The Ramblings of Rev. Karl

Games played:
Bombay, Can't Stop, Dominion (11 times at least, twice with the Seaside expansion), Hamlet, Imperial (Asia map variant), Keltis (twice), Kreta, Lokomotive Werks, Mr. Jack, Nexus Ops, Poison, Race for the Galaxy (twice), Saboteur, Small World (twice), Ticket to Ride, Tin Lizzies, Web of Power

Dominion clearly the "hot" game of the con, usually a 1/2 dozen games of it going on at a time. Seaside is the 2nd expansion in the pipeline after Intrigue. Recommended for those that like CCGs but don't like the CCG investment (for me it makes me miss playing my CCGs).

On the new releases played: Small World is a fantasy themed version of Vinci. I was already a big fan of Vinci so it's no surprised that I liked this one, plus it fixes Vinci's endgame problems. Added to the want list. Bombay is a quick pick-up and deliver type of board game, might be worth it for the cute plastic elephants alone.

New to me games: Lokomotive Werks is a kinda interesting game trying to balance supply and demand, like many Winsome Game releases left me kinda meh - they often make for better simulations than games. Nexus Ops is a kind of game I don't usually play, a sci-fi themed war game from Hasbro, complete with plastic figures and using the Axis & Allies combat system, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, unlike similar games it is pretty fast-paced. Saboteur is a cute sort-of cooperative card game with a dwarves digging for gold theme, players are essentially on two teams, but you don't get to know who is on your team, also nice as it can handle large numbers of players.

Development of Tin Lizzies is going well, played with 4 and all enjoyed it, I still need to test it with larger numbers of players. Overall I'm pretty happy with the mechanics, though it could still use some way to trim down the playing time a bit, I might just chop a turn or two off. I also need to redo the graphic elements, but I don't know when I'm going to find time to do that.

Games Club of Maryland's Games Days are coming up at the end of the month, a great little convention, details at http://gamedays.gamesclubofmd.org/

There is also a new gaming con this weekend, their site (http://www.freewebs.com/gamecon2009/) seems to be down at the moment, but I believe that they are more RPG oriented than GCOM events are, and it's at the Clarion Hotel in Aberdeen, MD this Friday and Saturday. I can't make it, but if you can, go check them out.

For our regular Brunswick sessions I am not hosting one this month, but will be back at Beans on May 16th.

Back from my first Prezcon. Not really my type of con as the tournament to open gaming ratio was way too high (being a pain in the ass to get into a game is not a good thing in a gaming convention IMHO), but there were lots of familiar faces and many games were indeed played and so fun was had - and I managed to score my first tournament win :-) I also really liked the hotel (Charlottesville Doubletree), they ran a nicer than average food concession just for the con, and I was regretting I didn't bring my bathing suit to take advantage of the jacuzzi. I also was successful in unloading 30 games at the auction - spent a good chunk of Saturday watching the auction which definitely helps in seeing what sort of games go over well at those.

The final games played tally: Burg Appenzell (twice, only game new to me, wins for being one of the cutest games I've seen - also it's about cheese!), Dos de Mayo (twice), Dominion (4 times at least), Hive, Imperial (twice, placed 2nd in the tournament), Pandemic (3 times), Poison (twice), Ra, Race for the Galaxy (5 times at least, qualified for semi-finals but it conflicted with Union Pacific), Shear Panic, Snow Tails (3 times), St. Petersburg, Thurn & Taxis, Tin Lizzies (got in two playtest games, both with only 2 players, went well, but really needs to be tested with 5-6 players), and Union Pacific (4 times, won the tournament!).

This weekend: Saturday in Brunswick; Sunday in Chantilly.

Next weekend: Prezcon in Charlottesville.

Taking a moment to pimp out Prezcon since I'm actually going this year - It's a gaming convention in Charlottesville, Feb. 25 - Mar. 1, I've never been before so can't tell you much about it, but presumably there will be lots of gaming goodness. Much of the gaming is tournament format which I don't usually like, but hopefully there will be plenty of open gaming as well - also hoping to unload a bunch of my games at their auction. If anyone else is going and wants to car pool down there let me know.

Brunswick Games Day went very well. Thanks to everyone that came out. I believe we had between 80-90 participants. Games I saw being played:

Agricola, Alhambra, Anno 1503, Apples to Apples, Axis & Allies, Bang, Battlestar Galactica, Blokus, Carcassone, Cash 'N Guns Live, Caylus, Chess 4, Chivalry & Sorcery, Connect Four, Cuba, Descent, Dominion, Fluxx, Hey That's My Fish, Ingenious, Kahuna, Keltis, Le Havre, Lord of the Fries, Lunch Money, Mare Nostrum, Munchkin Quest, Pandemic, Qwirkle, Race for the Galaxy, Railroad Tycoon, Red Dragon Inn, Robo Rally, Rorschach, Rumis, San Juan, Santa Fe Rails, Scurvy Musketeers of the Spanish Main, Set, Settlers of Catan - Deutschland, Snow Tails, Stone Age, Tichu, Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride Card Game, Traumfabrik, Why Did the Chicken...?

