skirted the north side of hill and started exchanging gunfire with Hawk and Eagle. Meanwhile, I headed up the hill and dropped behind some tombstones. I picked off Hawk, and while the Scout and the Galvanized Yankee were finishing off Eagle, Axe decided that he tired of waiting for me to come to him and started up the hill. Due to my single-shot rifle, I was only able to get one more shot off at Axe before he let me have it with both barrels of his shotgun. I missed, he didn't. The Yankee, pistol in hand, came up the hill to help me out while the Scout headed for the map edge (for the points, he said). Rather than reload, Axe got out his tomahawk and crouched own. Meanwhile, I waited for my Delay Points to go down and hoped that I wouldn't garner too many more from my wounds (I didn't, as luck had it). Axe's thrown tomahawk hit the Yankee in the chest before she was able to fire, stunning her but not causing any lasting wounds. In the meantime, I had managed to draw my pistol and got off a lucky shot that severely wounded Axe. He then conceded. It was a pretty exciting game, and I think everyone had fun with it.

Summary:
It turns out I had a pretty good time this year, even though I was only involved with one role-playing session. Attendance seemed down, but again it was hard to tell if that was something peculiar to this year or a sign of something bigger.

I was pleasantly surprised by how Gunslinger went. Those old Avalon Hill games can be a little dense to explain and understand at first, but we were easily able to finish a scenario in about 2 hours each time. It was gratifying to have people come back for more, as well. I wasn't too worried about finding an audience for Bang!, but it was fun nevertheless.

On the role-playing front, I still can't figure out why nobody seems to be attracted to my games. It might be that M&M is too limited of a draw - the first year I ran it had several players, two years ago I had to re-schedule and grab wanderers to get the game to go. It might also be of benefit to have more than just a vague description because you've put off submitting events until the very last minute.

As an addendum, I did make a purchase (kind of). The next day I ordered Pandemic, but it is so popular I have to wait until the next shipment comes in before I'll get it.

More Cowboys, Fewer Indians

This weekend we played a bit more Gunslinger. I think, given Matt's frustration with how often his shots seem to miss (which they did, although not any more frequently than anyone else's), this will probably be the last time for a while. Anyhow, we managed to get through 3 showdowns.

Showdown #1: Bawdy House Brawl

The situation: A fight breaks out at a house of ill-repute. Given the house's no guns policy, people are only armed with small, concealable weapons.

The characters: The Marshal (Matt), in the downstairs parlor armed only with a knife. The Gambler ("Doc," played by me), in an upstairs bedroom with a Remington double-barrel derringer and a knife. The Quiet Man ("Thornton," played by Jay), who was out behind the woodshed for some reason, with a Colt .32 5-shot sneak gun and a knife.

The action: The marshal began by drawing his knife taking the stairs up to the second floor. Thornton likewise drew his gun and headed upstairs by means of the exterior staircase. Doc, perhaps sensing that everyone was coming for him, drew his knife (with his left hand) and dashed out into the hallway. Thornton reached the top of the stairs and entered the house just in time to take a quick shot at Doc. It missed, and Doc ducked into the upstairs parlor just as the marshal was on the second floor landing. With his quick draw ability, Doc drew his derringer and got off two shots at the marshal, who had started charging him with his knife. The first shot missed, but the second dropped the luckless lawman. Out of ammo, Doc dropped the gun and backed into the adjoining store room. Unfortunately for him, Thornton had bypassed the parlor and burst into store room's other door. Doc whipped his knife at Thornton (which only grazed him) just as Thornton took another quick shot (which missed). Out of weapons, Doc stepped at Thornton as threw a jab at his ribs. The blow hit, but it was only a glancing one. Thornton, in the mean time, had cocked his gun and fired again. This time, at point blank range, the shot was fatal to Doc.

Showdown #2: The Siege

The situation: Old enemies encounter each other outside of town, and a long-range gun battle ensues.

The characters: US Scout (Matt), with a Winchester rifle up on Boot Hill. The Gun Artist (me), also with a Winchester, crouched down behind a rock pile about 40 yards away from Boot Hill. The Marshal (Jay this time), with 2 Colt .45s drawn, behind the hill.

