Coming November 2010
Fire
Available from Amazon.comComplete Your Collection!
Visit Robin McKinley's bookstoreon Amazon.com for any of Robin's books you may be missing!
Board games
An assortment of Peter’s offspring were here yesterday. This included the son who is a major board-game freak*, and his two sons who have fallen very close to the paternal tree. As a result of an ongoing conversation with a friend about the many varieties of games and gaming available out there today, and a feeling that perhaps real-time board games need to stand up and shout occasionally** in a virtual room full of people on line, I asked him for his top ten board game favourites. And because I will make an entry out of anything I asked if he minded if I used his list for a blog entry. He seemed to find this amusing.*** But he did kindly annotate his list so that people as clueless as I am who did not marry into clans of maddened board games players may derive some faint comprehension out of the following. I have, you will not be amazed to discover, annotated his annotations.
Desert Island Board Game List
Diplomacy: 7-player game, European domination ca. 1900–lots of backstabbing and subtle diplomacy.
. . . Which is to say lying. One of the other lunch guests commented that she finds it very unsettling to play this game with members of her own family. Lying, cheating, stealing and murdering strangers is one thing. This behaviour among your nearest and dearest is disturbing. I gather that rank betrayal is a necessary strategy in this game; at any rate the mythos surrounding it, including, as it does, divorce, broken engagements, friends who never speak to each other again and long-standing family feuds, is such that I have never played it. There are limits to marital trammels.
Tigris and Euphrates: Somewhat abstract ancient civilisation-building. Lovely sudden moments of reversal.
This is one of the ones I gave them because I have an Excellent Informed Source. Yes. You have your empire chugging along nicely and then some blasted slave revolts and suddenly you’re Ozymandias.†
Lord of the Rings: Team play against the game–love the book and the sense of dread the game creates–we often lose!
Of course this is one I gave them. And I actually–yeep, what am I saying?–like this game††, specifically because all of you liveware are playing against the game, which is to say Sauron. The idea isn’t to be really ghastly to everybody else so you can win! Yaay!††† Also it’s really pretty.
Iron Dragon: Fantasy railroad-building game–controlling sources and trading–much loved by the wider family.
I gave them this one too. Okay. This is the second game in the entire universe that I enjoy.‡ Nobody dies, and there are elves and orcs and things and your train engines are, uh, dragons. Its drawback is that it takes about four hours to play. Who has four hours to play a game? Back at the old house where there was space for mobs of house guests, it sometimes got played in shifts.
Kingmaker: Unscrupulous barons in endless conflict of the War of the Roses. Colourful and occasionally mad.
This was one of the first games I ever played as a new member of the clan. The family copy is so worn that you can’t read most of the names and escutcheons and things on the map any more. Which was fine with me. This first, and only, time I’ve ever played the game I also won, because our hero, the Games Freak, kept telling me what to do, including pound him.
Napoleon: two player simple war strategy game around the Waterloo campaign, well balanced and fast paced.
I am happy to say I know nothing of this game. War strategy. Shudder.
Ticket to Ride (Europe): Much simpler rail game, playable in an hour–also a family favourite.
This is embarrassing because I gave them this one too‡‡ but I’ve never played it. But it’s been since we left the old house, and mob gatherings are now limited. And since the hellhounds . . . I stay home. Gods, what a great excuse the hellhounds are, in so many areas.
Third Reich: WWII simulation game (European theatre). Takes days but very satisfying to explore alternative history. (Hitler didn’t die, etc.)
Takes days???
Speculate: Stockmarket game–virtually just cards, but nice and simple–and hard not to go bankrupt!
If there’s anything I can think of I would like even less than a war strategy game, it would be a stockmarket game. Yick. I can’t play Monopoly, by the way. Too savage.
Squad Leader: Squad level infantry combat simulation. Very complex in the end–but rules start simply enough to allow easy access to the game.
. . . For those who want easy access to the game, of course.
I prefer the hellhound idea of games, myself. You pull something, you chase something, you bite something. Extra points for dramatic growling. Lose points when you bite hellgoddess hands.‡‡‡ I admit that I’ve never actually bled over a board game.
* * *
* His four rules for romantic-attachment choice by his sons are: 1. Kindness. 2. Intelligence. 3. Attractiveness/charm/empathy/pc term of choice 4. Likes to play board games. There was some disagreement about the correct order of these directives.
** Before I married into the clan I Played No Games At All Whatsoever Under Any Circumstances Whatsoever. I’d had a brief flirtation with cribbage in my youth^ but the rest of the time, look for me in the library.^^ Since then . . . well, speaking of rules, there’s been a very unfortunate one that I’m only allowed to give as presents games that I’m willing to play. I have therefore had grisly personal experience of several of these.
^ And it is true that Peter and I play Scrabble. He always wins. Arguably the reason I don’t play games is because I’m lousy at it, but lousiness doesn’t stop me bell ringing or playing the piano.
^^ Or the kitchen.
^^^ Although it’s also true Peter still has a Games Chest upstairs. Aaaaaaaugh. It is surely the step of dread Cthulhu I hear overhead. . . . with a preliminary creak, as he lifts the lid of the chest.
*** You know there are still some people who don’t understand about blogging.
† And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings/ Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair/ Nothing besides remains. Round the decay/ of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/ the lone and level sands stretch far away.
I wasted a lot of time getting my degree in English lit.
†† Am I going to admit that I even own a copy? . . . Oh, yeah, what the heck. I own a copy. There.