We'll do it again next year, aiming for January 2, 2010.

Edit: missed Dos de Mayo, Equate, Guillotine, Munchkin, and Transamerica

This is your reminder to save the date. Brunswick Games Day is only a month away. January 3rd join is for a full day of open gaming, absolutely free. This will be the 5th year of the "I Wish I was at Evecon" event. This year we'll have the bonus of having some of the new Essen releases present plus Mystic Station is threatening to have their new card game available hot off the press. I do have some limited crash space available for the nights before and/or after for anyone coming from far away. More details at http://www.fantasymaps.com/gaming/brunswick.html.

I'm back from Mythical Journeys which was awesome. Many thanks to divalion and my fellow track mates. I have a lot to think and write about from the weekend, but I'm not sure I'll get a chance to before I'm off to Germany, so the report may be delayed.

For next weekend I am hosting games on Saturday, do ping me if you're planning on attending as I'll cancel if I don't have any takers.

Sunday I'll be at faire assuming I get all of my packing done before then.

Monday I'm off to Essen - if anyone wants me to do game shopping on their behalf let me know, I already have an order from ambug666. Also I'm hoping to do a day trip over to Amsterdam while I'm so close - any recommendations for sightseeing in the area (either in Amsterdam, or anything within about 2 hours of Essen might be possible)? I'll be back home 10/27.

Also coming up is Euroquest, a great local gaming con, Nov. 6-9.

P.S. Anyone here in Philadelphia and not mind having a visitor the night of the 19th? I'm flying out of PHL and being able to drive there directly after faire would save a lot on the driving.

A reminder that I will be off-line this weekend because I'll be at Lullaby of Broadway LARPing - we do still have a couple of spots open if you want to join us.

While on the topic of gaming cons - my next gaming con will be Essen - allow me to squee for a moment (SQUEE!) The next local one I'm planning on attending is Euroquest, which is lots of fun and everyone should go. I will be missing Congress of Gamers because it conflicts with the Lullaby of Broadway LARP which I'm going to be helping out with. Lullaby does still have openings, and it is highly recommend for anyone looking for an incredible LARP experience - go sign up now. After that the next con I'm considering is Darkover about which I'm still undecided, also vaguely on the radar is Philcon.

Also - The date of the next Brunswick Games Day is set for January 3rd, 2009 - save the date now. Our regular GCOM-Brunswick sessions will resume in October (I know I told a bunch of you Novemeber, but I checked the calendar and I will have one in October if anyone is interested).

Back home from TCEP. Much fun was had, many games were played. It was nice to share one of my favorite events with auror and radiant_one. Also good to see a lot of faces I don't get to see very often.

Not very many new games for me this time - probably the only one of note was Die Macher. Die Macher is a game of German politics which has a somewhat infamous reputation in gaming circles as being a monster game - after playing it I'm not really sure why. It's certainly longer than most Eurogames, but it's nothing compared to some older American games like Civilization or Titan. Anyway I enjoyed it despite being crushed (blackpaladin won, with auror getting a close 2nd) and would play again, I probably won't buy it though - if I'm going to play a long game there are a lot of others I'd prefer more.

Other games played include Anno 1503, Apples to Apples, Drunter & Druber, Kahuna, Louis XIV, Pandemic, Qwirkle, Ra, Race for the Galaxy, Red Dragon Inn, St. Petersburg, Shear Panic, Ticket to Ride, and Transamerica.

Next weekend, probably faire.

Ok, a preliminary list of board games for sale can be found at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/kmusser?trade=1&ff=1
For the curious my full collection is now updated at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/kmusser?own=1&ff=1 (except for 3 games that weren't in the database, they'll be added soon).

Obviously I haven't set any prices yet, and the condition of the games varies widely from still in original shrinkwrap to bad, potentially incomplete games. If there's something you're interested in let me know and I can give you the low down on the condition of that game.

For those of you going to TCEP let me know if there is anything specific you want me to bring (either to potentially buy or just for playing while there).

Also not in the list are RPGs, I'll have to make a separate list of those.

So part one, getting stuff from Chicago to Maryland is done. Now begins decided what to do with all this stuff I've inherited.

