Month: July 2016

Shut The Box!

Shut the Box is a traditional English pub game. Unlike some pub games, it is family friendly and unrealistically easy. I marked this as a quick game, but that doesn’t at all describe it. With 2 players, this game takes 3 minutes. It is wonderful to play with your family, because you can sit down and it will fit most time constraints. It is especially great to play when you have a purring cat next to you. (Errr… might have tried that. What can I say? She was sleeping next to our chosen game board.)Shut-the-box

This game works with any amount of players, making it great for parties or being by yourself. In Shut the Box, you roll the dice. Then you flip down any one set of numbers that you can add to make the sum found on your dice. You continue your turn until you cannot flip anything to make that exact sum. Then you add up the remaining numbers. This is your score. You proceed to reset and the next person goes. This process repeats until everyone has gone. Then the person with the lowest score wins. If anyone successfully flips down all the numbers, they shut the box and automatically win the game. Yep, that’s it. The entire game. No, seriously, that’s it. Yep.

This is just one variation of the ways it can be played. See here for more.

Rating: +1 to rating+1 to rating+1 to rating+1 mto rating+1 to rating

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Sales in Camden!

Camden is a wonderful game, illustrated by John Kovalic, who might have also illustrated oh, I don’t know… Munchkin? *grins* You’re all business owners with a dream and 10 pounds. No, I don’t mean you’re extremely light. Camden is actually a market area in Britain. Thus I mean the British currency: pounds.Camden

First, chose your colour. I mean color. Or is it colour? Blasted American English against the original English. It’s messing up my spelling! First, there’s player A. Player A is the red token and specializes in clothes sales. Player B is my favourite, and is yellow and selling food. Player C is green, selling a large variety of antiques and random debris. Last is Player D, who is blue and sells comics and books.

Each turn, you will collect income based of the number of entrances to your shop, draw a tile, search for and initiate special effects, place the tile, and then if it meets your fancy, purchase another shop. The first person to reach 50 pounds wins.

Special effects vary, and they’re not always set off. If the letter on the tile matches your player letter, the sign around the letter kicks a special effect into order. The first special effect is basic: Fire. It burns down the largest shop and any shop sharing the tile with it. The second special effect is the Bobby. The police come and empty the largest shop. The final one is the least devastating: Holiday. Every player gets their income’s worth right then and there.

This is a wonderful, reasonably simple game. And has hit my favourites list. Or is it favorite? Or…

Rating:+1 to rating+1 to rating+1 to rating+1 mto rating+1 to rating

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

7th Sea

7th Sea is a Role-Playing Game, or RPG. In RPGs, you make a character, background, and how good they are in what traits. It’s strange and bold, like many gamers, but it’s also an art, in a way. It takes the perfect balance of brawn, wits, finesse, panache, and resolve to make the perfect character.7th Sea character sheet

The perfect character doesn’t mean the fearless, invincible one. The perfect character is the one who’s traits, skills, advantages and disadvantages all fit the center of it all: the story you gave them. Note: when I say this, I don’t mean to say they have to be weak or a coward, I’m merely saying the carrot can’t scare the rabbit. However, I am also saying that the carrot can’t be afraid of the dirt.

I’ve found one way to make a strong character is to start with the background and base everything off of that rock you’ve placed. The moss, the bacteria, the lichen, and even the ants underneath all need the rock. My father, on the other hand, has a certain talent for messing up the GM’s (Game Master’s) plans. He makes his character by making an idea of the character concept, then looking at the traits, skills, advantages and disadvantages. He chooses the species of moss, the type of bacteria, the variety of lichen, and the type of ant. Then he uses those to choose the rock’s shape, size, and color.

Everyone has a different way of making their character. Feel free to comment me yours!

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

The Concert of a Lifetime!

Last Saturday, I did something phenomenal; something extraordinary; and most importantly: something super geeky! On Saturday, I did something I never thought I would have the pleasure of doing… I went to a live Weird Al concert!Weird Al concert

This was also my first concert that wasn’t Cheshire Moon. Unlike the small events they have, the Weird Al concert had rows upon rows upon rows of people attending. It was, I will admit, a tad intimidating. Just to clarify: I have nothing against the small concerts or the big concerts as they both have their pros and cons.

Weird Al sang a handful of the songs through to the end, but a lot of the concert was medleys of different songs. I would have loved it if he had sung more of the Spider-Man parody of Piano Man. My favorite of the songs that night was by far the one about Anakin Skywalker.

As you see, I had a blast at the Weird Al concert. Did you know Weird Al is weird?

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Firefly!… Fluxx?

Do you like the show Firefly? Do you like the card game Fluxx? Then this game is for you: the one and only… Firefly Fluxx!Firefly Fluxx

The Keepers have changed: Instead of Time, and Death, and Chocolate, they have Firefly Keepers: Kaylee Frye and Jayne Cobb. Therefore the Goals are also very different: Instead of Rocket to the Moon, where you need the Rocket and the Moon, they have Goals like The Tam Siblings: you need River Tam and Simon Tam. The New Rules and Actions are similar to the original… they just renamed some of them.

This variation also brings with it a less welcome change: Creepers. Creepers are cards like Reavers. You can’t win with them unless specific conditions say otherwise. There are some Goals that include Creepers as part of the winning criteria… for instance: the Crazy Ivan Maneuver requires Serenity and Reavers. Besides these special Goals, getting rid of a Creeper is particularly difficult.

Rating: +1 to rating+1 to rating+1 to rating+1 mto rating+1 to rating

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail