The Computer Lab

The computer lab at Platt College was supervised by a man named Mike Garner. Mike was great with the technology, but less than great with the students. He liked me because I figured out pretty quickly that he didn't really like being asked questions (or being talked to at all.) Mike was the only one at the college who knew anything about the computers. Even the drafting teachers were largely technophobic. They could teach the CAD programs, but nothing else.

In addition to the CAD program called AutoCAD, the computers had a word processing program called WordPerfect and a desktop publishing program called Xerox Ventura Publisher. Mike had written a simple batch script that displayed a menu and allowed users to enter a number from the menu in order to launch their program. So, that was easy. After the program launched, I just had to fiddle around with it to figure things out.

I enjoyed the puzzle of it. For me learning about technology has always felt more like a game than a chore. I came in everyday after school to learn what I could through exploration. Other students, inspired by my example, followed. There was much confusion. I suppose that I take for granted my comfort when it comes to interfacing with computer technology. These days, everyone has grown up working around computer tech. It wasn't always like that, and it seems that I was an exception.

Students who came to the computer lab had questions and wanted answers. They didn't seem to recognize Mike's discomfort in the role of teacher. They wanted help. They were paying for an education. They expected immediate answers. I began running interference for Mike. I answered questions and helped students. 

When I started the telemarketing job, I couldn't stay late after school anymore. I came in during my school lunch breaks to work. Mike asked me about my absence in the evenings. I told him about my new job. Two weeks later I was back in the lab in the afternoons. Mike asked me about work. I told him that I was fired. Mike told me that he thought that they were crazy for firing me and left the lab. Fifteen minutes later I was summoned to the Dean's office and hired on the spot as Mike's assistant. 

I had a new job which involved going to the lab after school in the afternoons and doing everything that I was already doing, but now I was getting paid to do it. When the lab was quiet and I wasn't busy working on my APA, Mike would teach me about computer stuff. I was a quick study. I learned MS-DOS to better interface with the computers and eventually began learning some programming. 

Mike and I were becoming good friends. I had the perfect job that allowed me to stay in school and pursue my new interest in theater. The job wouldn't have provided enough to live on if I had lived anywhere else, but since living in the Villa cost $33 a month including utilities, I actually had plenty. I had enough for food and some left over. Life was good. 

What the Heck is APA

After I stopped working for Louis, I would spend the afternoon and early evening staying late at school prior to rehearsal. Platt College had a rather impressive computer lab. 

  

One of their courses was computer aided drafting or CAD. I wasn't part of that course, but any student was welcome to use the computer lab, provided room was available. There was always lots of room in the lab in the afternoon after classes were over. 

I used to contribute to this thing called an APA. It stands for Amateur Press Alliance, which sounds pretty fancy. I found out about APAs from an article in Comics Scene Magazine. The article focused on the APA as a means of expression for comic book fans, and it even name-dropped a few famous comics creators who had first cut their teeth by contributing to APAs (like, current at the time of the article, Daredevil writer/artist Frank Miller.) 

The article included contact information for several APAs that were active at the time of the article. I wrote all of them. One APA wrote back. The person who wrote me back was Mary Bierbaum. (She and her husband Tom will go on to write the Legion of Superheroes for DC comics.) The next thing I knew, I was contributing stories and art based on my favorite comic characters and sharing them with 2 dozen like-minded fans. 

How it worked was that amateur writers and artists would draw or write comic book stories. Sometimes these would be about original characters but mostly it was fan fiction. Then the creator of this material would make copies of their work. They would make a number of copies equal to the number of members in the APA. This was usually around 25-30, I think. 

Membership in the APA was restricted and numbers kept small to reduce the financial burden of making copies on its members. The copies were then sent to a central location, to a member of the group elected as the "central mailer." That person would take all of the copies received from all members and divide them up. Everyone would get one copy of their own work back and also get one copy of everyone else's.

You shared art and stories, and you commented on everyone's stuff. It was an awesome, supportive, and creative community. It was really one of the best things that I've ever been a part of. What's more, the APA motivated me to grow. That's what I was doing there in the computer lab everyday after school. I was teaching myself desktop publishing. 

Googling Myself

It's funny. I've never actually "Googled" myself (I've heard that it makes you go blind.) or searched for my games. But, today I was answering a questionnaire in order to join an RPG design group on Facebook and it asked for a link to my games. 

  

  

I couldn't remember my address on Lulu. So, I searched for it. (It's gone. LOL.) Ultimately, I just gave the link to this blog. Hopefully, that's good enough. What I found was some reviews of some of my games that I had never read. 

That is so awesome and so humbling. I can't even begin to describe it. So, I'm going to toot my own horn (I'm going blind for sure.) and share some links below for some reviews of a few of my games.

http://www.thefreerpgblog.com/2013/11/five-by-five-by-jeff-moore-again-why.html

https://elfsteaks.com/2012/09/25/a-review-five-by-five-rpg/

https://stargazersworld.com/2012/08/07/freebies-five-by-five/

https://www.ruleofthedice.com/2012/05/3-mini-reviews-costumes-content-and.html

https://hordesofthethings.blogspot.com/2012/09/hilo-heroes.html

https://www.highlevelgames.ca/blog/category/a-fantasy

All Peter Wants Is A TARDIS In His Bedroom

Just sharing a newspaper article today (that my friend David shared with me) from 1975. The article talks about a 17 year old Doctor Who fan named Peter Capaldi.

  

  

For those who don't know, Peter Capaldi later became the 12th Doctor at the age of 55. I just love finding out about stuff like this. This was so me when I was 17 ... or 25? (See below.) 

  

  

Above: a young me in the TARDIS at a convention in Tulsa. Photo taken by my friend Robert Briggs. 

The Great Wind of '24

A thunder storm downed several trees with its 80 mile  per hour winds. We lost power around 5AM Tuesday morning and it's still out. We use water supplied by a well and have an electric well pump. So, no electricity also means no water. We stayed in a hotel in the Grand Rapids area last night. (It's the closest we could find.)

