Oh, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I blame the terrible weather we’ve had over the summer. I can’t be expected to have a functioning brain when I’m busy melting into a puddle.
This [time period] in development
I currently have a notebook bursting with ideas, but none of them have developed particularly far. So what I’ll do is post some snippets of my notes, hoping that will spark something in my brain and get things going again ¯_(ツ)_/¯
- “… players have a spread of facedown cards, but they play cards into other players’ spreads, pushing cards into that player’s hand.”
- “Archaeological dig game.” “Artefacts dispersed throughout multiple decks …”
- “… laying tiles to create a shop and trap others into buying stuff.”
- “Once one person dies, they have to work out who killed them.”
- “… play gods creating a fantasy world.”
- “Drafting game where cards are dual use: resources and stuff to build.”
Already I’m looking at a few and thinking they’re more workable than the others. Hopefully a future update will have more!
This [time period] in games
To avoid going on forever, I’ll start with this Wednesday. I took the opportunity to try the newly-delivered Mint Delivery for the first time. It’s a nice, straightforward game, as I’d expected from something so small. Comparing it to its predecessor, I think I prefer Mint Works. Though I’ll have to try out the variants (as well as the new MW expansion) before I say something definite.
As is becoming somewhat standard, we filled our remaining time with a bit of the Metagame.
The Metagame has come out a lot since I received it. So far we’ve only played Metaquilt and History 101 (and used the cards for ad hoc Monikers, though the actual Monikers cards offer better possibilities) as I think the others were either inappropriate for the player count we had, or just variations of what Metaquilt does better.
It’s a joy coming up with stupid reasons why your choice definitely relates to two opinion cards, twisting definitions of things and making up hypothetical scenarios where they could apply.
Then I had a good 2-player session with Alex on Saturday.
Started off with finally trying out Race for the Galaxy (it should be a quick game, but I wanted to be familiar with it before trying it on a Wednesday). We’ve already played Roll for the Galaxy a few times, so a lot of the concepts were already familiar. We started off with the suggested “starter” hands, so I ended up very mining-focused and generated a good amount of points.
Our second playthrough was with random starting hands and I ended up with a lot of worlds requiring military. It was going well and I had two cards left that would’ve netted me loads of points, but Alex emptied the VP supply before I could get them out.
Definitely looking forward to playing it again.
Moved on to 7 Wonders Duel. In his rules explanation, Alex said he didn’t think a military victory was particularly easy, so of course that’s what I did 😀 Though I think it was partly luck of the way the cards came out, as I played pretty poorly otherwise.
Had our second play of Altiplano as I’d been itching to try it again. I think I’d have done better if I’d started storing my blankets earlier, rather than taking them to the market. Instead, Alex won by having almost every house card available.
Next up was Notre Dame, which was all right. Possibly because it was the first time I’d played it, but I had a lot of difficulty working out what was worth doing. Quite deceptive that you end up with a pile of points and it turns out you played terribly. I definitely prefer Castles of Burgundy.
Finished off with Mint Delivery which didn’t seem to work particularly well with 2. There’s an additional rule for a 2-player game (removing an available order when you fulfil one) that I assume is to speed things up, but it ended the game far too quickly for us.
The rest of the stuff I played while not posting here was mostly old favourites (and lots of Metagame).
Though while we were on holiday (see below), Beth’s sister’s girlfriend (say that three times fast) brought Funemployed, which convinced me to buy it. I’d been worried it required good improv skills, but as always the funniest option is to put down a weird card and give a crap answer 😀
Along with that, I also picked up Magic Maze (as stressful as it is, I think it would work well at Wednesday sessions), the two newest Ashes expansion decks, and Piepmatz (because it has crows).
This [time period] in everything else
The major recent event was going on holiday to Lanzarote with Beth’s family. I’m not a big fan of heat, but compared to recent weather in the UK, it had air conditioning and a pool, so it was a lot more pleasant. Though it was less pleasant for Beth, who’d broken her foot at my step-sister’s wedding the week before.
Not one for sunbathing, I mostly got a lot of reading done. Of note were Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero and Six-Gun Snow White by Catherine M Valente. I loved them both, though they’re very different in style.
Other than that, I’ve mostly just been watching too much stuff on Youtube. Often D&D-related and making me want to create many, many new characters and play in multiple games.
And this: