North of Reality

What I want to do this year

2012-01-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

Even though the first month of 2012 is half over, the year is young so I still have time to post this. Last year I posted five things that I wanted to accomplish in 2011, and I did 3 out of 5 of them. Overall that is pretty good I think. Off that list, I hosted an event at Gen Con (which I hope to be be doing again this year). Last year, I posted that I wanted to write regularly, and I got off to a good start to discover that, actually, no I did not want to write. So I can cross that one off the list. I also had on the list that I wanted to make my own game, and I did that as part of a board game design contest. So as I look ahead at 2012 and think about what steps I want to be intentional about in my life here is what I am thinking:

1. Ride More (still)
This was on the list last year, and sadly I have to put it on the list (again). I still have a bike, and once it warms up I have ZERO reasons why I should not get it out and ride it regularly. Last year, in the Spring it was kind of hard to make time with the inflexibility of Abigail's job. However, with her new job that is not the case. Also, every time I thought about it I would make lame excuses like I do not have a water bottle attached to the bike, so I will get to thirsty. The simple fact is that I am either going to do it or I am not. This needs to be the year that I do it.

2. Create a Board Game (again)
So last year, I technically accomplished this one. However, while playable the game was not the best. This was in part because it was created for a contest that had set perimeters about what kind of theme and mechanic the game had to have, plus it only had a three week time span to make the game. I want to make a game that is good and playable. I want to make a game that is good enough that I can list it on boardgamegeek as a print and play game or even publish the game through the "do it yourself" website gamecrafter.com. I have two ideas for this game. One is a super hero adventure game that I have blogged about before. The other is a game that has a character creation system and tries to capture a Call of Duty feel as a board game. I used a very rough version of this second idea as part of a youth group lesson. The lesson worked well, and the game worked well enough to convince me there might be something to it.

3. Play Through All of Our Games
Abigail and I are attempting to play through all of our games in a year. Not only that, but I am attempting to document our progress with mini reviews and session reports. We are making good progress. The reason why this post has been delayed is because I have spent my free time writing about the games we are playing instead. Our game blog is starting to get a little bit of a following, which is really exciting. I know I have already posted the link, but here it is again, please follow our progress: Too Many Games!!

4. Read All Four Gospels by Easter
Since on this past Sunday, I encouraged 400-500 people that they should do this, I had better make sure that I do as well! There are still like 84 days before Easter, so this should not be to hard as long as I keep up with regularly reading the Bible.

5. Listen to Music More
I know that I do not listen to music anywhere near as much as most people. I also know that compared to most people, music is mostly unimportant to me. I am not the kind of person who "needs music to survive." That being said, I understand the importance of music, especially for young children. If I want Connor to grow up appreciating music then I need to make sure he is hearing music. Which means I need to make the conscious effort to listen to it more (plus when he dances it is adorable).

6. Begin playing an RPG
Between my experience with the writing project and running an RPG at Gen Con, I realized just how much I miss running a role playing game. I really love the creativity of creating a story and then bringing that story to life on the fly with other people. I am really hoping that throughout the course of this year, I can recruit people and get a causal game going.

The Video Game Post, 2012 Edition

2012-01-06T19:55:00.000-08:00

Last year, I made a similar video game post. One of the things I wrote about is how I do not play video games as much as I use to. In 2011, this became even more true. I think the truth of the matter is that in the realm of video games I may be transitioning to a more casual player. Evidence of this is the fact that unlike the past years I will not be posting a top ten list of my favorite video games of 2011. I will not even be posting a top five list. I tried to put together a list, but I did not have five games that I liked this year. I only bought three Xbox 360 games. I liked one, disliked one, and was disappointed by the other. The best I can offer is a top three list, so here are my best experiences with video games from 2011.

The best video game I played in 2011 was Batman Arkham City. In fact, it is among the best video games I have ever played. Everything about the game, the controls, graphics, music, and storyline work together perfectly to craft a fantastic batman story. In this game I felt like I was playing Batman. The original game, Arkham Asylum, was good but this one blew it away. The second best game experience I had was Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. This expansion pack for Red Dead Redemption introduced zombies into the wild west. The length of the expansion was perfect. Unlike the base game, Undead Nightmare did not outwear it's welcome and killing zombies is always fun. The Wild West and zombies were a perfect mix. Finally, the best iOS game I played in 2011 was Starbase Orion. This 4X game is fairly light, but the controls are perfect for the iPad. I played through it many times over the Fall.