  

  

Feeling pretty lucky to even make it to the hotel. A large tree fell across our driveway blocking our access to the street. We were pretty much trapped yesterday morning and afternoon. Thankfully, we found a tree service who was able to come by and clear our drive. They did a great job and will come back later to finish up. We have 3 fallen or damaged trees that need to be removed. They are handling emergencies first of course. 

  

  

We are fine, and thankfully no damage to the house and just a smallish dent in the car. Something like 30,000 people without power in the same boat as us or worse. So, we are in good spirits. Writing this from the hotel room this morning. Estimate for restoring power is sometime later in the afternoon. We have our fingers crossed.

  

  

Update: We stayed three nights in a hotel in Grand Rapids. Power was restored on Friday morning.

Superman: Legacy

I am so looking forward to the new Superman movie in 2025. Superman: Legacy is set to release on July 11th, 2025. My 60th birthday is on the 17th. I know what I want to do for my big Six-Oh. I don't think I can communicate just how excited I am to watch this film. The last movie we saw in the theater was Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021. So, yeah. We don't go to the movies that often.

It's cool. If we want to watch a movie, we stream it and watch it on our huge projection screen at home. Most of the movies that we have watched in the past several years have been viewed this way, but I don't want to wait for Superman. This actually surprises me. I haven't been the biggest fan of many of the latest DC movies. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. If you love the DCU, I think that's great.

I have liked a few offerings. I liked Wonder Woman (the 1st one, not 1984). I loved both Shazam! movies (the 1st one more than the second), and our family loved the James Gunn Suicide Squad movie. I also really liked the Peacemaker series on MAX. So there's been good stuff that I have enjoyed, but I think if I look at all the movies from DC since Man of Steel in 2013, there's been more miss than hit, for me.

However, this latest film under the guidance and direction of James Gunn, just has so much promise. I feel like Gunn understands comics and how to bring the joy of comics alive in film. Suicide Squad had Starro! for goodness sake! And the first still that I saw with David Corenswet in the costume, revealed the return of Superman's red panties. Yay! (They're iconic, and always a part of my vision of Superman.) 

My first Superman was George Reeves and then it was Christopher Reeve. They wore the Superman costume that I find most recognizable from the comics. It's just nice to see this new movie returning to that. The iconic "S" chest insignia is different, but you can't win them all. 

Why does the costume matter so much? It speaks to the "flavor" - the spirit - behind the movie's focus. This one looks to be returning Superman to his roots, and I am giddy with Super geek joy! Plus, Mr. Terrific! Awesome!

  

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Let's Go To Japan

This weekend Julie and I played: Let's Go To Japan. It's a card drafting game and a fairly recent acquisition. It wasn't included in my Top 100 because we didn't own the game at the time that I made that list. If we had, I'm sure that Let's Go To Japan would have landed in the top 20 if not the top 10. I really like it.

  

  

In Let's Go To Japan players draft cards showing locations and activities in the cities of Tokyo and Kyoto. The different cards have symbols showing the type of experience that the location or activity has to offer as well as a description of the activity or location itself. All of these are based on the actual things that people might plan to do should they take a trip to Japan.

Each player has a board that shows 6 days of the week, Monday through Saturday. It's your job to fill your vacation itinerary, assigning 3 cards to each day. The days themselves are each assigned a random "theme." That's the symbols on the cards that I mention above. Playing cards that match the day's theme to that day will give you bonuses.

  

  

This part of the puzzle is complicated by the fact that the cards also score bonuses based on these symbols. Such cards are looking for the symbols played previously in your itinerary timeline. Getting the right combination of bonuses from cards and from matching a day's planned theme is at the core of Let's Go To Japan's puzzle. 

Further complicating things is the fact that switching between cards based in Tokyo and those based in Kyoto requires taking a train. Careful planning that allows you to claim a train ticket as one of your bonuses will score you points. But if you have to take a train ride that you haven't planned ahead for will give you negative points. 

  

  

Julie and I don't generally like closed draft style card games because they don't play well at 2 players. Let's Go To Japan is an exception. A special turn track shows which cards each player will take and how many to pass to their opponent. However, when you pass cards to your opponent, you are placing them into their discard pile. 

This streamlines things immensely, and means that you are really focused on making your choices. You don't have to wait on your opponent to finish or worry about what they have chosen. You can focus on your own options and just discard the cards you don't want. It doesn't really "feel" like a closed card draft at all, but it is.

  

  

The turn track changes up the draft from turn to turn, indicating when to draw cards from the card decks and when to take up the cards in your discard pile. It's very organized and easy and makes the whole process seamless and quick. We have only played the game at 2 players, but I imagine that the whole process would work just as well at 4 without adding any length to the game's play time.

Let's Go To Japan gives me Trekking Through History vibes in the best possible way. If you like that game, you will like this one. I think I might actually like the puzzle in Let's Go To Japan more. And the theme of planning a vacation? Well, let's just say, "That's Julie's happy place." If you get the chance, give Let's Go To Japan a try. It's awesome!

  

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Telemarketing

Between school during the day and rehearsal in the evening, finding a job that suited was going to be a problem. I did however get a place to live. Rent at the Villa was based on income. At the time I signed the 1 year lease I had an income of $0. My rent including utilities was $33 a month. 

All I needed was a way to work a few hours a day, and I could make that. The work placement folks at the Center found me what I needed. It was a telemarketing job for a sort of telephone based yellow pages. (If you don't know what that is, ask your parents, or maybe your grandparents.) 

People would call and ask for the number of a good florist, or plumber, or whatever they were looking for, and we would provide the number of either whatever listing was in the yellow pages, or if the service in question had an advertiser paying us, we gave that number instead. 

When we would give out a number of someone who didn't advertise with us, we would call them and let them know that we would be sure to send all future referrals to them if they advertised with us. That was the job. 

I sucked at it. 

Another employee there was a man named Russell Scott. I mention Russell because his name will come up again later. Russ trained me for a week, and I worked independently for a week. 

Then, I was fired. 

Crossroads

Spending evenings in rehearsal for a play conflicted with my responsibilities to Louis. Louis was a gentleman with Multiple Sclerosis, whom I had been caring for in exchange for room and board. The time in the evenings that I was away, we always just watched TV. So, at first, it didn't seem like rehearsal would be a problem, but it was. 