††† The very idea of Diplomacy fills me with horror. Remind me again why being vicious, selfish and faithless playing games is supposed to be good for your character development?^
^ I admit I can see how it might be good for your social adjustment. I like being socially maladjusted.
‡ With Scrabble that makes three. That’s plenty. And I own a copy of Iron Dragon too. Which also makes three. Which takes up a lot of space in the ONE SINGLE CUPBOARD in the cottage.
‡‡ I’m so used to preserving everyone’s privacy as much as I am able that I do it automatically. I give great games because here is my great source: Playin’ Games in London, across the street from the British Museum [sic]. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Playin’+Games+London+UK&fb=1&view=text&latlng=17260115826633775069
‡‡‡ Yes I know you’re supposed to stop playing with a dog that bites you to prove that biting is counterproductive of a good time. But these are the fabulous untrainable hellhounds, and in the first place, I don’t think they’d get it, in the second place the one that hadn’t bitten me would be hurt and confused, in the third place it happens in the heat of the moment just like I step on paws, and in the fourth place a sharp hey! will make the miscreant back off a step, look embarrassed, and do the lowered-head-and-flattened-ears thing. He’ll have already let go, because he knows that flesh is not a rubber toy or a tug-rope. They’re untrainable (mostly), they’re not stupid.
comments
Please join the discussion at Robin McKinley's Web Forum.
My brother is into all those sorts of games. We used to enjoy board games as kids like Cluedo and Monopoly (or the Oz one called Poloconomy (sp) that had millions of dollars. ;p) I occasionally play scarabble now. And when my brother visits and brings one of his new games I sit there, look bewildered and then wander off and read a book……
I sit there, look bewildered and then wander off and read a book……
******* Yes, that has always been my reaction! :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
It probably doesn’t help that he is super-competitive and when they visit there will only be time for *one* game and then I won’t see the game again … No point in learning it is there? ;)
Very cleverly done. :)
“It probably doesn’t help that he is super-competitive and when they visit there will only be time for *one* game and then I won’t see the game again …”
Ooh, I think this is a brother-visit-related phenomenon. I have that problem too!
Oh, wow, I’m embarrassed (or am I?) to say I haven’t actually *heard* of any of these games. Possibly the LotR one, but only in passing, if I have. Wow.
We had a few games when I was younger, but they never really stuck with me. And I discovered computer games (fantasy role playing games: hack! slash! find the treasure!) and never looked back, even in the days of pixelated dragons. And now they’re just so pretty, I can hardly stand it.
Ah, you’re an RPG girl, are you? Do you still play?
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Ah, you’re an RPG girl, are you? Do you still play?
Not so much. Most games don’t run on Macs, anyway, and I’d mostly stopped even on Chester the Windows computer. I *used* to play one called Might and Magic, and Ultima (I still have a CD with all of those games, and did pop it into the computer about a year or so ago. Ah, good times.). And there was the time Jeff got Morrowind–
*faints*
I loved that game so much. *Gorgeous* game. Lots of plots. You could do *anything*. There’s a more recent one called Oblivion. We have that, too, but it’s for the Playstation, which (it’s okay to laugh) I’m only kind of sure how to use. I haven’t played Oblivion much, but it’s really pretty, too. (I know I’m shallow. I like pretty things.)
Oh, no! Pretty is GOOD! One of the reasons for hellhounds is they’re so BEAUTIFUL! One of Connie’s virtues is she’s so PRETTY! If I’m wearing a shirt I hate I’m miserable all day (so I CHANGE it)! And part of the reason I like the LOTR game is because it’s pretty! Morrowind, huh? Does it still exist? –And someone else has just been telling me about Oblivion. I thought it was on line. I thought the point was that it was user-created and -evolved.
. . . Okay, maybe I’m just shallow too. :)
One of the reasons for hellhounds is they’re so BEAUTIFUL!
Soooo true. *swoons, thinking of Darkness*
Morrowind still exists. It’s probably really cheap now, too.
Morrowind: http://www.elderscrolls.com/games/morrowind_overview.htm
Oblivion: http://www.elderscrolls.com/games/oblivion_overview.htm
They’re both computer (and other platform) RPGs. I played quite a lot of Morrowind, not as much Oblivion as I want to, but they’re pretty similar. Both set in the same world, just different areas of it.
As for the online game… Could you be thinking of Ultima Online? Or World of World of Warcraft, or Elfquest? Those are the only three I know much about, but they’re definitely user-driven. I haven’t played any of the above (I had a brief trial of Ultima Online when it first came out, never sent them money to continue), so that’s as far as my knowledge goes.
PS. If you end up with any of the games, *especially* Morrowind or Oblivion, I take *no* responsibility for the hours and hours of your life that suddenly go missing! This is your last warning about the addictiveness. (Actually, I hear the Warcraft one is the worst, but I don’t think I have to worry about losing you to that.)
I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE ******NEAR****** THESE GAMES. Just looking at the opening page of Morrowind has me screaming in terror.
I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE ******NEAR****** THESE GAMES. Just looking at the opening page of Morrowind has me screaming in terror.
*snork!*
Good move.
[still shuddering] :)
****** They’re untrainable (mostly), they’re not stupid.
Naah! They’re trained :) Trained to be ideal hellgoddess companions; how boring would life be if “trained” really meant “never puts a paw wrong”? But what do I know – I adore bull terriers … Mwahahaha!
They *respond* to me, you know? That’s the bottom line, I figure. It’s the dogs that are completely tuned out to their owners that are the problem dogs. Not that mine are RELIABLE but . . . we have a RELATIONSHIP. (But maybe let’s not DESCRIBE it LOL).
(Comments won't nest below this level)
****** we have a RELATIONSHIP. (But maybe let’s not DESCRIBE it LOL)
I have a couch here whenever you feel the need ( note I’m registered mental! (RMN))
Oh Games people. As one of three I grew up on Halma and Stratego and Monopoly and Go and Reversi and Nine Man Morris and all the rest. I went into books myself but my brother is a passionate gamer, always looking for the latest game and trying to introduce his family to it, on those occasions we get together. He started out as a chess player, and took it seriously, but also got into all sorts of games. For years he went to tournaments and congresses, but less so nowadays. There is a fabulous games store a couple of blocks from our house and when in Athens he stocks up, but I just sent him your link too.
One of the reasons I am not so heavily into games, besides the time you have to invest, is the fact that in a generally competitive family, when it comes to games my brother is super-competitive and most unwilling to lose. And when he loses… it’s not a pretty sight. This also goes for playing Scrabble. And one of my oldest card-game playing friends, who used to play chess for Oxford, actually did the Scrabble tournament thing and learning all the words starting with x and z and all those short words you can stick in places. Life is just too short in my opinion. My long-term favourite game, which I tend to play with some friends in England and over Christmas with the family, is Boggle, because it’s about words, and being observant, which I love, and it’s over relatively quickly so each round doesn’t drag on forever. I also win often enough that I don’t get entirely soured on it :) (I too have my little competitive streak – malheureusement).
“in a generally competitive family”
Yes, Susan, know what you mean. Oh the joys of siblinghood in those early years! Now, we’re close and good friends, then…:shudder:!
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I adore Diplomacy, and I badly wish that I had people around me to play it with.
Curses on all my friends for being scattered around the US! =)
Diplomacy is one that can be played very well via email, y’know! Sometimes even better than face to face… :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Less blood, I suppose, but the brooding is more intense, and there’s NO stopping the feuds. . . .
Diplomacy is a game that one should either play with very, VERY good friends, or people one doesn’t know at all. :)
I never got too into it, but I can testify that it IS possible to win without backstabbing anyone (this is called the slow-and-steady I’m-no-threat-to-you approach.) I actually preferred a version of Diplomacy that was briefly available in the early 1990’s called “Machiavelli.” Players were the different city states of the Italian renaissance, and one person (the Papal States) had the power to excommunicate other players if they ticked him/her off. :) The humor potential of that one was enormous.
LOL! Yes. I wanted to post here about the hierarchy of Catholic saints but I was afraid of offending any Catholics. It’s true I don’t get along with certain aspects of Catholicism but there isn’t ANYTHING that DOESNT have a few aspects I don’t get along with, and I do love the hierarchy. . . .
Ticket to Ride is actually quite fun. On the American version I got about 150 points once…
By the way, have you seen the brouhaha about removing Carol Ann Duffy’s poem from the GCSE exams? I’m sure, as a good Guardian reader you have seen the article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/06/gcses.poetry.carol.ann.duffy
the banned poem
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/04/gcses.english
and the poetical response
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/06/poetry.gcses
I found it sad but also inspirational. Political correctness and narrow-literal-minded views dominate the educational and media landscape, and it is GOOD (not nice, but good) to hear about them, because only if you know they are taking place can you do anything to reverse the flow of this torrent.
Depressing, really. You’d like to think that the people teaching the poem would be able to read it properly. I can think of a lot of ways to use the original poem in a classroom, and I’m not by any means a classroom teacher. I can think of a lot of ways to use the response poem, too (and it’s a good poem). If I had kids in that school system I’d be very unhappy.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Lord, he plays SQUAD LEADER? Wow. :)
Hmmm…. now I’m all tempted to give you MY top 10 list. It would overlap his by exactly one; hopefully we won’t end on the same desert island! Maybe two connecting ones, we could shout Iron Dragon moves across to one another. :)
On the contrary, then you’d have NINETEEN games to play! This is GOOD!
Yes please, I want your list!!!
(Comments won't nest below this level)
n the contrary, then you’d have NINETEEN games to play! This is GOOD!
No, we’d have 18 to play because there is no way in Hades I’m playing Third Reich. I know that game. It takes longer than the damn war, and has more pieces. :)
Yes please, I want your list!!!
This comment thread’s already strikingly long; I’ll email it to ya and you can turn it into a post if you like. :)
I’ll email it to ya and you can turn it into a post if you like.
************ YES PLEEEEEEEEEEASE. :)
What a treat this blog is – I learn about so many things reading it!
I am incapable of doing strategy of this sort needed in most of the games listed (Boggle is fun). My main game is solitaire (and has been for decades). No person to person devilment (including double solitaire), no score to keep and the challenges is from the luck of the deal. Well, I do fairly easy crosswords and sudoko, still not a competition/team thing.
Thanks for another interesting and informative entry, Robin. I do get the greater attraction of a book over these offerings.
What a treat this blog is
********* Oh good! :)
– I learn about so many things reading it!
********* LOL!
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I grew up playing Life and Scrabble, and that’s about it. When my best friend and I played Scrabble in high school, we would fill the board with as many words as we could, and then create crossword puzzle clues for the words. I now only do word puzzles. My sons grew up with such games as Mouse Trap and Cooties; they both play console games on their XBox and Playstations. I’d so much rather spend my time reading …
I’d so much rather spend my time reading …
****** Yup. Me too. But I do the odd crossword puzzle. . . .
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I like crosswords (snobbily: NY Times Sunday ones) and do quite a lot of them, but not the evil English riddling clue ones. I’ve never been able to figure out the rules for deciphering the clues. Good on you and Peter!