In my video game post last year I also made mention of the agreement that Abigail and I have to get five video games a year, and I posted the games that I am considering. One of the reasons that I only got three games this year is because the majority of the games I was interested in were delayed until this year. This makes things harder this year, as there are potentially more games that I am interested in. So here are the video games I am looking forward to in 2012:

Skyrim: Technically, this game came out in 2011, but is the video game that I am most want to play. Skyrim is an open world RPG. This means that there is a big open world. While there is a story, the players really get to define their own experience. The previous game in Oblivion, was amazing, and I played it for well over 100 hours. At some point in 2012 Skyrim should either drop a little in price or have a game of the year edition released. Once of the those things happen, I plan on getting Skyrim. It will for sure be one of the five games that I get this year.

Mass Effect 3: I have blogged before about how much I enjoy the Mass Effect series. I stand by my previous statement that Mass Effect is the best story I have ever experienced. This is not because the story is so incredible (though it is good), it is because of the immersion within the story the game creates. Mass Effect 2 continued this excellence, and I am very much looking forward to the final chapter.

Soul Calibur V: I am a causal fan of fighting games. I think this is mostly because two fighting games, Soul Calibur III and Mortal Kombat: Deception were everything I wanted from a fighting game. However, every fighting game I have played since then has been a disappointment because they offer such a barebones single player experience. I enjoyed Soul Calibur IV, so following up with the next game seems like a good choice.

Halo 4: It is Halo. I like Halo, and I have all of them. This will be a great single player game and the multiplayer will be good as well. This is also an absolute must get.

Aliens Colonial Marines: This year a FPS about Aliens will be coming out. It is made by Gearbox, and I have enjoyed their Brothers in Arms WWII games. An Aliens game where I get to play as a Space Marine has a lot of potential, and I think the co-op multiplayer would be a blast.

Racoon City: Racoon City is related to the Resident Evil game series. Unlike previous Resident Evil games that have clunky third person controls, this is a full on first person shooter. A first person shooter about shooting zombies. Any shooter about blasting zombies is one that is of interest to me. However, I will want to wait for reviews because first person shooters are a very western style of game, and Capcom is a very Japanese developer. Sometimes when these two things cross it does not always work out.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier: I really liked the Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter games. This is the next game related to that. However, the first iteration of Future Soldier was very troubled and re-done. This is another games I will want to read reviews about to see how it has panned out.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2: I am just assuming this game is coming out, since there has been a new Call of Duty every year that the Xbox 360 has been out. I was very let down and did not care for this year's Call of Duty. The game this year will be made by Treyarch games, and I do tend to like the Treyarch games more. However, I am wondering if I might want to take a break from Call of Duty this year, so I can experience other games. It will really come down to the reviews for Racoon City and Future Soldier. If I get one of those, then I will be very tempted to skip out on Call of Duty.

Soul Calibur V comes out at the end of this month, so I will need to begin deciding which five games I might want to get soon.

Top Ten Memories of 2011

2012-01-02T20:52:00.000-08:00

This is Abigail's favorite post I make every year, and this is my tenth year to make one of these lists. I know that globally, 2011 was kind of a turbulent year. This was a year of transition for us as well. Two major things really gave this year a transitive feel. First, this year we got to watch Connor transition from baby to boy. At the beginning of the year, Connor barely knew 20 words and could not walk. At the end of the year Connor knew well over 100 words, is beginning to talk in complete sentences, and runs everywhere.

The other big transition we faced this year was Abigail switching jobs from teaching to being a case manager for people with special needs. Due to this transistion, this year really feels like two different years, with the first six months being one year and the second being the other year. Despite having that odd feeling, it has still only been one year and here are the top ten memories I will have from this year.