I went to the rehearsal one last time to speak with the director and tell her that I couldn't participate in the play. "No." She responded firmly. "You're too good. I'm not going to let you quit."

It wasn't the response that I was expecting. I returned to Louis and told him that I couldn't quit the play. I suppose that he wasn't expecting that response either. He pulled the "boss" card. He told me that I either quit the play, or I was fired.

  

  

He was right. I wasn't doing the job that I was hired to do. But … it was what the director had said. "You're too good." Being told that I was good at something was not a thing that I was accustomed to. I did the reckless thing, the foolish thing. I quit my job.

I slept that night in Louis' home, but told him that I would be out in the morning. That night, I packed all my belongings back in my single suitcase. In the morning, I helped Louis as I had done every morning, but when I climbed into the cab on my way to school, I had my suitcase with me. I didn't have a plan.

I went to the Center after school, suitcase in hand. Cyndi, the director, had a look of panic about her as I explained that I had quit my job. She took a deep breath. "Okay, we can do this." She said, "You're going to be okay." She left to speak to some people. I went to speak to the folks who had helped me get the job with Louis in the first place.

I can't remember the name of the organization that got me the job with Louis, but they rented a small office in a large red brick building right behind the main building for the Center. This building behind the Center used to be an elementary school. (My future friends, Dave and Roger used to go to school there as kids.)

The building was owned by the Center for the Physically Limited, and that will become important later. For now, I walked over there, to the red building, to the office, to speak to the people who gave me the job with Louis. I spoke to a man named Bob Fultz. Bob had cerebral palsy. Like me he was well spoken and perfectly understandable. Unlike me, he had extremely limited motor control. He was confined to an electric wheelchair that he controlled with a single finger.

I should mention that before the Center, I had very little interaction with the disabled outside of the hospital. I am sad to admit that I was as guilty as most at prejudging others based on appearances. Happily, I have grown out of that. The Center helped me learn the value of all people and the importance of not passing judgment.

As an organization, this place that I can't remember the name of was going to help me to find another job. As an incredibly selfless human being, Bob offered to allow me to stay with him. So, I did. Bob lived in another building connected to the Center by a parking lot. The Aliene Murdock Villa Apartments are apartments specifically designed for disabled residents. I stayed there with Bob for about a week.

I continued in rehearsals. Bob and I became close friends. In the meantime, Cyndi Vetter who worked at the Center, and who was the director of the play that I was in, helped me apply for an apartment at the Villa. They fast tracked me because I didn't have a place to live. (Sally had moved. I'm actually not sure where she was, but I know that I didn't ask her to help me.)

All of my life, my disability had been a source of grief. Now, if not for my disability, I probably would have ended up homeless or back in Coulterville. Instead, my disability is directing the course of my life in a positive way. So many good things are going to happen to me that would not have happened if I had not been born with cerebral palsy.

Board Game Top 100 (2024) Part 48 (2-1)

#2 Stardew Valley: The Board Game

This game is based on the popular computer game of the same name. In the game you are doing all the same things that you do in Stardew Valley: The Computer Game. You are wandering around foraging for resources, going to the mines to dig for ore, working on the farm tending crops or caring for animals. You are going to town to meet people and make new friends. You are going to the local fishing spots to try to catch fish.

  

  

All of it. If you can do it in the computer game, you are doing it in the board game. This is a cooperative game. You have a community center that you are trying to rebuild by completing certain objectives. You also have some goals that you are trying to accomplish that were left for you by your grandfather. You have to accomplish all of this by the end of the year in order to win the game.

This game is very random. Your objectives are random. Success in the mines or fishing is determined by rolling dice, and then by drawing a random token from a bag. Everything is crazy random. Your goal is to just push through and do the best that you can. However, there is no guarantee of success.

  

  

Stardew Valley: The Board Game is one of those immersive experiences that I was talking about. You get lost in its world, doing its things. If you worry too much about actually winning the game, you might get frustrated. 

Julie and I haven't won this one yet, but we played recently and were only one objective away from a victory. I was so happy with that. I don't think that Julie was. Some of the objectives seem impossible, and the random stuff has to go your way just perfectly if you are to win.

  

  

So what? All that random stuff is fun. I like the experience of playing the game. Playing Stardew Valley: The Board Game is so immersive for me. If it was a competitive experience, then it wouldn't be good. All that random would not be fair to anyone. But, because it's cooperative and everyone is experiencing the fickle hand of fate together, I don't mind so much.

We will win this game some day, and when we do, we are going out for ice cream! Until then, Stardew Valley: The Board Game is still my #2 favorite game of all time.

  

#1 Chronicles of Frost

In Chronicles of Frost, players are adventurers in a fantasy world called Mistfall. The game is mostly made up of cards. There are location cards that create the world randomly as you explore, quest cards that give every player places to go and things to do, and ability cards that provide players with the resources that they need on their turn to perform actions.

  

  

This is a deck building game. There is a central market of 10 cards that come from two decks. There are 5 cards from the basic deck that cost 2 or 3 coins each, and there are 5 cards from the advanced deck that cost 4 or 5 coins each. When a card is purchased, it is immediately replaced.

Each player has a starter deck made up of 10 starter cards. These are unique to each character and they have the character's name on them. They provide the resources needed to perform actions. These resources are: movement, combat, investigation and wealth. 

  

  

Every card has a top and a bottom half. You gain the resources and effects from the top half of a card simply by playing that card. The bottom half of the ability cards need to be unlocked. This is done by using a skill token (all characters start with one) or by "pushing" your character, which requires you to take a little damage.

Location cards have a rest ability on them which is always something good, but these too have to be unlocked, by defeating the enemy on the location. Locations also have a discovery bonus which is gained by the player who first places the location. So, players are encouraged to explore.

  

  

Each player has two personal quests chosen at random. Once any player has completed both of these quests, which all require going to a particular location and spending some resources, the game end is triggered, and all other players get one more turn. Then, points are scored.

Chronicles of Frost is a "euro-style" adventure deck building game. Players choose where to go and which monsters to fight. Your character can't "die" and can always choose to forego their regular turn to return to the inn and heal up.