The action: Spooked by the marshal's sudden appearance, the scout scrambled into a more defensible position behind a tree. The marshal, meanwhile, charged up the hill and took position behind a row of tombstones. Left momentarily unattended, GA fired a couple of shots in the scout's direction, but missed them both. The scout came out from around the tree and took a quick shot at the marshal, but missed. The marshal returned the favor, firing with both pistols. One missed, but the other caught the scout in the leg and caused him to collapse. Meanwhile GA had been aiming between the two on the hill, hoping to take down the survivor. His plans were stymied by the Marshal dropping to the ground behind the tombstones. With no visible targets, GA left his cover and advanced toward the hill (a fairly big mistake as it turned out later). After lying on the ground dazed for a while, the scout had managed to re-cock his gun and aim at GA. GA took the time to put another bullet in the scout's other leg (another mistake), which more or less put him down for the count. Meanwhile, the marshal had been scrambling back to the base of the hill where he had left his own Winchester. Once he recovered it, he headed back to the top of the hill. Realizing what was coming, GA started aiming towards the crest of the hill where he expected the marshal to show up. His shot ended up being too quick, though, and he was left out in the open with an uncocked gun. Trying to make himself a moving target, he began to dash towards the hill, his only hope being the marshal would miss and he would again have the advantage. No such luck as the marshal took his time aiming and put GA down with a single shot.

Showdown #3: High-Stakes Poker Game

The situation: in the middle of the saloon, a poker game turns deadly when someone is discovered cheating.

The characters: Doc, the Gambler again (this time played by Matt), with a Colt .44, his Remington derringer and a pair of knives. The Dude (Jay), directly across the table from Doc with a Smith & Wesson .45 and a Smith & Wesson .38 double action. Thornton, the Quiet Man again (this time played by me), sitting on Doc's right with a Colt .44, a Colt .32 and a knife. Was this a prequel to showdown #1, perhaps?

The action: Immediately, everyone was out of their chairs and guns were flying out of holsters. Thornton elected to fanfire at Doc several times, but never hit. Both Doc and the dude were aiming at Thornton ("Why?!" I implored them, "Why me?"), meanwhile. Both fired and missed. After a couple more rounds of static gunfire with no hits, the dude began moving to his left, putting him outside of Thornton's line of vision. With no target other than Doc, Thornton fired the last of the bullets from his .44 but missed. Meanwhile, Doc's well-aimed, point-blank shot at Thornton was ruined by his gun misfiring ("Why?!" Matt implored the heavens, "Why me?"). The dude's next shot caught Thornton in the arm (if the dude had been using his .45 instead of his .38, the wound would have been much more serious). Out of ammo in his main gun and bleeding, Thornton broke for the saloon's front door. He was just quick enough that the dude wasn't able to get another shot off at him. Doc, meanwhile, had taken advantage of the dude being distracted to plug him - the dude ended up sprawled over the bar bleeding profusely. Doc then took a stroll out the back door and around the side of the saloon, stopping to load a couple more rounds in his .44. Hampered by shock and indecision over which gun to go with, Thornton only managed to load one round into his .44 before sticking his head around the corner of the saloon. The dude meanwhile, had managed to stand up, but soon passed out due to his injuries. Outside, Doc took careful aim at Thornton's head but missed; meanwhile, Thornton's aim was thrown off by a twinge of pain. Doc's second shot missed as well, but Thornton got off a shot that took Doc in the leg. Due to Doc's low endurance (the tuberculosis, I guess), he was unable to take any meaningful actions before passing out.

You Win Some, You Take Third In Some

Poker night went off well. Better than expected, even, from a mechanical standpoint. We had five players (Matt and Jay from my regular game night, my dad, my brother-in-law Chris, and me). Starting with 5000 in chips, we used the following blind/betting structure:

Rd 1: Hold'em (25/50 blinds)
Rd 2: Omaha (50/100 blinds)
Rd 3: Razz (25 ante, 75 bring-in, 150 to open)
Rd 4: Stud Hi/Lo (50 ante, 100 bring-in, 200 to open)
Rd 5: Hold'em (200/400 blinds)
Rd 6: Omaha (300/600 blinds)
Rd 7: Razz (200 ante, 400 bring-in, 800 to open)
Rd 8: Stud Hi/Lo (200 ante, 500 bring-in, 1000 to open)
Rd 9: Hold'em (1000/2000 blinds)

We played 15 minute rounds, and went straight to round 9 when there were only two players left. In theory, any rounds after 9 would also have been hold'em, with the blinds doubling every round (we never made it that far, though).

