What I Played Today: November 2

Skulls and Roses, Two Rooms and a Boom, The Resistance, Grand Theft Auto V

I went to a party, and it was a fun party. Had a good time. played a lot of party games. The only one I feel like talking about though is Two Rooms and a Boom, which went over MUCH BETTER than it did the last time we played it. People were on board, people enjoyed the format, people were good with lying. We had a lot of people who just didn't want to show their card to anyone, which was interesting. We had a game where the Bomber decided to show exactly one person his card, and he showed me, a member of the Blue team. So...he freaked, and I immediately went to town trying to find the President and gained control of the room and sent him away so he didn't know when I found the President. Lot of fun, this game. I really wish I had a larger group that I could depend on to play. But...Kickstarted this nonsense.

Then I went home with a couple of drunk idiots in tow and they laughed at me while I played Grand Theft Auto V.

What I Played Today: April 6

Skull and Roses, Infinity Dungeon, New Super Mario Brothers Wii-U

At a party in which we stated that we wouldn't be playing many games, we played some games. A game of Skull and Roses, which was just fine and usually okay, and then Infinity Dungeon, which I'm starting to not like that much. The game elements are clunky, and there are not enough cards to have enough variety to keep things interesting. I'm sick of the pirate, for example. I was in the role of permanent DM, because I was just not feeling it, and the session eventually fell apart due to circumstances not related to the game.

I also got to play some Wii U, which is cooler than I thought it would be! The little screen on the super pad is crisp, and the gameplay of adding blocks to the game to help out the players is pretty neat. I thought it felt like cheating when I first saw it, but there are a ton of areas that can't be reached without those blocks. Fun!

What I Played Today: March 9

Fire Emblem: Awakening, The Resistance, Skull and Roses, Drinking Games

I am making some progress in Fire Emblem, although just the way you have to play to make sure nobody dies is just nuts. You have to be super reticent, because these are all people, and you don't want to lose any of these people, but they are also not going to grow unless you put them in danger. I made a couple of mistakes in which the new character I just met gets taken out on the second turn, and I am just constantly restarting.

Then I went to a party, and we played some regular games, like The Resistance with 11 people, in which no spy was ever put on a mission and the game was over pretty much immediately, and Skull and Roses with 11 people, in which nobody could win a bet, at all, and we eventually houseruled that it takes two skulls to get knocked out, and still nobody could win. It was a terrible idea.

There were also drinking games, which I'm always fascinated by because they always seem to be more complicated than regular games. There was one where you drew a card and then did something on a list. Most of those things were drink. And then there was one where the dealer went around the circle and people would try to guess the card, and whoever lost had to drink. Now, kinda dumb, but when you are the dealer for the last 30% of the game, when the majority of the deck is known? People were concerned that I was going to lose it, because I had to down my entire 12 oz drink in about three minutes. But...I held it together. I can handle it.

What I Played Today: March 6

Skull and Roses

Birthday dinner tonight, for someone who had a birthday. We went to the game store to pick out a gift for him, and I saw that the store had Skull and Roses Red, which I had privately promised to buy if I ever saw it. So I did, and then we played it at dinner. It is a bluffing game, you've heard about it.

What I Played Today: March 1

Shadows Over Camelot, Incan Gold, Battlestar Galactica, Spaceteam, Skulls and Roses

To start the game night, I suggest a game of Shadows Over Camelot. I ended up being dealt the traitor card, and just kinda sat back and watch the goddamn chaos. We made a few bad calls, and when the turn came to me, I sat back and waiting to hear if someone had a bad idea, then went with it, why not. We sat at six black swords and everyone knew that as soon as it was the traitor's turn, they would accuse someone and the game would be over, so we had a sitdown, trying to figure out just who the traitor was. It was between me and another guy, and...I just did nothing, pointing out facts, and voila, someone else was accused and I won. Hurray.

Then I guess Incan Gold? I won for once, because whenever there were five or more points just sitting in the dungeon, I ran, and it worked out for me. I was on a winning streak!