  

  

Mechanically, Chronicles of Frost is simple and streamlined. It plays in around 90 minutes at two players. Thematically, the quest cards are well written and immersive. (Don't skip reading them.) Physically, the game is just cards and tokens. It fits in a small box and occupies a tiny amount of shelf space.

This is the adventure game that I would create. Sadly, it flew way under the radar when it came out and the company that made it went out of business. Any time I mention this game, even to other board game hobbyists, they have never heard of it. This is a tragedy, because I love this game. I love it so much that it's my favorite game of all time.

  

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Board Game Top 100 (2024) Part 47 (4-3)

#4 Meadow

In Meadow players draft cards from a grid in order to add them to their personal tableau to score points. The cards represent the beautiful elements of nature that one might find in a meadow in the country. This is another one of those games where the art on every card is unique. This time it's lavish watercolor paintings.

  

The "offer" is arranged in a four by four grid of 16 cards. All players have four little signpost tokens with numbers 1-4 on them, and a fifth signpost token, with a question mark, that can stand in for any number. On your turn you point the signpost at a row or column and count the number of cards into the offer as shown on the token.

Each turn players are able to use their signposts to take a card from the offer, and then play a card from their hand. You don't have to play the same card that you just selected with your sign post. Cards have requirements before they can be played. An insect card may want a flower. A bird card may require an insect. A cat card may require a bird.

The card requirements are thematically tied back to the way the animals would behave in nature, and that's cool. Each card shows what it requires in order to be paid, and what it gives you in return that you are going to be able to use on other cards. 

Meadow is very similar to Forest Shuffle in how it "feels" while you play it and in what you are trying to accomplish at the table. But Meadow is a bigger, fuller experience. It's beautiful to look at, and game play is a kind of calm experience. I really like it.

  

#3 Hamlet: The Village Building Game

In Hamlet, players are working together to build a village. While the village is a shared space on the table, Hamlet is not a cooperative game. Instead, it's a competitive game full of positive player interaction. Players gather resources and create networks to move those resources in order to construct buildings that add utility to the village.

 

You might build a sawmill that adds more wood to the village. Any player can use the wood that you create in the sawmill, but you get victory points if they do. That's positive interaction, and it's what Hamlet is all about. While you were busy building a sawmill, your opponent was busy building a quarry. They need your wood, but you need their stone. The whole game is a push and pull of resources.

The tiles that form the different buildings in Hamlet come in all manner of shapes and sizes. This makes for a very irregular but organic feeling experience as the village grows. You also need to make sure that there are roads connecting the new areas or you won't be able to transport the goods produced there.

At the center of the town is a foundation for what will be the church. It seems that "Hamlet" is what a town is called when it doesn't have a church, and "Village" is after the church is built. And this, then is the ultimate goal and end game trigger for Hamlet. Resources are being produced and collected to contribute to the construction of the church.

I have said before how much I love games that have me building things, and Hamlet is my favorite.

  

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Board Game Top 100 (2024) Part 46 (6-5)

#6 Cascadia

In Cascadia players are placing hex tiles that show different terrains to create a personal wilderness hex map. You don't have to match the types of terrain as you place each tile, in fact you can't … not every time, but you do score points for your largest contiguous mass of connecting matched terrains of each type. So, match up terrain borders when you can. In addition to terrain, each hex tile also has one, two, or three animals depicted on it. For each tile this shows the kinds of animals that can live there. 

  

  

Cascadia is a drafting game. Each turn four hex tiles are randomly presented in a row. In addition, four animal tokens are also randomly placed, one next to each hex. The animal shown on an animal token will not necessarily match the animal shown on the hex that it is paired with. It often won't. But, you start with three hexes and no tokens. So, you have a bit of breathing room. Each turn, you try to select the best set of the four.

Animals score based on their locations relative to other animals. Perhaps bears want to be in groups of three, or hawks don't want to be next to other hawks. These scoring objectives are shown on cards and they can change from game to game, making every game of Cascadia feel just a little different. There are bears, elk, foxes, hawks, and salmon and each animal has four different scoring cards that you mix and match before each game.

  

  

You also score for terrain placement as mentioned previously. These combinations of scoring objectives create a challenging puzzle. Some special hexes show only one terrain type and one animal type on them. Placing these into your puzzle can be a more difficult challenge, but when you place an animal on one of these tiles you gain a special pinecone token. You can later spend a pinecone token to break the rules, and take an animal and hex from the offer that are not matched.

Cascadia is a fun puzzle game. It's an abstract game that I still manage to become immersed in as I watch this little wilderness environment grow before my eyes. The hexes are bright and beautiful and the animal tokens are nice wooden disks with the animal's image screen printed on them. It's a gorgeous production and a fantastic game. That's why Cascadia is my #6 favorite game of all time.

  

#5 Obsession

In Obsession, players are families competing to gain the favor of the Fairchilds. The Fairchilds are a well to do family of the highest reputation and the most eligible son and most eligible daughter in all of high society. Obsession is basically, "Pride and Prejudice" the board game. Think of Downton Abbey or Bridgerton and you get the idea. 

  

  

Your family are social climbers. You have an estate and some reputation. But, you are going to need to do much better, if you want to attract the attention of the Fairchilds. You do this by improving your estate and at the same time, enabling yourself to host activities that will create social contacts for you. The more and better social contacts that you have, the better your reputation. 

The better your reputation, the more likely one of the Fairchilds will take notice of you. The game is played over a number of rounds. Some of these end with a social event that can see one of the Fairchilds showing an interest in your family. This adds a Fairchild card to your personal deck of contacts, and that can be very powerful. In the final social event, winning a Fairchild will add the card to your deck for final scoring and these cards are worth a lot of points.

  

  

Obsession is a heavier, meatier experience. The game play centers around your ability to host events and to do this you must manage your staff, your maids, butlers and other servants. This is very much like Downton Abbey. The servants are meeples, the family and their guests are cards. These components combine together seamlessly to create an amazingly thematic experience.

Obsession is kind of a masterpiece. It has the best integration of theme and game play of any game that I have played. Everything works, and everything makes sense. The game's components are not the prettiest. The designer/publisher is not an artist. The cards make use of public domain images of all the different peoples of the period, and that's fine, but these are then enhanced by amusing factoids about each person that elevates every card. Every component in this game is somehow better than it should be.