Dad and Jay jumped out to early chip lead in the first two rounds before I overtook them with a very good round of razz. There wasn't a lot of movement during stud, except for Chris busting out on the very last hand of the round. Matt had a good round of hold'em, taking most of Jay's chips. I had a couple of very strong hands during Omaha that finished off Jay and severely dented everyone else's stacks. Matt outlasted Dad during razz, but I had a a 4:1 chip advantage going into heads-up. It didn't take long for me to finish him off. The entire tournament lasted a little over two hours.

I had originally planned to do dealer's choice afterwards, but it was decided to play through another HORSE tourney instead. Chris built an early lead in this one, then kept try to bludgeon us with his stack. He was out by round 5, though (preceded by Dad, who just couldn't get anything going in the second game) when the cards dried up but he kept swinging. With the three remaining players roughly even, I made a bad call on Matt's all-in during Omaha and gave him a 2:1 chip advantage over Jay for heads-up. Jay almost evened things out, but couldn't get the cards to fall right and eventually lost. The second tournament also took right around two hours.

I think the changes I made to the structure were successful, on the whole. Keeping the high/low split to Omaha and having a second stud game would have added confusion and made the game feel like it dragged. If I were to do it again (and that's a real possibility, given the general reaction to it), the only thing I might think about changing is to lengthen the rounds to 20 minutes. At 15 minutes, were barely got the dealer button all the way around the table sometimes, especially with the longer (and less familiar) games like razz and stud.

Overall, though, it was a very fun night. Now I just have to figure out how I am going to consume all that leftover beer in the fridge.

All the Pretty H.O.R.S.E.s

Speaking of the weekend game, it will preempted this time around for poker (ostensibly in honor of my dad's birthday). Instead of the usual hold 'em tournament or dealer's choice, I'm planning on a simplified version of HORSE. In the poker variety of HORSE, you cycle through five different games - hold 'em, Omaha hi/lo, razz, seven-card stud, and seven-card stud eights or better hi/lo. Normally, it is played as a limit game, although at the WSOP it becomes no limit hold 'em at the final table.

In order to simplify it, I am dropping the high/low split from Omaha (one divided pot is enough) and eliminating seven-card stud (too redundant with 7-stud hi/lo also in the mix). I guess technically that would make it a game of HORE, but... not going there. Also, all the games will be no limit since that is what everyone is most familiar with.

I'm excited to see how it goes. Not only is this my first chance to use my new 500- and 1000-denominated chips, but it should be interesting seeing how people adapt to having to change games every 15 minutes. Assuming we don't have a winner by the second round, of course.

Cowboys & Indians

Since it seems that Mike's schedule is blown through mid-October at least, weekly gaming is likely to be heavy on board games for the near future. This week, I dug out an old favorite from the bottom of the closet (and amazingly, all the pieces were there despite the box being destroyed long ago) - Avalon Hill's Gunslinger.

For those not familiar, Gunslinger is a skirmish-level wargame in the classic AH hex-and-counter mold. Players use action cards to plot out what their characters will do over 2 second rounds (with each action having a time cost- drawing and cocking a revolver might take 3 of your 5 segments, whereas dropping to the ground only takes one), then resolve those actions simultaneously. Each character also has a unique set of abilities, either from skill bonuses or additional cards, to differentiate them.

After playing through a few sample rounds to let Matt and Jay get the hang of it, we tackled our first showdown: the classic "Thieves Fall Out." In this one, a group of desperadoes are standing around dividing their loot (represented by a money bag counter) when things go bad. Our variation was that if someone could grab the money and make it off the board, they would win. The outlaws consisted of The Kid (Jay), a quick-draw specialist and master of one-handed guns, Border Rider (Matt), a generalist who had the advantage of being the only one to start with a rifle in both hands, and Gun Artist (me), a good shot with both pistols and rifles but not particularly fast.

The action started immediately, with Border Rider taking a potshot at The Kid as quickly as possible (he missed) and Kid rushing BR. Gun Artist, meanwhile was content to aim between the 2 and see what happened. Kid evaded another BR potshot and continued to sprint, getting behind and out of BR's line of vision. Rather than turn around to face the guy right behind him, BR started opening up at GA across the corral, although his lack of spending any time to aim destroyed his accuracy. GA finally elected to shoot - at Kid - but missed; Kid returned the favor and winged GA in the side, knocking him down and causing some delay (delay points that allow you take fewer actions per round are garnered in the game when you are injured or cross an obstacle). Seemingly unnerved by being right in the middle of a gunfire exchange, BR began a dash for the money bags. GA, unwilling to take the time to get up, got a couple of shots off from the ground at BR as he grabbed the money and ran for the edge of the board; all the shots missed, however. Kid, meanwhile, chased him down and finally shot when BR was within two hexes of exiting the board. Bulls eye - adios, Border Rider. This left Kid a couple of steps from the loot and near the board's edge, while GA was still down across the corral. Knowing he'd have only have time for one good shot, GA built up as much aim as possible before squeezing off a shot just as Kid was picking up the money. Another bulls eye, and that was the game.