( this got really long )

Also time to plug Maryland's next gaming convention:

Announcing TCEP 15 - The Elder Party

Vote Cthulhu in '08

August 29 - Sept. 1 (Labor Day weekend)

Laurel, Maryland

This is a gaming relaxicon which I highly recommend.

We'll have the usual assortment of both American and German board games with an extra helping of political games to go with this years theme.

Cost is $40 for the weekend.

Hotel info:
Holiday Inn Laurel West
15101 Sweitzer Lane, Laurel, MD 20707
(301) 776–5300
hotel group rate of $105 is available until 8/11/08
group name: Barking Mad

More details at tcep

While I was sorry to miss fluxinflutter's birthday shenanigans (Happy birthday!) gaming on Saturday meant I finally got to play Agricola which has been the hot game for the last couple of years (and currently rated the 2nd best game on BGG, just behind Puerto Rico) - and no, it's still not available in the U.S, but it should be later this year.

Agricola is part of a recent flurry of board games that involves placing workers to collect various resources in order to build stuff that's worth victory points (e.g. Caylus, Cuba, Stone Age, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.) - the primary differences are A) there are many more types of resources and different ways to get VPs which results in having a zillion options each turn and B) each player gets a hand of a few characters and improvements that only they can play/build. The individualized hands are randomly drawn from a large pool of cards so there is a lot of variety possible in what you get.

Because your hand will change every game, what your best strategy is will always be different giving this game a much higher replay value than most of its ilk. Downsides are its length, easily twice as long as most similar games, and the array of choices can be bewildering, especially to a new player, making the game somewhat prone to analysis paralysis. That said I really enjoyed it and would happily play again - I'm not sure if I'll actually pick up a copy as the people most likely to be willing to play it with me already have it on order :-)

In other gaming news, I'm going to Essen!

For those that don't know - Essen, Germany plays host to the worlds largest game fair every fall (Oct 23-26 this year). It's easily an order of magnitude larger than any gaming event in the U.S. It's also generally where new games are showcased and first available to buy. It's been on the list of things to do at least once in my lifetime for awhile now. I'll be going with a group of folks from the Games Club of Maryland which is making it more affordable than it would otherwise be, so yay. I will be willing to take shopping orders within reason :-)

Our next GCOM-Brunswick session is this Saturday.

Our next Idol Hands LARP is this Sunday.

Hope to see some of you there.

So this is a little late going out, but we are on for a GCOM-Brunswick session at Beans in the Belfry this Saturday.

Sunday is the Idol Hands LARP, we are still looking for cast if anyone's interested in playing.

So it's a day late. Anyway games played: Alhambra (twice), Anno 1503 (with expansion), Dominion (twice), Imperial, Insider Trading (twice), Kreta, La Citta, Ming Dynastie, Pandemic, Race for the Galaxy (twice), Rheinlander, Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride: Switzerland, Uptown, Vikings

( Commentary on the new ones and on the playtesting for my Dad's unpublished stock market game. )

Work has been keeping me too busy to keep up with LJ much. Weekend plans include helping the radiant_one celebrate her birthday and working on the Idol Hands LARP.

I think this LARP will be better than last one, though we could still really use another GM. The workload is a little more than artful_username and I can handle and give everyones character the attention they should get.

Also note I'm not hosting GCOM-Brunswick this Saturday, but there is a GCOM session very nearby the following Saturday for anyone that's interested, and the weekend after that is GCOM Game Days which I highly recommend for gaming goodness.

Also, because it's awesome, Pulp Fiction ala Shakespeare, first seen from xiombarg.

My father, Jim Musser, passed away today after a long battle with Cirrhosis. Jim spent most of his life working as an editor and journalist for the Chicago Tribune, but his real passion was games. He contributed to many aspects of the gaming industry; as a game designer for Mayfair Games; as a writer and editor for Mayfair, FASA, and TSR; and as a game store owner and manager in Chicago.

And of course as a gamer. I was pretty well doomed as he introduced me to both board games and role-playing games almost as soon as I could read. Thank you father for a wonderful hobby. Who knows, perhaps some of his unpublished games will see the light of day yet.

Credits:
Game Designer for Mayfair Games:
Designer of Alibi, Road to the Whitehouse, and the re-design of Cosmic Encounter and its expansions.

Editor for Mayfair Games:
DC Heroes and Chill product lines

Editor and writer for FASA:
Battletech, Shadowrun, Star Trek, and Renegede Legion lines

Editor and writer for TSR:
AD&D: Tales of Enchantment
Forgotten Realms: Cormyr

Retail:
owned The Gamer's Place in Oak Park, Illinois
managed The Emperor's Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois

P.S. Thank you for all the condolences, they are greatly appreciated.