I love Obsession. The game play is intuitive and engaging and fully supported by the game's theme. This is a fully immersive experience that I somehow manage to play well, while also losing myself in the story of the game. That's how good this game is. The story of the game makes me want to compete. It makes me want to gain the favor of the Fairchilds. While I'm losing myself in its story, I'm also playing the game well. That's the best kind of game, and my #5 favorite game of all time.

  

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Board Game Top 100 (2024) Part 45 (8-7)

#8 Call to Adventure

In Call to Adventure players draft beautifully illustrated Tarot-sized cards in order to create a chronicle of a heroic (or villainous) adventurer. Cards must be won by casting runes to claim them. There is a basic set of three runes that show a single slash mark on one side and are blank on the other, except for one that shows a special symbol on one side in place of the slash mark. That symbol allows players to draw a card. The slash mark represents a success.

  

  

The special symbol allows players to draw a hero or antihero card. These are cards that give one off benefits. There are heroic effects on the hero cards and usually more negative effects to attack your opponents on the antihero cards. Which cards you can and should choose to draw will depend on if you are creating a story that follows a light or dark path.

At most, the basic runes can increase your total results during a casting by +2, but there is also a set of three dark runes. The dark runes all show a moon on one side and a slash mark on the other. The slash is a success, and the moon is two successes! So, choosing dark runes is guaranteed to improve your chances, but for every moon you roll, you gain a bit of darkness.

Every player board has a track for light and darkness – good and evil. Characters start in the middle but can move in either direction. Both score points at the end of the game. The light side scores more, but as described above, because of the dark runes, the dark side is easier.

Casting runes to win cards adds them to your story chronicle. Many of these cards will have tests on them showing their difficulty, indicating how many successes are required to claim the card. They will also include symbols on them representing one of six traits. The six traits are: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Players of Dungeons and Dragons will recognize these traits, and they work the same way here.

  

  

A chronicle card describing leading a strategic battle might display the symbols of strength and intelligence or charisma on it. If you win that card, you gain the runes that match the symbols on that card and the symbols on other cards you add to your chronicle as well. The runes that you gain from cards in your chronicle are advanced runes.

Advanced runes show a slash mark on one side and a special symbol on the other. Two of these in each set of three represents the unique trait in question, and like the moon symbol are good for two successes. A third rune in each set that can only be cast if you have already earned the other two replaces the trait symbol worth two successes with a special benefit like gain an XP or draw a hero/antihero card, but the symbol doesn't increase your successes.

Your story is told in three arcs: your origin, your motivation, and your destiny. You will add three cards to your chronicle for each of these. The cards will add symbols to your story allowing you to cast more and different types of runes and which runes you have available will shape which cards you choose to draft.

There's a fair amount of randomness here. The runes are really clever and they work well, but they don't always go your way. Also, the cards available will frequently not line up with the runes that you have or want to gain, and you will be forced to try to earn a card that you don't really want. 

On the plus side, if you fail that card goes away to be replaced by another and you gain an XP, but this ends your turn. XP is a currency in the game that can often be spent to take certain cards, to gain specific runes for a single test, or they can always be spent to remove a card from the offer and add a new one.

Call to Adventure is another example of a game that I play purely for the experience of playing and the immersion. At the end, it's nice to win, but it's more fun to try to craft the story that you want to tell with the cards.

  

#7 Explorers of the North Sea

In Explorers of the North Sea, players are Vikings exploring a shared world and trying to gather wealth and resources better than their opponents. Players control the world that they are creating together. Each turn players draw and place tiles, and decide where they go and what their world looks like. Players select a tile from a few available and find someplace to fit it into the world like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. 

  

  

Then players sail their little Viking ship, or walk their little Viking meeples overland to capture livestock or conquer settlements. Some tiles have enemy ships that you have to fight, but you can always choose to avoid these if you wish. The viking meeples and the little livestock meeples (sheeps, pigs, cows and chickens) actually sit inside your little viking boat, and once the boat is full it's time to go back to the mainland to unload.

  

  

Explorers of the North Sea is "board game comfort food" for me. I love placing the tiles to create the waters and the lands of the North Sea, and then sailing my little boat around. I get so involved in discovering and experiencing the world of Explorers of the North Sea that I often forget that I am playing a competitive game with scoring objectives. 

  

  

I don't think that I have ever actually won a game of Explorers of the North Sea. I think it speaks pretty highly of the game play experience, that Explorers of the North Sea, a game that I have never won, is my #7 favorite game of all time.

  

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Board Game Top 100 (2024) Part 44 (10-9)

#10 Red Rising

In Red Rising players are drafting cards from a central board in order to build the best hand of cards, while simultaneously racing up three influence tracks. The cards all represent characters from a popular book series called, Red Rising.

  

  

A central board displays all the cards on offer, as well as marking each player's progress on the various tracks where they are vying to gain the most influence. Only one of these is actually a track. That's the Fleet track. There's also the Institute where players place cubes to gain influence, and a central supply of "helium" represented by red crystals that players are trying to collect. It's three different methods of measuring progress. Functionally, it's three tracks.

Each track is directly linked to an area on the main board. These areas are: Jupiter, Mars, and The Institute. The Institute area is obviously tied to the Institute track. Jupiter is tied to the Fleet track, and Mars is tied to the Helium track. There is a fourth area on the board that isn't linked to one of these tracks, and that's Luna.

The four areas of the board (Jupiter, Mars, Luna, and The Institute) are columns and in each column there are cards. On a player's turn, they play a card from their hand into one of the four columns. This is called deploying the card. When you deploy a card you gain the deploy ability printed on the card. All of these cards have different powers that are going to affect the game in different ways.

  

  

After you deploy a card you replenish your hand by drawing a new card from one of the other three columns. You can't pick the card back up that you just deployed, you have to draw a card from the top of one of the other three columns. These cards are all face up. So, you aren't so much drawing a replacement card as drafting one.