Peter does the horrible Brit ones–I can’t! I import American crossword books! (Including NYT Sunday times, which are basically too *hard.*)
My favorite game is Taboo. You have to get your team to say a particular word without using any of the 5? taboo words for that card and you try and get as many as possible in something like 30 seconds (for each turn). It’s a good game for us word freaks who know how to write/speak/evoke; I think that description probably applies to most of us on this blog. You should check it out if you haven’t.
Erika in Colorado
Oh, that sounds like fun. I tend to like Charades-y kinds of things (although I need serious loosening up first it must be said). There’s a countdown one where you’re recognising the same things (which the OPPOSITE team has come up with) but each time you have less time and are allowed fewer words. That one’s fun . . . if you’re in the mood. :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Yes, Taboo is wonderful. Particularly if you’re used to tiptoeing your way around a particular word because you can’t say it (having lived in other countries where I spent a good deal of time not knowing nearly as much of the language as I wanted to [of course, I could say that about English, too], I had to do this a lot ["You know, when you're sleeping, and you have these pictures in your head...?" "Oh, DREAMING?" "Yes, that's it..."]). It’s also nice if you have a strong appreciation for the richness of the English language, because it can give you a chance to use a variety of synonyms that you can’t normally drag into conversation. It’s also tons of fun when played with people that you know well, because you can drag inside jokes/stories into things and completely avoid their list of words. Plus, it’s another one of those games where you’re not trying to make the others lose, just trying to do your best job (a lot of times, in fact, the groups I’ve played it with didn’t even bother to keep score; we just played for as long as we wanted to and then stopped). Catchphrase is similar, although it does have a certain tension coming from the timer (which ticks the whole time you’re playing). But also a fun game.
I just noticed that my comment from yesterday was posted as anonymous. This is danceswithpahis, and I just wrote a post about the game Taboo, in case that happened again.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Yes. Wordpress has targeted you tonight for some reason.
Used to play Monopoly with the family when I was a kid, and had the LOTR game once, loved that one–but overall I’m not a games person. Well, that’s a teeny lie–I ADORE Tomb Raider. I no longer have a system that I can play with, but I was good at that game, and it was a hoot and a half. I miss Lara.
So re-acquire a suitable system! :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
“I ADORE Tomb Raider”
Yes, I enjoyed that, too. Though I have to say I’m squeamish about the times when Lara dies because one has done something wrong! That little wriggle at the end was a bit too much – I always looked away from the screen…!
Now Civilisation – there’s a wonderful strategy game. I think I was semi-addicted to it for a while. Ray used to have to loosen my hands from the keyboard and switch the PC off for me to get away from it sometimes…:) I’m not the only one to be hooked by it, either – the writer Ian Banks confessed a couple of years ago that playing it caused him to miss a deadline and he eventually had to smash his game disc and delete all the files!
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I’m squeamish about the times when Lara dies because one has done something wrong! That little wriggle at the end was a bit too much
********** This is why I never got addicted to computer games (back in the days before I rang bells and composed twisted pieces of music and could still pretend to have spare TIME). One of Peter’s kids showed me, I think it was Jurassic Park, where every time the hero took a hit he GROANED. I was out of there so fast I left tread marks.
Now Civilisation – there’s a wonderful strategy game.
******** Peter’s games-mad son, who is mostly a real-time board game person, had almost the same experience.
We had a large cupboard of games when I was growing up, and spent a lot of time playing them. I remember it fondly. My children didn’t follow suit. It seemed that all attempts at board games ended in tears. I think they were too far apart in age and never on similar enough levels. Several of them have taken to board games as adults, mostly because they married into a game playing family. I made a hit last year with a son in law by giving him Khet (http://www.khet.com/) which he likens to chess only with lasers and mirrors and more than two people can play. This game was more popular than the video games. I have to call that a success.
Golly. Definitely have to look into this one. Thank you!
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Sorry, that was me.
Thank you!
(Comments won't nest below this level)
*stares at the list*
*goes to stare at husband’s collection of games*
I… I think he has all of those. My husband (Walter) actually lays out the long-term games with friends and they play over several sessions, moving little cardboard chits around and grumbling about dice rolls. He is a little disappointed, I think, that I am not that sort of gamer, though he has high hopes of bringing the children up in the Ways of the Game.
Like you, I like Lord of the Rings the best — I’m not into the military strategy ones, most of which a good head for probabilities, which I do not have. The closest I get to military strategy games is Risk. (Though I once won Third Reich, playing as Germany, by the simple expedient of getting completely drunk and throwing all sense of strategy out of the window. I don’t recommend the approach as a usual thing, but it was fun once.)
Ah, you have a Scary Games Cupboard, do you? We had one at the old house. The new, smaller Games Chest is still quite scary enough. I too have tended to play my best when drunk, but this happens about twice a decade. . . . :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Oh, we have a Scary Games CLOSET. (Or, rather, top shelves of a closet.) Whenever I make noises about, shall we say, prioritizing the games and removing the ones that aren’t used any more, it just touches off a spate of gaming to prove that they ARE SO used and loved. Walter has even adapted an existing WWII naval game so that it re-enacted WWI, with the appropriate ships and the plotting out of points to be historically accurate, etc. Which is awesome and yet at the same time frightening… ;)
Ah, games. When my husband and I were dating, I was–God knows why–taken to have dinner with some friends of his parents who lived more-or-less in the area, and was made to make a fourth at bridge after dinner. I had played whist well enough, but never bridge. It was not a pleasant evening: grisly is as good a word as any. It was not a repeated evening, either.
It has taken me a number of evenings to get caught up after last being here–we got home with the puppy Wednesday night , crashed, spent Thursday getting food, mail, etc., went to bed early because we had to go to Iowa Friday to pick up the Alpha Bitch, got home LATE Friday and crashed, and of course need to have an eye on the baby as long as he is awake. I have spent some time with pictures and have posted some on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/diane_in_mn
Young Teddy decided he could be (mostly) leash-trained after all and has been getting to feel at home here. Now that he is away from his evil sisters–he was the only boy in a litter of 8–I suspect that he will become a more enterprising (read: less easy) puppy: he’s got lots of toys, believe me, but has made a few tentative approaches to furniture and left tooth marks in the TV remote. He loves Tasha but she is still a little undecided about him. She’ll be fine once he gets a little bigger and she gets out of hormone hell. In the meantime he is as cute as he can be and still a very good puppy. Also a very heavy puppy, and my neck and elbows will be thrilled and relieved once he can comfortably go down stairs by himself. Here’s a glimpse into Dane babies: he weighed 20 pounds when he got his health certificate on 8/22; 26 pounds on Thursday; almost 28 pounds on Saturday. Lugging them up and down stairs is not a long-term option. :)
I hope the hellhounds’ digestive distresses of a few days ago have settled down. Guaranteed I would have been at the emergency clinic with symptoms like that. Do you keep Gas-X (simethicone) around? When any of mine get a loud rumbling gut or display any bloatish symptoms, they get Gas-X, and it does help calm things.
Good luck with Finale and its dubious documentation. We will be waiting to hear about your AHA! moment. :)
Teddy has a BEAUTIFUL face. I don’t know from Danes and even I can see that. . . . The speed at which he is growing is however TERRIFYING, and *I’m* not carrying him up and down stairs.
I’m still waiting for the new lab reports. If I don’t hear tomorrow, I’m going to RING.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
****Teddy has a BEAUTIFUL face.****
Thank you! I love his sweet expression.
We were at his first puppy kindergarten session last night with a couple of big Lab puppies his age. Both he and the Labbie boy weighed 30 pounds, but Ted didn’t begin to look as heavy as the Lab. That will change by the end of the class. This is why people who apparently don’t remember what a grown Great Dane looks like say “He’s growing so fast!!!!!!!” in tones of horrified surprise about their 6-month-old Dane puppy.
Good luck with the lab reports–hope they are seriously informative.
Good luck with the lab reports–hope they are seriously informative.
********** COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH
He’s got the sweetest face! But what happened to his little ears? He’s got bandages all over them! Did he get hurt?
(Comments won't nest below this level)
“I prefer the hellhound idea of games, myself. You pull something, you chase something, you bite something. Extra points for dramatic growling. ”
Ye gods…do your, er, visiting friends know that their hostess is liable to run them down and pounce if you go out for a walk together…? And how does the dramatic growling go down when you’re seeing them upstairs to their room and making sure they have everything they need for the night?
:)
Good heavens, we are MUCH more civilised than that. Hellhound etiquette includes approaching a potential gamesplayer and STARING at them till they are COMPELLED to look back, whereupon the tail starts going a mile a minute, and–this is the part that may need a bit of explication–arm-gnawing ensues. If the response is favourable, the hellhound then goes an fetches the Game Item and the Game Begins. :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
“Good heavens, we are MUCH more civilised than that.”
I’m sure the hellhounds are the collective soul of canine courtesy in regard to your visiting friends! :) When do the photos of arm-gnawing come out?
I was, however, being Deliberately Obtuse and Literal-Minded in response to your original description – and it wasn’t the *hellhounds’* preferred game-playing activities I was attempting to comment on (with not much success)…:)
Tabs has a nice line in laser-quality stares for occasions when she requires human interaction (which is most of the time) and we’re looking into the middle distance and humming little ‘Cat, what cat?’ hums to ourselves.
I’m sure the hellhounds are the collective soul of canine courtesy in regard to your visiting friends! :) When do the photos of arm-gnawing come out?
******** When ever I can get a GOOD one. I keep trying. :) It doesn’t PHOTO very well somehow.
I was, however, being Deliberately Obtuse and Literal-Minded in response to your original description – and it wasn’t the *hellhounds’* preferred game-playing activities I was attempting to comment on (with not much success)…:)
********* Yes, but dear lady, TWO can play at that game. :)
****whereupon the tail starts going a mile a minute, and–this is the part that may need a bit of explication–arm-gnawing ensues****
In the Dane world, this behavior is referred to as hand-holding and is not at all uncommon. Shared genes?
Hand holding! SNORK! I love it! No, I didn’t know this. I also didn’t know it was common enough to require a term. I’ve never had a dog that did it *regularly* as Chaos does, it’s just one of his *things.* Is there a term for leaping up toward your human’s face and clashing your jaws together? Which was one of *HOlly’s* things, and I spent sixteen years worrying that one day she’d misjudge her distance just a trifle. . . .
****Is there a term for leaping up toward your human’s face and clashing your jaws together?****
Well, when it’s a 130-pound, 34-inch bitch doing it, you’re dodging feet more than teeth and saying “OFF!!!” and other colorful phrases, so the term would probably be “acting like a mannerless idiot” or, if you were being charitable, “irrational exuberance”.
LOL! No, this was always quite tidy and, um, well, restrained. She wasn’t a jumper, and unlike Darkness, say, with his single carefully-placed foot on your stomach to improve his aim, she was obviously just GREETING you.
