A Progressive Top 10 to Introduce Player Interaction

Competition is at the heart of any game.  Indeed, it’s a characteristic that often defines the very word “game,” and separates the board gaming hobby from other leisurely forms of entertainment.  In some games, this is manifested in a cooperative element where players work together to beat the system.  Others instill a style of competition in which you solitarily strive to better your opponents at the same task, independent of any influence from each other.

But the great games include some form of direct interaction.  I’m going to attack you, steal from you, lie to you, block you, gang up on you, or generally wreak havoc on your pretty, well-laid plans of building a quiet cottage in the mountain meadows where the larks sing you to sleep in a gently swaying hammock on a warm spring day after sipping your sweet tea with mint.

Some people really like their sweet tea.

But, if you’re a gamer who appreciates direct interaction – even some old-fashioned, sucker-punching spite – just how do you entice wary casual gamers, younger children, or maybe even that hard-nosed Euro player in your group?  Well, you’ll have to ease them into it, of course.  So before you hit them with Bang!, Cosmic Encounter, or Diplomacy, here’s a list of ten progressively recommended titles to turn your peace-loving friend or relative into the Gordon Ramsay of gaming!

Holiday Gift Guide 2013

Christmas comes but once a year, as does our holiday gift guide.  This year it is bigger and better because this year, there are four of us with unique tastes and experiences, and we've all got different recommendations for you all. We can't ever guarantee that you'll love our choices, but these games are our top picks. Quality is assured, so if the games line up with your tastes (or, I suppose, the tastes of the person you're buying gifts for), chances are these will be a hit.

You can also check out our previous years gift guides--2012 and then 2011, as well as a guide to stocking stuffers.

This year you'll note that we've provided direct links to Funagain.com when such links are available. You can buy from wherever you like, but purchasing from Funagain.com through our links will support our site with a portion of the proceeds from the sale.

Thanks, and happy holiday gaming!

Ten Reasons Your Game Console Has 4 Legs

In honor of today's release of the new Xbox One and last week's debut of the PS4, I thought it'd be fun to remind us all why we're not standing in line at night to get our hands on one of these beauties.  Okay, chances are a lot of us split our time between the tabletop and the living room with the TV,  but we're board gamers, and we love celebrating our hobby when everyone else is going crazy about the latest, greatest, tech gadget.

Read on for ten reasons why tabletop gaming is better than videogaming.

Example: gaming tables are WAY cheaper than consoles

Round and Round (A Guide to the Rondel Mechanic)

Every once in a while, even still in the 21^st century, a game designer creates and introduces a true innovation.  When this happens, it creates all kinds of buzz and stirs up not a little industry talk as gamers clamor to read about, see, and get their hands on the latest “hotness.”  Then again, of course, another segment of the hobby contradictorily lashes out, arguing that there is really nothing new in gaming – and that actually what everyone thinks is a novel mechanic is just a variation of what “so-and-so” has already done in “such-and-such.”  Today’s mechanic often finds itself in this scenario and has met with mixed reactions throughout the hobby.  But at least it gives us something to talk about, right?

The Year of the Dragon (Reflections Upon My Anniversary)

One year ago today, I posted my first review on iSlaytheDragon.  What a busy year it’s been!  As I take stock over the last 365 days, I’m amazed at how much I've grown in this hobby…or maybe, rather that should be how much it has sucked me in!

The Train Set Syndrome (Another Guide to Gaming with Kids)

You know what I mean, right? Dad buys son a train set for Christmas. Dad builds train set with son. Dad and son play with train set. Dad buys more track, cars, and scenery to expand train set. Dad spends small fortune to build replica of West Virginia that takes up most of the basement. Dad now has new hobby subscribing to train set magazines and going to train set conventions. Mom decides on future Christmas presents for son.

I'll be honest. Nostalgia was the catalyst in introducing my kids to hobby gaming. In junior high and high school I spent an inordinate number of late nights board gaming with friends. As this was before the influx of German hobby games to the United States, we played war games. Mostly it was Risk and the Milton Bradley GameMasters Series (Axis & Allies, Samurai Swords, Conquest of the Empire, and Fortress America). We also enjoyed some select titles of the old Avalon Hill and SPI hex and counter, strategy simulations. We even dabbled in painted miniatures. Oh, how the plastic and cardboard and tempers would fly!

Tales of Legend and Woe at Gencon 2013

Yesterday, FarmerLenny wrote up his experience at Gen Con, primarily regarding the games he played.  Now it's my turn.  I'll talk about some games, but I feel that my experiences go beyond just playing a few demos, and most of the games I played were also played by FarmerLenny, so I don't need to bore you with unnecessary details.  It was definitely a wild ride, but not all of what happened was super fantastic, even though it tried to be.

So, without further ado, here's what happened at Gen Con.