And then there was a call for Battlestar Galactica. I will never say no! So I pulled it out, quickly explained the various expansions I love to play with, and we were on our way! Our first Cylon made a crucial mistake by throwing in cards that would quickly identify him as the only one who could have possibly blown the check (rookie mistake), and we had Cally in the game, so of course he got SHOT IN THE FACE! (Man, I love Cally.)

Then...shit went bad after the sleeper phase, when President Baltar had both a Personal Goal to have the President in jail and an Arrest Order, and a complete lack of understanding how shit can go completely wrong during the sleeper phase. So on his turn, he throws himself in jail (WHAT?) and the turn right after, Cally goes to the Admiral's Quarters and says, "Josh is a Cylon, let's throw him in the Brig." This is WRONG, but he tosses all of his cards into it, and nobody backs me up, so I get brigged and he immediately changes his attitude to "Yeah, I'm a goddamn Cylon!" So, two humans in jail (out of three), and our fuel just DRAINS, and it's game over at the next jump phase when we just don't have enough to keep going. Still, the circumstances were a bit hilarious.

Then we started bitching about MOBAs? I don't know, I wasn't paying attention, I just knew that a new addition to the game group had an iPhone, so I pushed Spaceteam. For a good fifteen minutes. But we started playing, and he realized that this game was in fact incredible (it always happens), and I wait patiently for the Android release, because apparently Apple is a four-letter word here in Minnesota.

We considered going to the pizza place, but we balked, so instead we played Skull and Roses (I lost), and went to Perkins instead. I feel I am giving you too many details. If you were an insane person who followed this blog, you might be able to follow me and then murder me. Luckily, I am not nearly that popular.

What I Played Today: November 16

Chaos in the Old World, Skull and Roses, Avalon

I got to play a game of Chaos, as the magic dude, because I'm always the magic dude. This game was weird and terrible for Khorne because he couldn't do all the murder he wanted because the event cards just shut battles down at certain locations, and he had some crappy rolls. The rat managed to win because nobody had any interest in killing the rats, so they sat around and joined the ruining party and got all the points that way. Good for them.

Then played a couple of games of Avalon, which people were really liking, which is good, because I like Avalon. The plot cards from Resistance require way too much explanation, so this adds some cunning elements that are easy to understand. Good! The first game went well with six, in which I managed to trick some the bad guys into thinking I was Merlin, even though I wasn't. And then a game with 10, which was an unmitigated disaster. You see, I was a bad guy in that game. I completely forgot to open my eyes. Just...completely forgot what my card was. I was playing for the good guys the entire time. Also, another spy didn't open their either, so only two of the four spies were actually playing for the right team, and Merlin only knew two spies. And for some reason, NOBODY SAID ANYTHING, so we played all the way to round 5, in which, despite the fact that it makes absolutely no sense, the spies won. Good job, spies. Sorry for being awful.

Then a game with some more roles, and that was even better! I like more roles!

Also played Skull and Roses, which is fun and not really worth mentioning.

What I Played Today: November 14

Smash Up, Skull and Roses, Dominion

Played some Smash Them Up, again with four people. I'm really like to play a game without all the dumb factions being present, see if that changes things. Anyway, I did an awesome thing where I played a zombie lord to drop a ton of cheap jerks from my graveyard onto the table, including some replicating robots, which let me bust up a base right away. But I still didn't win, because someone had aliens, and aliens have that guy who just drops VP like candy. Well, whatever, it was fun.

Also Skull and Roses, which I like a lot. It's a good game!

Then a game of vanilla Dominion, with all of the attack cards. Like, all of them. It was a pretty aggressive game, and I took on a lot of curses. I did buy a lot of provinces though, so I think I won? I don't remember.

What I Played Today: October 5

Skull and Roses, Dominant Species, Dominion

Game store, there was a lot of hemming and hawing about how there was not enough space. So we all stood around and played a game of Skull and Roses, which I lost, because Skull and Roses.

Then I helpfully pointed out, "hey, dummies, there's an extra table over there, why don't we, you know, use it." And the problem was solved! So a group of us played Dominant Species, which was actually pretty fun when you give the heave-how to a third of the cards so the game is a reasonable length. I managed to run away with the game in the last turn when a quickly burst a bunch of dudes on the board and then spread them out quickly, which lead to some serious points in the scoring round. Felt good.