This was actually helpful, because I had considered getting the LOTR game because it sounded interesting, but didn’t have any feedback from people not paid to review it. Perhaps I shall put it on my Christmas list. I liked the idea of everyone working together against the game, instead of working against each other. I have no problems playing a game in which I try to win. However, it’s actively trying to make others lose that I intensely dislike. I don’t WANT to play in such a way as to try and make my friends lose (except of course by doing my best and possibly winning, which has the negative but incidental side effect of them losing). I don’t WANT them to try and make me lose either (and ganging up on people… shudder).
I’m not a games person either. When I am, it’s mostly card games. I love card games. My family members on my dad’s side are nearly obsessive pinnochle players (one of the things I love about them is the fact that they understand that the proper way to greet someone you haven’t seen for a year is with a bear hug and a, “Hi, glad you made it. Where are the cards?”). I love playing cards with them. But intense board games… not my style.
(For those who like that sort of game, however, I can recommend Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. A highly random and entertaining game. You can learn about it here: http://www.killerbunnies.com/ It can potentially be vicious, but we never play it that way, mostly by avoiding the use of weapons whenever possible. And even though I dislike having weapons, it’s hard to resist a game where you attack others with things like kitchen whisks and Green Gelatin With Evil Pineapple Chunks, or Chocolate Covered Anti-Matter Raisins.)
User name please!
Killer Bunnies sounds GREAT. Thank you. :)
And yes–I completely recommend LOTR. If you feel like it, post after you’ve played it.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Oh! Oh! Killer Bunnies! I was trying to think of that game for my earlier post and couldn’t. I managed to learn how to play *that one*!! Cute game!
This is danceswithpahis; not sure why it didn’t give me a name.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Trans America is my favourite much more than Ticket to Ride – its much quicker and doesnt rely on cards/tickets. Its about strategy and guesswork and LOTS of fun and very quick.
Stonewall which is made by a Kiwi guy and lots of fun but nasty nasty nasty people keep being horrible to me when we play which isnt fair as its MY game
Tsuro – fun path finding game with an asian influence, and you can play different variations for interest
Beananza (Bohnanza) Bean trading game and probably my favourite, about building up groups of beans, and trading is a big part and lots of fun.
Pirates Cove is quite an involved but fun game where you are all pirates. Involves strategy in you have to choose where your power goes, in the amount of sail you have to make you fast, in the number of cannon you have or how strong your hull is. As you get more gold you can add more features but you will usually have a weakness. Then there is the dreaded BLACK PIRATE who no one can ever kill who is stalking us all
I will stop now :)
You and Peter’s son would ge t along . . . :) I’ll look up Trans America.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I’ve enjoyed TransAmerica and also Bohnanza. We play them courtesy of my game-obsessed sibling en famille.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I’m putting this comment here since I know you don’t look at the previous day’s comments, and I always miss them. I’m slow on the email uptake.
My daughter had a horse fall over backwards on top of her. Thank goodness it was muddy. She only ended up with a broken hip socket, a metal plate, and extra screening at airport security. She could oh-so-easily have died right there. I still have nightmares about it.
Why do girls love horses?
Game comment to make this legit: We don’t play games very often because half of us are strategically/big picture challenged and the other half have dyslexia and can’t spell. I always lose.
User name please.
The comments come in all in the same thread, from where I sit. It’s everybody *else* who has to remember to look back. This is why comments close after three days on an entry.
Accidents happen. They’re going to happen with an animal ten times bigger than you are because they’re ten times bigger than you are. That doesn’t make horses unlovable. I’m glad your daughter is okay.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I like boardgames, but mostly for the social interaction. And I prefer several shorter games rather than the ones it takes all day and night to finish and by then I am so stupid with tiredness it is almost painful to add 2 and 2. (But I would take the opportunity when one of those games were played at our place and my participation was not required to make up the optimal number of players to test out new muffin recipies and press the results upon players so that my freezer wouldn’t get full.) Irondragon sounds really fun, I want to look for it now. And I am sure you don’t need or even want any “helpful suggestions” but I have played a game called Shadows over Camelot that sound similar to the Lord of the Rings one in that it is everyone against the game. (Unless one of you is a traitor…)
Interesting tv segment on sleep and body clock:
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2351893.htm
Hopefully you will be able to watch it. :) (sometimes websites block foreign ISPs)
I had a childhood friend who used to CACKLE as she held out her hand for rents while playing Monopoly. She was a board-game fanatic. I am not. She didn’t appreciate my random rule-changing, or charitable offerings of extra money so the damn game would be over more quickly, or wandering away from the board.
I can just about manage the complexity and nuance of Go Fish. Mr. Lissar has tried to teach me to play both Risk and euchre with no success whatsoever.
Peter actually got as far as teaching me ‘nursery’ bridge, but we never got round to joining a bridge club so we could get on with it. And then I took up bell ringing . . .
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I too have never seen the point of board games. Chess, just about… but most board games leave me cold.
My mother, I think, thought that they should be played because they are Intellectual, however she didn’t like them, nor do my siblings or I… so we’ve grown up without the intellectual stimulation of boardgames and presumably the worse off (I’m not complaining!)
Give me the intellectual stimulation of BOOKS any day. But Peter’s games-mad son is one of the most terrifyingly intelligent people I’ve ever . . . had to hold a conversation with. :) But I don’t know which is the chicken and which the egg. I suspect he may have been BORN with an abnormal number of brain cells. :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I grew up with Clue and Sorry. But now, when the family gets together, the guys head for the computer and the girls head for the table with a deck of cards. Rummy! Rook! We laugh and act so silly that the guys shake their head is amazement. Fun times!