When you draft a card into your hand, you add influence on the track connected to the column from which you drafted the card. Remember: play a card from your hand to activate its power (play:power); take a card from the board to move on a track (take:track). The exception here is Luna. Luna isn't tied to one of the three tracks.

At the start of the game, players choose to be a member of a specific faction from the world of the Red Rising novels. Each faction grants their player a unique player power. On your turn, when you take a card from Luna you gain a thing called: the Sovereign Token. This also activates your faction's unique player power.

Aside from activating your player power every time it is taken (even if you already have it), some cards will grant you bonuses if you have the Sovereign Token, and it's worth 10 points at the end of the game. As the game end is approaching it's not uncommon to fight for possession of the Sovereign Token, as that 10 point boost can sometimes feel substantial.

The tracks are important for scoring points and for tracking the progress of the game. As soon as any one player reaches 7 on two of the tracks or any combination of players has reached 7 on all three tracks, the game ends and scores are tallied. These scores come from the tracks, but also and foremost from the cards in each player's hand.

The cards in your hand in Red Rising all combo off other cards and score based on what other cards you hold in your hand. While you play, and as you are drafting cards, you are constantly measuring the strength of the powers of the cards that you deploy, against the value that they have if you keep them in you hand in order to combo them with other cards.

This push and pull of playing a card for its power now or holding it for points at the end of the game is a big part of what makes playing Red Rising fun and challenging. It's a great puzzle and a great game. That's why Red Rising has landed at #10 in my top 100 games of all time.

  

#9 Cavemen: The Quest for Fire

Cavemen is a light engine building card game. In this game players start out with two cave person villagers, a cave, some dinosaur teeth and some food. Cave persons have some icons on their cards to show what they can do. There are arrowhead symbols that contribute to your tribe's fighting strength, a light bulb symbol that contributes to your tribe's ability to invent new things, and an apple symbol that contributes to your tribe's ability to forage for food.

  

  

Every turn there is a little auction for the first player token. I normally do not like bidding games, but here, players generally only have a few teeth (teeth is the currency in the game) that they can bid with. So, auctions are tight and quick, also stakes are very high. The first player gets to act twice during the turn, both first and last. So, winning this auction is no small thing.

It might seem like you would want to take the first player token every turn, but it comes with its own burden. After the first player is determined, it is time to feed your people. For everyone except the first player, your entire tribe can be fed with one unit of food. However, for the first player, they must have one unit of food for every cave person card in their village.

Next you take turns buying cards from an offer to add those cards to your village. There are lots of other cave person cards, as well as inventions, and caves, and prehistoric beasts. Killing beasts can give you food and teeth, but can cause you to lose one of your cave persons in the battle. Recruiting more cave people costs food and you have to have enough caves to hold all the people of your tribe.

  

  

Each turn you are gathering cards to build your little cave person village. Inventions provide little ongoing benefits that can help your village, and these don't require you to spend any resources. You just have to have high enough inventive power among the people in your village to claim the card. This is in fact the goal, because the first person with enough inventive power to invent fire is going to win the game.

Cavemen is a pretty light game and I think that it plays best at 2. This one sits so high for me precisely because it is so light and easy to get to the table, and I love these kinds of village building games. I also love the art in this game. In fact, if I were to rank the top 10 board games in my collection strictly for their artwork, Cavemen might land at number one.

The artwork in Cavemen is made up of photographs taken of posed figures constructed from clay. Think of those classic claymation Christmas specials on TV like Rudolph: the Red Nosed Reindeer, and you'll get the idea. All of the art on the cards of Cavemen is that, and each model is unique for every card. No two cards have the same art. I love this. 

Every piece of art comes to life, claymation style, in my mind's eye as I look at it. Also, Cavemen is set in a fictional version of prehistory where cave people and dinosaurs coexisted. So, in addition to great claymation cave people, we get awesome claymation dinosaurs. This isn't a game of historical fact, but of childlike wonder and imagination.

   

  

I tend to approach games from one of two mindsets. I either sit down at the table thinking about the game play and how I can use it to win the game, or I sit down at the table thinking about the game play and the kind of experience that game will give me. I think that I tend to enjoy those games more that I enter into thinking about the experience rather than the win. Not that I don't enjoy winning, or that I don't care about it. It's just that I care about the experience of the game more. 

Cavemen: The Quest for Fire is one of those games that I approach from an immersive experience standpoint first. Yes, a lot of this is just about the art on the cards and my nostalgic connection to those claymation classics of my youth. From a gameplay standpoint, I like those games that let me build something. Building my little village tickles another aspect of that immersive experience for me. 

Cavemen is not without its problems. Heavy strategy gamers will find it too random. Aside from the bidding for first player, there is no player interaction. If a lucky player manages to get just the right cards to create a good engine, they will generally run away with the victory. I don't care. I love pretending with my little clay cave people in their little clay caves. That's why for me, Cavemen: The Quest for Fire is my #9 favorite board game of all time.

  

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Happy Father's Day

My daughter Kaylee got me cards for father's day... 

And Donuts! 

Julie got me this awesome Dad Joke tumbler and played board games with me all day. 

Julie and I played, Crusaders Thy Will Be Done - 2x, Chronicles of Frost - 1x, and Call To Adventure - 2x all today, and Let's Go to Japan - 3x on Saturday!)

Tomorrow is the start of my Top 10 Board Games of all time! 

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Going to school at Platt College meant moving to Tulsa. This meant that I was no longer a "guest" in my sister's home, and that I really needed to find a job and a place to live. The folks at the Center for the Physically Limited were there to help. A man with MS was looking for a live-in aide. He couldn't pay much beyond room and board, but it sounded perfect for me.

I interviewed with the man, his name was Louis. He was married and his wife worked as a nurse. She worked at night and was home during the day. The fact that I would be in school during the day, but there in the evenings seemed ideal and I was given the job. I helped Louis get up in the morning and made us both breakfast. By the time I was leaving for school, his wife was getting home. She would visit with him, make them both lunch and then get some sleep.

School got out at 3 and I was home in the afternoon and evening. I made dinner, and I was there as companionship and security. His wife didn't have to worry about leaving him alone. Mostly in the evening we just hung out and watched TV. His favorite show as I recall was called, "Wiseguy" about a deep undercover police officer. (Wiseguy was on the air from September of 1987, to December of 1990. That helps me to place this. I believe it was the fall of 1988.)