Then played a game of Dominion: Dark Ages, which was pretty fun. There were cultists which really dragged down everyone's deck, so that wasn't fun, but otherwise I like Dark Age a lot. It makes a lot of exciting choices.

What I Played Today: September 29

Hey, That's My Fish, BattleCON, Starcraft: The Board Game, Skull and Roses, Netrunner

We got a bunch of people together to play board games and jaw about how there were too many people to play board games. I don't know why we invited so many people if that was a concern, but whatever. While waiting for people to get there, a game of Hey, That's My Fish, which continues to be adequate. Then while people were standing around being people, I forced a guy to play a game of BattleCON. He was unconfident in his abilities, and that proved to be his downfall, because really? Some of it is kind of chance. So I won.

Then there was a bunch of just hemming, and I may sound like I'm making a huge deal about this, but it kinda got a little annoying how we couldn't just sit down and play a goddamn board game. So eventually we got it sorted out and three of us played the Starcraft board game, which is very crunchy. The zerg player managed to carve off half the board all to himself, and it screwed the rest of it. The terran got into a sore spot, and I could have knocked him out of the game if I really wanted to, but...it was his game, so. We had to give up halfway through because he just kinda forgot he was going to a thing with his girlfriend, but I enjoyed it a bit. Pretty fun.

Then everyone was standing around again, and I said, "Let's play Battlestar Galactica," because it was Saturday and we still had five hours. So most of the people said sure, I walked over to grab the game, and when I got back we were suddenly playing a bootleg copy of Skull and Roses. Now, I didn't get mad, because I like Skull and Roses, but it was weird. The game of Skull and Roses was fun though. The guy on my left was a master bluffer, it was impressive. I managed to win the last game with only one card left, which was pretty awesome.

Then we all split off and played two-player games of Netrunner. I played one game as the corp, and I got mad stupid and put some key agendas out without protection early in the game because I was hoping my opponent would think they were traps. It was a dumb idea. I managed to recover a bit and finally got some ICE in my hand, but the runs against my deck managed to net enough points for the runner to win. I do like how smash and grab Weyland is. "Oh, you know what's in front of this server and it's not a threat to you? Sell it to a contractor, install something else instead." It was pretty fun! I adjusted the deck so it had a bit more ICE in it, and threw out some pointless tagging cards (my deck tagged enough as is), and hopefully I'll get to test these decks against some experienced players soon.

What I Played Today: September 21

FTL, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Core Worlds, Skull and Roses

I may have played FTL while I was supposed to be working, shh, don't tell anyone.

At the game store, a couple of games of Sentinels of the Multiverse, since I had just gotten the expanded edition and the new expansion. Guys, the expanded edition is really good. Everything now fits in one box, like, on purpose, and some of the new enemies are supercool. There's a giant boss with all of the hit points, and a zombie guy, and a full team of supervillains, which is kinda awesome.

We faced off against Ambascade, who has a dumb name and a dumber gimmick. He can go invisible to avoid damage, except when he doesn't, in which case you can take him down pretty easily. In a second game we found the team of supervillains, who have this cool thing where their abilities trigger based on an icon on the played card, and if you are really unlucky, you can end up fighting all of them. But we only ended up fighting four. They would occasionally heal themselves, which was annoying, but not too bad.

Then a game of Core Worlds, which I kinda slept walked through. I didn't get the core planet I wanted, but I did manage to get two of them somehow. Also, something happened at the end of the game that caused some confusion and someone else might have won. I don't know why we rushed there, I guess we were just done with the game.

Then a game of Skull and Roses, which is a neat bluffing game that took me forever to understand! In it you put down one of your four tiles, one of which has a skull on it, and then you have to wager how many tiles among those on the table you can flip over without revealing a skull. At first I just threw down my tile randomly and didn't look to see which one it was, then I put it down randomly not realizing there is supposed to be some strategy here, then I finally understood and realized how bad I am at liar's dice. I managed to get fully revealed near the end of the game, so everyone knew that I didn't have a skull anymore and was not a threat. Eventually the person who still had three tiles left won just by sheer numbers. But it's a cute little game, I like it, and the tiles look super sweet.