WandaV in AL
Well, fun is the thing. :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
We kids were often banned from playing Monopoly while we were growing up, as it tended to degrade into fights.
I AM NOT SURPRISED. :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
My husband and I occasionally play Scrabble, but we want to re-write the rules. We’re tired of getting six or eight points for a wonderful long obscure word that shows off our secondary education, while the sod we’re playing against gets 600 points for a second-grade word that just happens to catch a triple letter AND a triple word square. Scrabble for folks who go to look up one word in the dictionary, and three hours later have forgotten what they were originally researching.
As for neon-yellow rain gear. My Helly Hansen foul weather jacket was a nice sober navy blue! Not necessarily a safety color, but you didn’t need dark glasses to get it out of the cupboard. And I think they used to come in dark green too. Don’t know if they still do, but might be worth checking out. However, worn over a real wool sweater, which took care of the condensation problem at Scottish summer temps, it kept folks much dryer than hi-tech GoreTex and the like.
We play a slightly unique Scrabble also. :)
Completely agree about wool–it just can’t get SO wet that it STRETCHES, which it is very good at doing. I’ll have to check out Helly. Goretex is among other things just . . . not very FRIENDLY, you know?
(Comments won't nest below this level)
The best kind of Scrabble is the one that loses the really really competitive edge in favour of “let’s learn and make the best words possible.” :) So we have a great wordgame dictionary and it is not uncommon to hear someone say “Oh you can’t put that *there*! What a *waste*!”
Yes, that’s more the way we play. :)
In my family… we grew up with chess, monopoly, clue, and the like… I then moved to blackjack, poker, and Egyptian Ratscrew (a rather childish card game that involves a good deal of pain owing to sporadic slapping of the deck)…
I have now graduated to computer roleplay games…. I was never one for D&D though… One of my favorite games (no, it’s not a board game) would have to be catchphrase… mainly because i can’t knock over the pieces… >.>… we play it a lot at Thanksgiving… then someone pulls out Rook, or something similar, and i look at it like this: O.O… then grab my copy of I Capture the Castle or Spindle’s End (SHAMELESS PLUG!) and run off.
Shameless plugs are GOOD. :) We like shameless plugs too. :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Warning: so far off subject that the Andromeda galaxy looks close….
I just (last Thursday) received Chalice in the mail from B&N (read it [ate it up like it was a dark chocolate raspberry truffle]….AWESOME!). Are we getting it early in the states? Or is it just being mailed out early? Thought folks (rabid fans and whatnots) would maybe want to know this is the case…so as to get it via mail a smidgen early (woop-woop!).
And lastly, thank you Ms McKinley for another fantastic place to hie off to and for new characters to cheer for:)
Anna
Oh but we LIKE this kind of off topic . . . :) THANK YOU.
No, I had no idea they were shipping them this early. WHERE ARE MY AUTHOR’S COPIES???!!!!
(Comments won't nest below this level)
WHERE ARE MY AUTHOR’S COPIES???!!!!
Maybe the delivery guys are reading them? (This excuse will only be excepted if they then order *more*.)
LOL! Indeed!
Pfft wish I had spelled right. :p
So. Sky is blue here. Sending some your way…..
[holding hands out hopefully]
I have to admit that in our house, blood HAS been shed over Uno. Uno with a few extra rules tossed in to make it more fun, to be more precise. One of those rules is that if you have the exact same card in your hand as the one that was just played (since there are two of each card in a deck), you can play that card even if it’s not your turn. In races to play between the next person in turn and the person trying to play out of turn, there have been some nasty scratches.
So we added a new rule that fingernails have to be neatly trimmed before playing.
LOL! It’s almost a rule in this clan that . . . you have to start altering the rules of any new game. :)
(Comments won't nest below this level)
As I own and run a board game store (http://www.starlitcitadel.com), I must admit to being a gamer geek of all forms – board games, RPGs and computer games.
On that note – if you are in need of game ideas that you would play, try these co-op games:
Shadows over Camelot – Arthurian legends in a co-operative setting. Like LotR you’re fighting the board (mostly – there is the possibility of a traitor that is easily remedied by removing that card from the deck). Plays within 2 hours (normally an hour to hour and a half). I think you’d enjoy this one.
Arkham Horror – H.P. Lovecraft investigators off to stop the Ancient One’s from rising. Lots of fun, VERY thematic and a couple of paths to victory. Purely co-operative too.
Pandemic – you’re part of the Centre for Disease control fighting a series of virii (is that the plural for multiple virus?). Anyway, purely co-operative game, though probably not the same draw in theme.
There are a lot of other semi co-operative games too; i.e. games were most people are working together but there are potential traitors, like Saboteur (dwarves!) and Order of the Stick (based on the webcomic of the same name).
VERY COOL. THANK YOU. I think I see a second games entry looming. :) The only one of these I’ve even *heard* of is Shadows over Camelot. Definitely have to check out the Lovecraft, especially if it’s cooperative.
Do you have favourite RPGs?
(Comments won't nest below this level)
I was/am a long time fan of WoD (Vampire the Masquerade, though Requiem’s interesting).
Currently doing a Shadowrun campaign and the new Serenity campaign. Of the two, I prefer Shadowrun I must admit.
Pandemic’s very new. Arkham Horror, in my view, is the best of those games.
Oh, and if you like D&D/dungeon crawls – there’s Descent. If you know Heroquest, think of it as an updated version. Party members running through a dungeon fighting the Overlord (so one person who wants to be evil gets to be too!)
