1.27: Happy New Year!

Hopefully everyone's holidays have been pleasant and provided more rest than mine have.  As you may have noticed, I've taken a slight break in posting here; while I had planned to do so, this break has been more absolute than intended.  Let's just say that Campbell's soup should show some high Chicken Noodle sales for their fourth quarter of this year.

Expect more regular updates in "Twenty-ten."

Take care all.

1.26: If everyone else jumped off a bridge...Holiday Gift Guide

Well, it seems that everyone I know and all the podcasts and blogs I frequent are doing a "Holiday gift guide."  Boardgamegeek.com has their annual gift guide, The Spiel did an entire podcast for theirs, and there seems to be no shortage of other gaming gift guides.  There's a lot of great suggestions, a lot of great games and ideas and categories for all types of people and ages (if you have kids, click the word "other" in the previous sentence).  With all this, could I have something to contribute?

Well, no.  Not really.

Okay, obviously I'm kidding, despite my deepest urge to simply end this update now for S&G. 

Despite my urge to send any number of "non-gamer" blindly into a game store, to be struck with awe and then lost amid the vast selection of boardgames (okay, actually that's the opposite of what I want...regardless of how funny that would be), you're probably a thousand times more comfortable doing your boardgame shopping at regular retail stores like WalMart, Target or Kmart.  So let's explore some good games you can get at those stores (that should be read with disdain--not for any reason, just because).

1.25: Party games...hooray? Take 2.

Alright, already said, I'm not a big fan of party games.  The benefit of playing a party game is that they scale up, allowing a large number of people or teams to play.  Think Pictionary--the minimum to play is 4 (two teams of two), and the maximum is the number of people able to see a give point (ie, the drawing tablet) before the curvature of the earth blocks view.  Obviously if you have tall friends, this number is higher.  The drawback, the games need to be accessible, and as such are often re-hashes of other party games.  How many games have you draw, or do pantomime, or hum songs, or answer trivia questions?

And as stated before, I so, so hate pantomime.  I believe my quote from the last party games post was "I'd murder everyone in the room before I played Charades."

Well, I guess it's time for me to eat a little crow.

1.24: BGG.Con Day 1 - What we played

I've already listed what we played on Day 1 of BGG.Con, but here it is again:

Fluch der Mummie
Pack and Stack (x2)
Agricola
Homesteaders (Just me, Jackie was doing homework)
Crokinole  (x3)

I'll give a run-down of what each game is, and a blurb on our own play of it.  Writing this, I realize this is going to be a long post, so I've titled each section with the game's name; also, the last paragraph or so a little info on our play experience, and the rest is info on the game itself.