Guide to Gaming: Research Before You Buy

Board gaming is a great hobby, accessible to a broad range of ages and demographics. As such, it is wonderful for both casual and structured social occasions, it can stimulate the mind, and it is ideal for family bonding. And it accomplishes all of that through fun. But like any hobby, it’s not cheap. Indeed, there are three major concerns that you, the average gamer, face when building your collection. One, you’re most likely on a tight budget. Therefore, you cannot take a “shotgun approach” to buying games, hoping to land a few diamonds amongst the rough. Two, your available free time is likewise probably constrained. So you want to be reasonably sure that the games you do buy are able to actually see the table from time to time. Which leads to three, there are so many games out there that it can often be overwhelming. Few things are more frustrating in this hobby than spending your limited budget on games that gather dust on the shelves because it turned out they weren’t interesting, good, or relevant to your gaming. How do you know which titles best fit your family, group, and personal gaming habits so that your money and time are used to best advantage? The challenge is to build a collection that is strong, suits a variety of situations, and that you will actually play – all without breaking the bank. So where to start?

Happyface

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend.  Hope you had some tasty food, spent some good time with family, and got some gaming in.  Maybe you got some good deals on Black Friday (hopefully you did not punch anyone to do so. That would be bad).  Hopefully you had a thanks to stop and take some time to, you know... be thankful.

As for me, I did have a great thanksgiving weekend.  Got some great food - my mom's homemade thanksgiving dinner, my mom-in-laws thanksgiving dinner leftovers - spent some good quality time with family (see above), and got some gaming in.

Nothing special or noteworthy as far as gameplay goes.  Nothing crazy happened.  I didn't pull out any brand new games or try something I'd never played before.

I did finally get a chance to teach my mom Dominion (it's hard to get 4-player games in with my family when usually there are anywhere between 5-15 people around).  Dominion was a game she was apprehensive to try, thinking it to be too complicated - but i'm happy to report, she liked it (it helped that, even though she didn't win first place, she beat my dad.  Incidentally, my wife killed us all.  She's really good at board games).  I also taught Ticket to Ride.

A very special moment happened later that day, though.  Just as we were leaving, my mom gave me a hug goodbye - and she thanked me for having a hobby that the whole family could enjoy.

Sadface

Sometimes, this hobby can be a little depressing.

I woke up the other saturday and really felt like playing a board game or two.  Unfortunately all my friends were busy; some were at work, others with family or visitor obligations. My wife's idea of the perfect saturday morning involves missing most of it due to sleep, so I really had no one to turn to.  Not to mention it was pretty last minute anyways.

I'm not much for playing board-games solo.  I much prefer to match wits against a human opponent, or if it's a cooperative game to, you know, play it cooperatively.  So playing by myself doesn't usually cut it.  Man, that was kind of a depressing morning.  One of my favorite things in the world to do and yet... no way to do it.

It happens a lot, really.  Even when we try to pre-plan.  Most of my game-playing time happens during lunch; which means any game that takes longer than an hour doesn't get much showtime.  Friday is my only constant game-night; but my gaming group favors RPGs so boardgames only get a few weeks every so often when we break between campaigns.  Beyond that, things happen in life and there's just not always free time.  We have homes, we have chores, we have church things to attend.  We like to spend times with our wives, who don't always want to spend 2 hours of their evening playing a highly strategic board game.  It's a discouraging struggle to have something you love but not often have the opportunity to enjoy it fully.  Lunch games are always a rush.  And there's always that other game on the shelf you want to play but just can't seem to find the time.

And then of course, you don't have infinite money.  So now you have to choose between an old game you've been wanting for a while; or the latest game everyone's talking about.  Board games don't go out of style as quickly as video games, so people still talk about the great things from 5, 10, 20 years ago.  How can you possibly budget for both the new games you desire and the old ones you never got a chance to play?

And then you have the games that you know you want to play; the game you know you'll love but you're just not sure it'll go over well in your gaming group.  Maybe it takes too long; maybe it's a theme no one else likes; it just doesn't seem likely to hit the table.

Don't get me wrong; I love this hobby.  I haven't dumped a load of spending money into games and invested all this blogging time for any other reason than I'm in, all the way. 

But I chose this hobby to pursue, and sometimes I wonder why.  With the difficulty of pulling games together; the interference of too-small maximum players or too-many minimum players; the toughness of deciding what to buy and when.  Sometime's it's just discouraging and even depressing.

You ever feel like that? Or is it just me?

At the Movies

Did you see the trailer for the Battleship movie? Have you heard about adaptations of Candyland and Monopoly into film? I don't know where it started, but in recent months it seems like movie studios have been jumping on the bandwagon of movies based on board games. Of course we love our favorite hobby getting a little attention, but from the looks of things, not all publicity is, in fact, good publicity.

