Podcast editing (oops!), fun with recording, and a few games....

Last night was a late one, so I woke up to an alarm, called home to say "Good Morning" to Shel before she left for work, then fell back to sleep for a couple of hours.  Podcast editing was the order of the day to start, but "D'oh!" I need to remember that I cannot touch ANY of the plugs when Garageband is uploading/converting the recording to mp3.  I unplugged the mics mid-conversion and freaked the machine out.  Had to start over with the bumpers on the recording.  Grrr!!!

Uploaded and had some problems with that as well - Thanks for the heads up Steve!

Recorded with Dominic Crapuchettes and Satish Pillalamarri of North Star Games - fun interview, but there might be too much static (unknown reason) on the recording.  I'll see if I can fix it because we had a great time talking, esp. about their new game Say Anything which should appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike (a cross between Apples to Apples and Wits and Wagers, their other well-known game).

Dave Arnott was next on the mic, and his conversation will go up in the morning (or late tonight - I've already set it up with bumpers).

Dinner at a German restaurant in Germantown, followed by a visit to a cool local bookstore (not as good as Powell's in Portland, but still fun and funky.  I'm on a Simenon reading obsession, so I bought a few.

On To The Games!

Prototype:

Dominic pulled out a fun and quick card game for us to try that should appeal to those who enjoy the 10 Days... series of games.  More if and when it makes it to market, as it could be BOTH a board AND card game.

Metropolys:

The new Ystari and a very interesting one!  Plays quick with 2-4 players (we played with a full compliment) and we were done in 45 minutes or so (says 30-60 on the box).

Each player gets a set of buildings (nice wooden pieces) in 3 heights and with the numbers 1-13 on them.  There are 5 of height 1, and 4 of the other 2 heights.  The board is separated into districts and those are further broken up into areas.  You get 2 bonus cards in the "Expert" game that are goals to try to achieve.  Some easy, the one I got was nearly impossible.  The first type is a area color you hope to secure as yours.  the second type are goals like "3 buildings in a district," or "3 around a fountain."  There are also chips of -1, 1, and 3 in certain districts, a card associated with the -1 (last to take a -1 gets a card that is another -2), a card associated with the 3 (first person to get three 3's gets the card, take it away a la Settlers' Longest Road).  Finally there are 5-point chips for each player who has the tallest building in each district 

The start player then chooses ANY area on the board and places one of his/her buildings in the area.  Subsequent players can either place a higher numbered building in an orthagonally adjacent area, OR pass.  The person who places the highest building turns it over and claims that area, the others (who passed) take their buildings back.  Game ends when ONE player plays all of his/her buildings.

I liked this one better than most of the other games I've played so far, even though I came in last place (what does that say about me when the games I've enjoyed the most are the ones I lose horribly at?).  It's quick, has some great bits, and makes you ponder your placements.  You certainly don't want to tip your hand too early as to what your bonus cards are (I think I did that...).

Ticket To Ride Card Game:

Take the familiar Ticket to Ride mechanics, add a bit of Drive/Crazy Chicken's "only one player can have a particular color in front of him/her," and throw in a set collection mechanic that requires a memory element....and you have an interesting, but not great game IMO.  If you haven't checked out the review on boardgamenews.com, go there....

On your turn you can draw cards (2 or 1 locomotive), OR draw tickets (4, keeping 0-4), OR play either 2+ of one color or EXACTLY 3 of 3 different colors.  Ticket cards require 2-4 rail cards to fulfill.  But here's the twist...

At the start of your turn, you MUST pick up cards (one in each color in front of you) and put them FACE DOWN in a stack.  You then cannot look at the cards in that stack...and that's frustrating for me, though I guess it speeds up the game.  AND if your opponent has cards in a color in front of him/her, you must play MORE than he/she has in order to play that color.  If you do, they lose ALL of that color from in front of them.  That could get nasty.

It's interesting.  I played it 2 player, so there wasn't too much confrontation.  I'm not a big fan of "remember your big stack of collected stuff to fulfill goals at the end" games.  Further play is needed.

Shanghaien:

This is a new game in the 2-player Kosmos line (I think - same box size), and one of the designers is Michael Schacht. That's in it's favor...but it has dice...uh oh!

Actually I liked this 20 minute game quite a bit!  Each player has 6 dice and each round cards are laid out between players and these are 'fought' for.  Players either roll 2 dice and assign 1 to a card OR call Shanghai and end the round (after placing at least 2 dice on their side).  There are 6 cards out and after that first roll of 2 dice, the start player chooses which end will be 1 and which end will be 6 by placing a die (you then go in order depending on that first placement).  Only specific numbers can then be assigned to the various cards.  You car trying to win guys in various colors (I think 7) or special cards that allow you to re-roll, etc.  Other interesting aspect is the scoring because if you are the only one with guys in a color, you get all of the ones you have collected at the end of the game; otherwise, if you win in a color, you get the cards that your opponent has collected in that color.  

For example, say I have 5 red guys and my opponent has 8.  At the end of the game he gets my 5 for having 8.  Makes sense, right?

Surprisingly, this is a dice game I LIKE!  Yes, it's not too long, there are some fun decisions to make, you CAN be hurt by bad rolls, but it's over before too much pain can set in.

This was probably the best game of the day.

Enough for now....