*Yeep.* Person teetering on the edge of a bottomless crevasse . . . :)
***† And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings/ Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair/ Nothing besides remains. Round the decay/ of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/ the lone and level sands stretch far away. ***
FYI, in case you didn’t know already, the real life inspiration for these lines was a statue of Ramses buried up to its neck in the Egyptian sand. I know this because I’m a double major in English and Anthropology – two majors that are generally good for nothing (with apologies to writers everywhere) except to play my favorite board game: Trivial Pursuit!!!!
I hesitate to mention that there is a Lord of the Rings version of Trivial Pursuit for you LOTR addicts out there. It’s pretty good. Come and play with me! Heh heh heh!
Perhaps you’d better not. I hesitate to mention it but I am… er… slightly competitive when I play. ; ) Bwa ha ha ha!
But but but …Settlers of Catan isn’t on the list? I find this baffling.
You do know that you can play Scrabble online, yes?
–Julia
Ha! I knew that my husband and friends couldn’t be the only games-made people in the world. They meet up every couple of weeks for a gaming session, which takes hours and hours and the games change almost every time. And they’re all hideously compliated games, too, with politics and battles and resources… and perhaps I’m a little competitive. So I decided that I’d rather spend my weekends planting things.
I like nice simple games like Monopoly and Settlers of Catan. And I particularly like playing them with computers, which are both quick (no agonising from the other players over what they’re going to do) and non-hostile. I’m told this reflects my introverted and impatient nature…
Speaking of computer games, have a Google for Pandemic II. You too can be like Dr Horrible and conquer the world – or at least kill everyone.
I’m told this reflects my introverted and impatient nature…
********* Snork! I will have to try this, then!
Speaking of computer games, have a Google for Pandemic II. You too can be like Dr Horrible and conquer the world – or at least kill everyone.
*********** Er . . . but I don’t WANT to . . .
(Comments won't nest below this level)
“Ha! I knew that my husband and friends couldn’t be the only games-made people in the world. They meet up every couple of weeks for a gaming session, which takes hours and hours and the games change almost every time. And they’re all hideously compliated games, too, with politics and battles and resources… and perhaps I’m a little competitive. So I decided that I’d rather spend my weekends planting things.”
— I have some good friends who a few months ago had a games night like this. They have TONS of games, and they had various games going in various rooms. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by them all (since they were mostly fairly complicated, which I can manage alright on an individual basis but there were LOTS of them). Well, the friend that I know best (they’re actually a couple, and I know her really well but am still getting to know him) decided that she was going to play… Yahtzee (sp?). I decided that what the heck, I’d come along mostly to see her, and so I went with her. The five or six of us that played had the best, most rocking game of Yahtzee EVER. I mean, we were screaming with delight (and I almost NEVER scream with delight), and jumping up and down, and every single one of us that played got at least one Yahtzee (which also NEVER happens), and we had the best time. So I’ll play complicated games if they come up, but I still hold that there’s nothing like the basics.
Although I’ll admit that part of why card games and such are my favorite is my competitive streak. I don’t mind losing, but I hate the feeling of a game like, say, Risk, where I can spend several hours losing with no way to change things around and nothing to do but wait for the inevitable.
(Comments won't nest below this level)
Diplomacy is a game that can ruin friendships, though my boardgaming group seems to enjoy it. And Tirgis and Euphrates is number 5 at the moment on the boardgamegeek website. I like Ticket to Ride, though I prefer more traditional Euro’s, and not the war oriented back stabbing ones.
Darn it. I had a nice long post I put here yesterday–except that I apparently didn’t actually post it. And I’m never going to REMEMBER it all.
Anyway, re: games–All of the games you mention in this post either frighten or confuse me. Most of my friends are huge fans of Settlers of Catan, which is another one of those civilization building type games. I am not. Vehemently not. It’s BORING. I don’t get all the strategy required for playing and if actually forced to participate, I find myself doing things like trading for as many sheep as I can so I can play with them, creating an town comprised of an all-sheep dance troupe or whatever amusing storyline my brain creates. This does not allow me to win and my town is usually overrun.
I prefer games like Cranium, which is fabulous, Trivial Pursuit, Loaded Questions, Apples to Apples, things like that. Games which use either random knowledge, which I have loads of (thank you, lifelong reading habit!), or knowledge of the psychology of the people I’m playing with. Cranium also has the charade section for you, and the yellow word play section at which I have a feeling you would kick butt. In short (ha!), I like games that I have a good shot at winning.
And for a game that’s strangely addictive (and complexity-wise is to those games Peter likes as a microbe is to a blue whale), I give you Pass the Pigs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pass_the_Pigs
For boardgames most booklovers will gladly set down their library hauls for (albeit temporarily) you have to look at http://flyingmoose.org/melkbrad/mbmain.htm.
Who doesn’t love Anna Kareninaopoly, where you can “mortgage your principles and build emotional investments”? (“Will you be the first to reject the deceit and illusion of material wealth and exchange your emotional investments for true Enlightenment? Or will you fail and throw yourself under the wheels of the Nizhny Line Railroad in despair?”) I had the great fortune to have a friend with many of these great products growing up (Jane Eyre’s Chutes and Ladders was so much cooler than the regular version, and somehow seemed older, smarter, and more pretentious – things that for some reason seem attractive at the age of eight). Even though you can no longer buy them new, they sometimes show up on ebay.
Yes, and unfortunately your link crashed me again. I’ll try again tomorrow . . . on a different computer.
(Comments won't nest below this level)