  

  

Tulsa has a lift service for the disabled which I qualified for, and was able to take cab rides to and from school for a dollar a trip. Louis paid me $20 a week plus room and board. Part of that $20 went to cab rides, the rest to comic books. I didn't save a penny.

Louis' wife appreciated having me there for Louis, but didn't really want me there on her days off. She wanted to have time with Louis without me in the house. Sometimes when this happened, it worked out that I could visit with Sally. Other times, I would take a cab to the Center and hang out there. I liked using the computers to write for APA, which was basically the same thing as I'm doing now for this blog – but it was analogue.

They also had the theater program. I was able to sit in on a few acting classes which were very informal and open to all members who wanted to participate. This turned out to be lots of fun, and all my experience playing D&D made me a natural. It was here that I was encouraged to come to an audition for one of their performances.

I auditioned and got a part in a play called, "Bell, Book & Candle." I was super excited, but I soon discovered a bit of a problem. Rehearsals were in the evening every night. Could I go to rehearsals and take care of my responsibilities to Louis? We talked about it. He could see that this was really something that I wanted to do. I could still take care of things in the morning; go to school; come back and make dinner; go to rehearsals; and get home and help him to bed.

We would miss a few hours of TV time, but I could do everything else. Louis agreed … initially. After two weeks of rehearsals, Louis told me that it just wasn't working. He needed me there in the evenings. This was the job that I was hired to do, and I wasn't doing it.

I had to quit the play.

Board Game Top 100 (2024) Part 43 (12-11)

#12 Forest Shuffle

In Forest Shuffle players are each building their own forest out of cards. Players draw from a huge deck of cards that contains trees and lots of other plant and animal life that can be found in a forest. Players start with six cards in their hand. Some of those will be trees and some will be those things that live in, on, or around the trees called collectively, "dwellers" whether animal or plant.

  

  

To start, you're going to want to play a tree. Trees are vital to your forest and to the game of Forest Shuffle. All other cards (the dwellers) are played attached to the trees that you have already played. All dweller cards show 2 different dwellers on them. These cards are divided either horizontally or vertically in half. Those cards that are divided horizontally in half will show dwellers on the top and bottom of the card. Those cards that are divided vertically in half will show dwellers on the left and right of the card.

To play a dweller card, you slide the half of the card showing the dweller that you are not using under a tree card that you have in play. In this way the dweller that you want to place into your forest is showing, and the other dweller on the card is hidden. If you don't have any trees in play, then you can't play dweller cards.

All cards that you play from your hand, dwellers and trees alike, have a cost. This cost is paid with other cards. Cards all have these little colored tree leaf symbols on them that sometimes matter when paying a card's cost. You can always pay for a card with any other card in your hand, but sometimes paying with the leaf symbols of a specific type will give you a bonus.

When you pay for a card, you discard the number of cards equal to the cost of the card that you want to play. These cards are discarded face up into an open supply called, "the clearing." Players can draw from the cards in the clearing on their turn. A lot of the decision space in Forest Shuffle is deciding what to keep in your hand, and what to discard to pay for the cards that you play.

Each turn players either play a card into their forest, or they draw two cards in any combination from the face up cards in the clearing or from the face down draw pile. Some care needs to be taken however, there are 3 "Winter" cards in the bottom third of the draw pile, and should the third Winter card be drawn, the game immediately ends and everyone's forest is scored.

Forests are scored based on card combos. Some dwellers like to be with other dwellers and score based on those combinations. Some dwellers score based on the kinds of trees that you have in the forest. Things like that. Trees also score based on different conditions. I have even managed to win a game using almost nothing but trees. 

If you ever need to play a dweller but don't have any trees in your hand, you can always play a card face down into your forest. The backs of the cards show a "tree" called a sapling. These don't score points, but can hold dwellers and are always available. There are plenty of "real" trees however, and I have never had to play a sapling into my forest.

All players also begin play with a card called the "cave" and some dwellers, like the bear, will put cards into your cave. These are worth points at the end of the game. Almost every card has some special way to give you points in Forest Shuffle. There is a ton of variety here, and it's that variety that makes this game so interesting, challenging and replayable.

Oh, and fun! Forest Shuffle is so much fun! In fact, it's my #12 favorite game of all time.

  

#11 Majesty: For the Realm

In Majesty: For the Realm, every player has a "realm" that they are building up. This is an engine building game played with cards. All players start with a sort of "empty" realm of 8 cards. These cards are numbered and arranged in order from 1-8. Arranged in this way, the cards create a pleasing panorama representing your realm and the 8 key locations within it.

  

  

There is a central display of people (cards) that you can move into your realm. In exactly the same way as is done with Century Spice Road, you can take the person furthest from the draw pile for free or place a token on it to skip it in order to take the next card. These tokens are meeples and all players have a "meeples card" capable of holding a maximum of five meeples, as well as five meeples to start the game.

The various people that you can move into your realm will only move into the specific location meant for them. When they do, they activate the location where they have moved. All of these locations do different things, but chiefly they are ways to get coins. Coins don't do anything in the game, there's nothing to buy. They represent the prosperity of your realm and are the victory points that will win you the game.

The more cards that you have placed at a location, the more powerful that location's ability becomes. Many locations also vary in power based on the cards at other locations. Building up the right locations in the right way at the right time is the key to success in Majesty: For the Realm.

I love the clean simplicity of Majesty: For the Realm. It's a great engine builder that's easy to teach but challenging to play. Oh, and all 8 locations have an advanced side that can be flipped over for an even more challenging game. The A&B sides of the location cards can also be mixed in various ways to create a lot of replayability.

Coming next week: my board game Top 10!

  

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Board Game Top 100 (2024) Part 42 (14-13)

#14 Abyss

In Abyss, players are competing to gain the favor of different underwater factions. The factions are cards, and Abyss is a set collection card game. In the "story" of the game, Abyss is a water world, a planet that is just one big ocean. All of the sentient life on the planet Abyss has evolved, lives, and breathes at the bottom of this huge ocean, under the sea.