While I don't work in Hollywood, I studied filmmaking in college and I work as a video editor and sometimes producer. As such, I feel slightly qualified to rant both about the poor adaptations of board game films and Hollywood in general. And I don't believe you'll be seeing a quality movie coming out of a board game franchise anytime soon.

Do you play for the players, or for the game?

Boardgaming is a great hobby.  There is a huge variety of games to choose from.  More and more great games come out each day, and unlike some mediums of entertainment, almost all great games from the past continue to be great games now.  You don't need to buy expensive new computers to play the latest games, and you have no problem pulling out a game from 15 years ago.  Games promote social interaction, strategic and creative thinking, and just having something to do when you're bored, even when the power goes out.

But more importantly, board gaming is truly a social experience.  Unlike online multiplayer video games - of which the social interaction often boils down to pre-adolescent boys screaming profanities and slurs at everyone else - board games get groups of people interacting in person around an actual table, with no digital screens or wires in the way.

To build a city (A Review of Carcassonne)

[Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house thematic-loving @futurewolfie and his ferocious opponent, the stodgy euro-loving @Farmerlenny. Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

A lot of American games are based entirely on luck (or weird knowledge of an obscure subject). Mechanics such as "roll the dice and move that many spaces forward" are simple and easy to learn, but don't have any lasting value. In fact, it doesn't take long to realize that these games just... aren't very fun. Fortunately, there exists a number of games that are close equivalents to those weakly designed games that are still simple and easy to learn, but add some choices and elements of strategy that give the gameplay lasting value. To put it simply, they are fun.

The self-propagation theory

A thought occurred to me after a game of Ascending Empires tonight, as I put the game away into my game closet.  I looked over the variety of games there, thinking about the ones I liked and the ones that just didn't seem to get as much playtime.  I picked up Munchkin and looked at it and thought about why Munchkin, despite it's enjoyable humor and appealing theme, didn't get played much anymore.

The last couple of times I played Munchkin, at least that I remember, one person got stuck around level 2.  Every time it was their turn, they kicked down the door to find either a monster far too powerful for them, or a new class or race that didn't really help.  They never became powerful enough to help anyone else... so they couldn't really play.  At least, not the main part of the game, the fun part.

Flying Solo

Not this kind of Solo

Do you ever play board games "solo"?

For a very long time, the thought never occurred to me that you even could play a board game by yourself.  I mean, what would the point be? Board games are designed to play with other people. Where is the challenge, the tension, the excitement, in knowing exactly what every other "player" is going to do?

Once More Unto The Breach (another look back at Gencon)

@Farmerlenny shows his excitement 

Not to beat a dead horse, but since this was not my first run at Gencon, I figured it was worth sharing my thoughts as well.  If you read yesterdays post you already know that myself, @Farmerlenny, and our friend Blake, all attended Gencon over the weekend with many thoughts towards finding and playing new games to share with our readers here.  We hit up the floor friday and saturday, saw a lot of sights, and played a lot of games.  Here are my thoughts, and a coupla photos.

Forbidden Love, or, The Box That Sits

A brief disclosure: I am a packrat, from a family of packrats. Cleaning out my grandma's house was an exercise in patience and archaeology. We sounded walls to find all the hidden compartments, each of which was filled with another item "for a rainy day." This mind-set—born, no doubt, in the Great Depression—was passed on to her children and eventually her grandchildren. And beyond its practicality for life, it has found its way into my hobby.

Save the multiverse! (A review of Sentinels of the Multiverse)

[Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house thematic-loving @futurewolfie and his ferocious opponent, the stodgy euro-loving @Farmerlenny. Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

If you've ever wanted to join a superhero team made up of your friends, to fight a supervillain with plans to conquer the world... Sentinels of the Multiverse might be the game for you. Sentinels is a cooperative card game in which each player chooses one of  ten superheroes to team up against one of four supervillains within one of four possible environments. Sentinels of the Multiverse will be released at GenCon later this week, but you can check out our impressions below.

When Games are Ruined

A friend, brother-in-law, and occassional board-game opponent of mine (who I will henceforth refer to as "Josh") once told me a story about a very bad experience he had playing Settlers of Catan as a newcomer in a previously established group.

Let me get across an important fact here:  Josh loves Settlers of Catan.  He has every currently-available expansion for the game.  He has been known to stay up all hours of the night playing multiple games.  It's his number one game.

And yet, when he played with one particular group of guys, he didn't have any fun.  Why? Well, apparently their method of playing essentially ruined the game.

On Vacation: Gaming with Nongamers

Every once in a while you just have to get away from the normal drudgeries of life.  Fortunately, someone was brilliant enough to come along and invent Vacations.

However, leaving on vacation almost always entails leaving your normal gaming group behind, and spending a lot more time with family members who may or may not be as interested in games as you are.  This means that if you want to get some gaming in you're going to have to convince people to try out something new.