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sniffnoySo I was going to go down to Philly yesterday to visit Nick, but two days ago Nick suggested he would come up here instead. But nobody's around here, really - but, he reminds me, Saturday is Ludo!
Huh. I had entirely forgotten about that. Obviously I can't go very often anymore - not that I ever went very often - but yeah, I'm going to try and remember more...
(Turns out, the reason I wasn't getting the emails was not that I hadn't joined the group, but because I still had it set to use my old BCA email address!)
Anyway, Nick got sick, and so he didn't end up coming up here, but of course I went to Ludo anyway. It ocurred to me I might want to remind pethog (has he ever gone?), but I ended up forgetting to do so as this was pretty late at night.
Neat games:
Space Dealer. How do you do a real-time boardgame without having all sorts of ordering issues? Use timers. In order to take an action, you set a sand timer, and when it runs out, the action completes. Unfortunately, the mass-produced sand timers it comes with are rather inconsistent. It was Gil's copy, and, being the obsessive he is, he had actually timed how long each timer took (both directions - they're not the same) and had labeled them so that they could be distributed without really unbalancing the game. A bit light on the player interaction, though. Yes, you can trade, but you're doing so much other stuff you hardly have time to. We also played without the black cubes, which also adds to that problem, but adding them in... it's hard enough just paying attention to what you're doing in this game, let alone watching everyone else's position too!
That's Life. OK, so this is a kids' game, and mostly luck. But still - this is roll-and-move done right. Something I would probably just about never want to play, but certainly noteworthy.
Prolix. A neat little word game Gil came up with (he's still trying to sell Wag the Wolf); we'll see if he can sell it.
Pow Wow. I think I'm going to have to break my statement about not buying any more boardgames for a while. I'd trade for it like I've been doing recently, but I can't, because nobody has it. OK, OK, so it's just a variant on Indian poker, you could probably play it with a normal deck of cards - but it's so useful, it has the headbands for holding the cards, plus the exact distribution of numbers would be pretty hard with an ordinary deck of cards... I think I'm going to get it. As for the game itself, it's a bluffing game, really just a variant on Indian poker. Everyone puts a card to their forehead. Players take turns bidding numbers less than the total of everyone's cards. Some cards are zero or negative, so bidding the total of all you see is not necessarily safe. If you think the last player's bid was over the total, you challenge, and everyone reveals their cards. If you challenge wrongly, or are challenged rightly, you get a buzzard, get 4 and you're out. You have to either raise or challenge; no passing. Some cards are special - x2 doubles all positive cards, max=0 makes the max card count for 0, ? gets replaced with a random card come the showdown. Colored 0 means you reshuffle all the cards together rather than setting the used ones aside. Last one left wins. It's very simple and very light but it's really great, it's tense all the way through.
What writing this really reminds me of, though, is that I clearly have not been playing enough Mafia. I didn't play at all first year, and second year there was one night where I managed to get some Mafia games going; we only went like 3 games though. Well, I'll apply to be a counselor at PROMYS again this year.
Anyway! Story of Pow Wow. I may have this very wrong, especially the numbers, but oh well. There were a six of us, I think - ug, I'm forgetting everyone's names already. Well, there was me, Gil, one person who I'll call Dan, and I think 3 other people. I think Dan was his name, but I already forget. I take two buzzards early, then some other people take two. Anyway, Dan - Gil mentions partway through the game - used to be a professional poker player, so naturally he's leading through most of the game. By which I mean all of the game. He doesn't take a single buzzard as the other players begin accumulating them. The 2-buzzard club becomes the 3-buzzard club. Eventually every remaining player, except him, has 3. One more player drops out and it's down to just me, Gil, and Dan.
Gil had a 10. Dan had a ?. I open with a 0, and the bids rise slowly. Aha, I figure, I must have a negative. It's unlikely to be a -10 or worse or else the bidding wouldn't even be as high as it is. So it's got to be about a -5; I don't think there are any inbetween -10 or -5, so I bid 5, hoping Dan's ? will come out nonnegative. Gil challenges. Gil puts down his 10. Dan puts down his ?. I reveal a 4. Not a good challenge for Gil at all. But we need to see what Dan's ? turns out to be. Gil starts to pick a feather, but then Dan starts to take one, saying it's his ? so he should really do it. Gil says, let me take it, I'm feeling lucky. He turns up a max=0, cancelling his 10 for a total of 4. My bid is one too high and I'm out.
Just Dan and Gil now, Dan's no buzzards to Gil's 3. 6 cards left in the pile - it's been a long time since the colored feather has been drawn.
Both draw their feathers. Gil has zero while Dan has a positive. Gil leads, simply stating what Dan is wearing; Dan raises by one. Gil challenges and Dan gets his first buzzard. "Only Gil can defeat him!" I proclaim. They draw again - Gil wears a 3 while Dan wears a 1. Dan leads with 3, Gil raises to 4. Challenge. Another buzzard for Dan.
So Gil is still on the edge at 3 buzzards, Dan now has 2. Can Gil bring it to sudden death? Well, one thing is for certain: This round is going to be very unfair. We're down to the very last 2 cards. One of them has to be the colored-0, so whoever draws it will have perfect information. Dan draws it. He leads, so he simply bids what Gil is wearing, and there's nothing Gil can do. Dan wins.
Cartagena, on the other hand, I find thoroughly meh.
-Sniffnoy
Huh. I had entirely forgotten about that. Obviously I can't go very often anymore - not that I ever went very often - but yeah, I'm going to try and remember more...
(Turns out, the reason I wasn't getting the emails was not that I hadn't joined the group, but because I still had it set to use my old BCA email address!)
Anyway, Nick got sick, and so he didn't end up coming up here, but of course I went to Ludo anyway. It ocurred to me I might want to remind pethog (has he ever gone?), but I ended up forgetting to do so as this was pretty late at night.
Neat games:
Space Dealer. How do you do a real-time boardgame without having all sorts of ordering issues? Use timers. In order to take an action, you set a sand timer, and when it runs out, the action completes. Unfortunately, the mass-produced sand timers it comes with are rather inconsistent. It was Gil's copy, and, being the obsessive he is, he had actually timed how long each timer took (both directions - they're not the same) and had labeled them so that they could be distributed without really unbalancing the game. A bit light on the player interaction, though. Yes, you can trade, but you're doing so much other stuff you hardly have time to. We also played without the black cubes, which also adds to that problem, but adding them in... it's hard enough just paying attention to what you're doing in this game, let alone watching everyone else's position too!
That's Life. OK, so this is a kids' game, and mostly luck. But still - this is roll-and-move done right. Something I would probably just about never want to play, but certainly noteworthy.
Prolix. A neat little word game Gil came up with (he's still trying to sell Wag the Wolf); we'll see if he can sell it.
Pow Wow. I think I'm going to have to break my statement about not buying any more boardgames for a while. I'd trade for it like I've been doing recently, but I can't, because nobody has it. OK, OK, so it's just a variant on Indian poker, you could probably play it with a normal deck of cards - but it's so useful, it has the headbands for holding the cards, plus the exact distribution of numbers would be pretty hard with an ordinary deck of cards... I think I'm going to get it. As for the game itself, it's a bluffing game, really just a variant on Indian poker. Everyone puts a card to their forehead. Players take turns bidding numbers less than the total of everyone's cards. Some cards are zero or negative, so bidding the total of all you see is not necessarily safe. If you think the last player's bid was over the total, you challenge, and everyone reveals their cards. If you challenge wrongly, or are challenged rightly, you get a buzzard, get 4 and you're out. You have to either raise or challenge; no passing. Some cards are special - x2 doubles all positive cards, max=0 makes the max card count for 0, ? gets replaced with a random card come the showdown. Colored 0 means you reshuffle all the cards together rather than setting the used ones aside. Last one left wins. It's very simple and very light but it's really great, it's tense all the way through.
What writing this really reminds me of, though, is that I clearly have not been playing enough Mafia. I didn't play at all first year, and second year there was one night where I managed to get some Mafia games going; we only went like 3 games though. Well, I'll apply to be a counselor at PROMYS again this year.
Anyway! Story of Pow Wow. I may have this very wrong, especially the numbers, but oh well. There were a six of us, I think - ug, I'm forgetting everyone's names already. Well, there was me, Gil, one person who I'll call Dan, and I think 3 other people. I think Dan was his name, but I already forget. I take two buzzards early, then some other people take two. Anyway, Dan - Gil mentions partway through the game - used to be a professional poker player, so naturally he's leading through most of the game. By which I mean all of the game. He doesn't take a single buzzard as the other players begin accumulating them. The 2-buzzard club becomes the 3-buzzard club. Eventually every remaining player, except him, has 3. One more player drops out and it's down to just me, Gil, and Dan.
Gil had a 10. Dan had a ?. I open with a 0, and the bids rise slowly. Aha, I figure, I must have a negative. It's unlikely to be a -10 or worse or else the bidding wouldn't even be as high as it is. So it's got to be about a -5; I don't think there are any inbetween -10 or -5, so I bid 5, hoping Dan's ? will come out nonnegative. Gil challenges. Gil puts down his 10. Dan puts down his ?. I reveal a 4. Not a good challenge for Gil at all. But we need to see what Dan's ? turns out to be. Gil starts to pick a feather, but then Dan starts to take one, saying it's his ? so he should really do it. Gil says, let me take it, I'm feeling lucky. He turns up a max=0, cancelling his 10 for a total of 4. My bid is one too high and I'm out.
Just Dan and Gil now, Dan's no buzzards to Gil's 3. 6 cards left in the pile - it's been a long time since the colored feather has been drawn.
Both draw their feathers. Gil has zero while Dan has a positive. Gil leads, simply stating what Dan is wearing; Dan raises by one. Gil challenges and Dan gets his first buzzard. "Only Gil can defeat him!" I proclaim. They draw again - Gil wears a 3 while Dan wears a 1. Dan leads with 3, Gil raises to 4. Challenge. Another buzzard for Dan.
So Gil is still on the edge at 3 buzzards, Dan now has 2. Can Gil bring it to sudden death? Well, one thing is for certain: This round is going to be very unfair. We're down to the very last 2 cards. One of them has to be the colored-0, so whoever draws it will have perfect information. Dan draws it. He leads, so he simply bids what Gil is wearing, and there's nothing Gil can do. Dan wins.
Cartagena, on the other hand, I find thoroughly meh.
-Sniffnoy