  

  

Abyss is one of those games where the theme doesn't really mean anything. The theme was chosen to create an artistic direction for the game, and what an artistic direction it is! Abyss is gorgeous. The various merpeople that represent each faction are stunningly illustrated. In fact, the original print run of Abyss featured different box covers in order to showcase this art. (None of these covers marred the art by having the name or any other markings on the front of the box.) 

The awesome thing is that Abyss plays as good as it looks. On your turn, you choose one of three actions. All three actions are represented on the central game board. This makes learning Abyss pretty easy. Just learn the three regions of the board, and you know what to do.

The top region of the board lets you draw cards to gain resources. Resources in this game are just small mini sized cards which show art with a symbol representing the card's suit and a number from 1-5. These card values are weighted so that lower value cards are more plentiful than higher value cards. There are a lot of 1's in each suit, but only a few 5's.

Next to the resource draw pile there are 5 spots to place cards. The fifth and final spot has a picture of a pearl on it. Pearls are the game's currency and are represented in the game by little balls that look like real pearls. These are cool, but they roll around. So, the game includes little cups to keep them in.

When you gain resources, you must first flip the top card of the resource deck face up into the left most slot of the track at the top of the board. Your opponents can choose, if they want, to buy this resource from you, before it falls into your possession. They do this by giving you pearls that you can add to your supply. Each player can only do this once on your turn. 

The first time an opponent takes a card from you, it costs them 1 pearl. The second time an opponent takes a card from you, it will cost them 2 pearls. The cost continues to escalate, and yes, your opponents could end up taking the better cards from you, but you'll be getting that money, allowing you to do the same to them on their turn. 

If your opponent doesn't buy the card, then you can add it to your hand, or you can draw again to hopefully find a better card. The next card you draw is placed into the next available slot and again, your opponents have the option to buy this card from you, but if an opponent has already bought a card from you this turn, that same opponent can't buy a card from you again.

You can continue drawing until you find a card you like, or you fill the fifth slot – the one showing the pearl. If you flip a card into the fifth slot, you have to take it and no one can buy it from you. Also, because that fifth slot shows a pearl on it, you get to take a pearl from the bank and add it to your supply.

With your turn completed you need to clear any unclaimed resources, but these don't go into a discard pile. Instead they are organized by suit and placed face down into the stack matching their suit in the center of the board. This brings us to the second action that you can perform: Visiting the Council.

To Visit the Council, you simply select one of the face down stacks in the center of the board and add it directly to your hand. You can't look at the cards that are there before you choose. So, you may try to remember what was moved down from before, or you might just want to take a stack that has a lot of cards in it.

The bottom action is to Recruit an Ambassador. Here you spend cards of a specific suit or suits and values to take an Ambassador card and add it to a tableau in front of you. Ambassadors have different special powers that will benefit you during the game and will be a big source of victory points.

The Ambassador cards are also the major source of art in the game. These are all big tarot sized cards featuring all the gorgeous artwork that I was raving about before. One special feature on many of the Ambassador cards is the key symbol. Once you have collected three key symbols you must automatically gain a location.

Locations are special cards that sit on top of the Ambassador cards that summoned them, covering their special abilities. This is unfortunate, but necessary, as it's these location cards with different scoring conditions on them, that make you the victory points, that you will need to win the game. 

Abyss is fun, light, intuitive and beautiful. This is another one of those games that I feel is a must have for every board game collection. It's a great set collection card game that is my 14th favorite game of all time.

  

#13 Botanik

Botanik is a two player only tile laying game. Each player is laying tiles to create their own personal network of interconnecting pipes called their garden. Each tile contains a small section of pipe. There are five different shapes of pipe section: a straight across section, a "T" section, a bend, a crossroads, and a dead end. In addition, each pipe section is one of five different colors: black, yellow, red, green, or blue.

  

  

Thematically, Botanik is about "steampunk gardening". The pipe sections provide water and nourishment to various plants and flowers growing from the pipes. Both players start with an origin tile that represents their gardener. As they build their pipe network out from their gardener they need to keep in mind that if a pipe tile doesn't create a trail back to their gardener by the end of the game, it can't be scored.

Pipe sections are scored by color. Color groups of four or more that are connected together directly are worth 1 point per tile in that color group. If there are not at least four tiles of the same color together in a color group, those tiles don't score. You also score for flower and fruit features on a tile as long as the tile showing the feature is connected to at least one other pipe of the same color.

That's the scoring for the tile laying portion of the game, but the challenge of Botanik doesn't come from laying down the tiles into your garden. The challenge of Botanik comes from drafting the tiles. Tile drafting involves manipulating a central board that is the key to Botanik's game play.

Sitting between the players is a central board that contains three rows of five spaces each. There is a row immediately in front of each player, and a row that sits in the middle between the two players dividing them. At the start of the game, the five spaces in the middle row are populated randomly with 5 tiles.

Each round three tiles are placed randomly face up beside the board. This is the offer. Players take turns selecting tiles from the offer. When you select a tile, it doesn't go directly into your garden, it goes onto the central board. (The player who goes first will get to take 2 tiles during the round, but then the other player will go first in the next round.)

When you select a tile, you can place it into an empty space in the row in front of you, or you can place the tile on top of an existing tile in the middle row. The trick is that in order to fill an empty space in front of you, you must match either the pipe color or the pipe shape of the tile in the center row.

Once you place a tile in front of you, it's yours. But, you can't add it to your garden until it is "released." To release a tile one player (either you or your opponent) must play a tile to the central row that doesn't match the tile pipe shape or pipe color of the tile that you are trying to release. Once the center tile no longer matches the requirements for the tile that it's holding, that tile is released and added to the player's garden.

Releasing tiles can be tricky business. The central row is shared by both players. So, releasing a tile for you might also release a tile for your opponent. Optimally, you want to release your tiles without releasing your opponent's tiles at the same time. You also want to try to plan ahead, stacking the center row so that you will be able to capture the tiles that you want on a future turn.

Botanik is a fun, fast, thinky, two-player puzzle game. It's awesome! Julie and I love this game so much. It's my 13th favorite game of all time.

  

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