We had time for one more brief showdown after that. In this one, a lone prospector (Mountain Man, played by Matt) comes a across a couple of Sioux warriors (Axe and Hawk, played by me and Jay) around their camp fire. Axe and Hawk split up to charge MM, who was crouching behind a rock pile, from two different directions. Since Hawk's path would take him through a gully that hid him from view, MM focused his attention of Axe, who was charging him across open ground. Unfortunately for MM, he only had a single shot rifle which limited him to getting off 2 shots before Axe was on him (both missed, the first because of the darkness making the effective ranges longer and the second because Axe was running). Axe, meanwhile was having problems of his own as both barrels of his shotgun went off during his mad dash (delay points can also cause things like falls and misfiring guns) and he had no ready weapons when he finally reached MM. Just as Hawk was coming out of the gully and getting in position, MM drew his Colt .45 and took a quick shot at Axe from close range, again missing because of the darkness. Simultaneously, Axe had unlimbered his tomahawk and brought it downwards, striking MM a solid blow to the vitals and killing him.

Overall, I think everyone had fun with the game, even if they were just learning the nuances of the game (and I, having not played it in over a decade probably not being much better). We'll see how mush of that was just politeness when I see if they want to play again, though.

My Pathetic Struggling Was Futile in the Face of Doom's Magnificence

Board games again last weekend (though in a stunning twist, Mike was gone and everyone else made it); we went with Marvel Heroes this time. It ended up being a very close game. In what turned out to be the final round, all three teams (Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four) were poised to resolve a headline that would have put them over the 15 Victory Point threshold, but failed. Luckily for me (playing as the FF), I had enough time to get Thing deployed to another headline that I successfully resolved. Unluckily for me, it was a mastermind opportunity that would have allowed Dr. Doom to implement the final part of his master plan (the one that caused the FF to lose 5 VP). After a very close combat, Doom was victorious, which caused me to fall to 2nd place behind the X-Men on the VP track.

We had a good time, but being rusty on the rules (it's probably been 6 months since we played it last) brought into sharp focus how fiddly some bits of the game are.

Thanks For the Memoir-ies

Another weekend with no role-playing. Mike and I got together again, though, and this time we played Memoir 44. I think I enjoyed it slightly more than Command & Colors - there were fewer fussy bits to worry about and it seemed to play quicker.

We played two scenarios again - Sainte-Mere-Eglise and Sword Beach - and again I managed to win both of them. I was the axis in the former and came up lucky with command cards (enabling me to hit him on his right flank pretty hard) as well as on some dice rolls. I played the allies in the latter scenario and thought I was finished when all three of my armor units got taken out in short order. I was able to knock out the artillery bunker in the middle of the board, though, which freed up my infantry to come ashore and kick some butt.

I'm actually tempted to go out and buy Memoir now, which is something I can't say after playing Command & Colors. Days of Wonder's online play system may be just enough to tip me over the edge on that decision.

Phalanx For the Memories

No roleplaying this week, so Mike and I got together for a game of Command & Colors: Ancients. I had never played before, but it is a pretty simple system to pick up. We played through two scenarios (I don't remember what they were called, though), and I won them both. The first one was pretty close, but I got lucky with the card draw the second time and won pretty easily.

I guess that would be my chief reservation about the game - it seems like it might be a bit too random. I'd probably have to play through it more before making that judgement though. The game was fun enough that I'd be willing to do that. Overall, good time.

Surprisingly Addictive

Best part? Legobacca's hand-to-hand attack is ripping tiny stormtrooper arms off.

Guitar Zero

So I've been rocking my way through Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii, and I'm doing pretty good. I've got 4 or 5 stars on every song not titled "Raining Blood," and I have defeated Satan in the guitar battle to end all guitar battles. Of course, this is all on Easy.

Last night, I started on Medium and all of a sudden "Slow Ride" was kicking my ass. Why must you taunt me so, blue button?