Monday, January 25, 2010

Tron Legacy

This one might be enough for me to run something cyber-punkish again.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810096458/video

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Sticks and Stones



I think I gotta play this

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

MarsCon Gaming - a big success


MarsCon 2010 has just run its course, and it was a good year. There were a couple of personnel snafu's but it all came together nicely. From my perspective, it was a really nice convention.

At the last minute, the senior leadership asked John Desmarais and yours truly to help with the organization of gaming. We did what we could, and organize a few important events (RPGA D&D, Pathfinder, Project:Crusader, Quickfire Starfighters, Delta Files, Visible Dungeon, and demo games from Privateer Press and Steve Jackson Games, among others). This meant dropping our own plans to run a number of roleplaying sessions (Champions, Pulp Hero, Castles & Crusades and Mutant Future - to name the candidates). This was going to be a Neptune City heavy year for us, but alas - it was not meant to be, mes amis.

Even with the lateness of the planning, the room was full almost throughout the weekend. Once, around 2am on Saturday night, the room was down to three games being played (horrors), but for the most part, Friday Evening, and all day and night Saturday the room was full. It was even quite heavily utilized on Sunday. A good year.

In order to contribute somewhat, even though there was little in the way of RPGs or Miniatures being offered by "Gaming with Chuck", there were a number of boardgames. These included:

  • Several games of Manhattan - a SdJ winner from 1994, and quite a fun game to play.
  • Also tried Small World. A fun little near-wargame. What surprises me about this one is that it was originally based on a map of Europe (as Vinci).
  • Jon K, Justin G and I played a game of Carolus Magnus. Vicious!
  • Finally, John D brought his new version of Cosmic Encounter. We played a bunch of hands of this game. What a great game - and it has certainly stood the test of time!

All in all - a good convention. I am sure that I will help out (if allowed) with MarsCon 2011 in some way. But more importantly, I hope I can run a game or two!

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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Christmas and New Years gaming

First, I hope all who read Gaming with Chuck had a very nice Holiday season (we proudly and unashamedly celebrate Christmas at the secret bunker of publication, but I understand that not all do). Second I hope that all will have a better year this year than last.

The only gaming items that were given or received in the immediate family this year was Apples to Apples, which our daughter Heidi absolutely loves. It's a good game, and especially easy to lure non-gamers into the ranks with. Some of the answers in our games, and even more so - some of the justifications for those answers - have been great.

The dearth of games as presents will be dealt with in the post-Christmas hobby spending that takes place in these parts at both Marscon and the Williamsburg Muster (two local conventions, one being Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and the other Wargaming and Boardgaming).

Now, as to actual gaming that took place over the holiday break - we played a couple of games. These included the already mentioned Apples to Apples, but also Blokus, Wooly Bully, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Rummy, Gin-Rummy, 10 Days across the USA, Tara, Carcassonne, and Cosmic Encounters. All good games, all played when we had various guests visiting. Sadly, everyone who played was already a gamer, so we did not introduce any new members into the hobby. But that will happen, I am sure of it, and soon.

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Terriffic article introducing Euro-Games

Yehhuda - a gaming blogger (who has the kindness of linking to Gaming with Chuck) has a truly excellent article from last year that introduces Euro-Games, also known as designer games or German games.

These are the sorts of boardgames that are usually at our house (also known as the world-headquarters/secret bunker for publication of Gaming with Chuck), and frequently make an appearance at weekly meetings of ODMS.

Go. Read the article. It will remind you of all the cool things you like about Euro-Games.

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