10. The Society of Crime Fighters
While this is related to Gen Con, I think that this deserves its own entry. I really enjoy being a game master in role playing games. I love creating the back bone of a story and then work cooperatively with players to create the story. Despite enjoying this, up until this year I had not done this since 2001. At Gen Con this year, I signed up to run an RPG event. I found a neat system and came up with a pulp superhero adventure. The players were heroes who were conscripted by the government to investigate a Nazi experiment to create wolf-human hybrid super soldiers. Leading up to Gen Con I ran through the adventure with two groups to practice and refine it. The actual adventure went great and I had a blast. I think from now on, running a game at Gen Con is going to be something I try to do every year.

9. Gen Con 2011
Gen Con really is one of the absolute highlights of my year. Other than running the RPG, there were a couple of other things that made this a good Gen Con. First, this was the second time Abigail came with me. We got to do a lot together and we even spent the night downtown. Second, I got to meet up with one of my friends and college room mates during the event and that was cool. Finally, I got to meet Tom Vasel, who hosts a podcast that Abigail and I listen to every week.

8. Christmas
This Christmas will be a strong memory for a couple of reasons. First on Christmas morning when Connor was going through his stocking he found a Thomas and Friends DVD. The look of surprise and excitement was so great, so genuine, and so perfect. It was the first time I have ever seen him have that kind of happy surprise. The second reason was since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, I was asked to do a children's message during the service. During this time, Connor came running up the center aisle shouting "daddy" the entire time. This spontaneous act of love and affection will always be with me and was unbelievably cute.

7. Nerf War Lock In
We did this at church last year, but I think this year was even more fun and incredibly epic. For example, here is a story from that night: We were playing a game type where one team had to defend a bomb for 10 minutes and the other team had to defuse it. Once a person was shot they were out. We planted the bomb in the church basement kitchen. This location had a window and only one entrance making it very defensible. A small group protected the kitchen, while the majority held the stairs. Even though we were being attacked from both sides. We were holding. I was in the kitchen, and it was crazy. Nerf darts were flying in as a dozen or so kids were shooting in to it. Our medic was in the kitchen and he kept healing the defenders. Eventually, we lost the stairs and the majority of the team was taken out. I was hit and went down. The medic healed me, and was then shot. I had not gotten up yet and Nerf darts kept coming in to the kitchen. My gun was empty and all of clips were used up. All I had was single shot hold out blaster. The general for the other team came into the kitchen. I shot him. As he dropped to his knees he said "I thought you were dead!" to which I could only respond "Not yet." At which point I was shot twice and then the alarm went off signally the bomb had exploded. Absolutely epic!

6. Canoe Trip
One of the things we do every summer with the youth group is take a fun trip. This year we went caving and canoeing in southern Indiana. The Caving portion was a special group only spelunking tour that was a lot of fun. It was mainly creek stomping through a cave with a small crawling portion. The Canoe part was a seven mile trek down the Blue River. I had not been canoeing since I worked at Cave Country Canoes when I was seventeen. I find Canoeing down a river fun. Even though I know that at this point hundreds of thousands of people have been down that same stretch of river there is still a sense of exploration and adventure. I would be really interested to canoe elsewhere at some point. One fun part of this canoeing is that three of the canoes engaged in a race. One of the canoes cut off the other, which caused them to turn into my canoe. However, we did not change course, and we had enough speed that when we hit the side of their canoe we jostled them enough to cause the canoe to tip.

5. Mission Trip
As I think I mentioned last year, I think that as long as I work with a youth group that takes trips then they will be on the list. This year the youth group went to Huntsville, Alabama. This year was also really special for me because we got to work with two friends from college. This trip was a big lesson in flexibility for all I think. A couple of weeks before we were to come, our main contact with an organization we were working with quit. This meant things were thrown together at the last minute but it worked. I think that every day we were doing exactly what we needed to do. The best part was the youth from Avon got to work side by side with the youth from Gurley UMC. The kids from these two churches were worlds apart, and it was excellent to watch the teens get over their own assumptions, biases, and comfort zones. By the end of the week their was genuine acceptance and unity among teens who at the beginning of the week would have been hard pressed to associate with one another. It was once again a good week.

4. Vacation
Abigail started her new job on June 29th. Because she started before July 1st, she was entitled to one week of vacation before the end of the year. She took off the first week in November. We did some stuff around the area like taking Connor to the Columbus Children's museum. However, on Thursday night we dropped Connor off with my parents and then spent all day Friday and Saturday together without Connor. This is the longest time we have spent together without Connor since he has born. On Friday we split the day. I planned the first half and Abigail planned the second. For my part, we went to the Incredible Pizza company. This is like a Ci-Ci's combined with a super Dave and Busters. We had a lot of fun doing duck pin bowling and go karts. For Abigail's part we went to Lafayette. While there she let me get a random game from a game store, took me to a diner with good hamburgers and awesome root beer, and then took me to a wolf park for "howl night." On Saturday we headed back to Indianapolis to play board game with friends. I love Connor dearly, but it was refreshing to spend an extended amount of time with just Abigail.

3. Camp
While I technically directed camp several years ago, the camp I directed then only had like 20 some people. In 2011 I co-directed camp with two other local youth directors and our camp had 105 kids. Even though it was the hottest week of the summer it was still a great week of camp. My primary responsibility was camp activities, and one of my major functions was the all camp games. I am very pleased that several of the camp staff let me know that the games we had were the best of the summer. The best game we played was a "water balloon revolutionary war." Over a hundred kids marched in formation and maneuvered around a field throwing water balloons at each other. It was really a great sight to behold. It was a great and powerful week of camp, and we are already beginning to plan for next year.

2. Walk to Emmaus
This year I took part on the Walk to Emmaus. To not lessen the impact of a walk for someone who may do it in the future, I will not give many details about what happened over the weekend. However, I can say why this was meaningful for me. I have a astigmatism which makes my vision blurry. When I go to the eye doctor it is always amazing how they apply the lens to correct the blurriness. Everything just comes into focus and clears up. The walk was like applying this lens. It really helped focus my faith and clear the blurriness that had begun to form around the edges. The second thing that Emmaus really did for me is that the experience affirmed my call to ministry more powerfully than any other experience I had previously had. While I do feel called to ministry I left the Walk with that call fully affirmed and I believe that affirmation has really made a difference in my ministry over the past couple of months as I have had a greater confidence in it.

1. Game Day
In the middle of November there was an all day Game Day at the church. For twelve hours we played games and 80 some people came to participate in it. The Game Day was a lot of fun, but this entry is really a stand in for the every other week game night. The Game On! Game Night started in February of 2011. Every other week this year the game group has met. Since graduating college, I have greatly desired something like this game day. A chance to hang out with other people, doing something I enjoy, and making friends. I am so happy that this actually got off the ground and has been very successful, and it really is the highlight of 2011 for me.

Too Many Games!!!

2012-01-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

One of things that Abigail and I are going to attempt to do this year is play through all of our games. Assuming that we do not get any new ones (which since there are two in the mail right now is not going to happen), we have 164 games. To get them all played by the end of the year requires playing about 13 unique games a month. That should be doable for us. However, we ideally want to get this done by the end of July.

One of the main reasons why we want to play through all of our games is to identify the games we do not want, so that we can get rid of them. We want to know what games we are ready to part with by Gen Con so that we can include them in the Gen Con no-ship math trade, or if they do not trade sale them. To play through all of the games by the end of July requires playing through 23 unique games a month which will be a lot harder!

Harder yet, is that I am hoping to document our attempt to do this. I plan on blogging about each of our games as we play them, and we have a dedicated blog for this. So if you are interested in games, bookmark it and follow along: Too Many Games!!! Blog

Top Ten Board Games of 2011

2011-12-29T19:51:00.000-08:00

So it has been a while since I have .posted anything because our computer died, and we just got a replacement. With the year almost over it is time for my favorite blogs of the year, the end of the year lists.

This year I played 34 games published in 2011. Several of them were good, but I also played a couple of games that came out this year that were among the worse I have played period. What follows are the top ten games I have played that were released in the year 2011, of course they are in descending order for dramatic effect.

10. Test of Fire: Bull Run 1861

Objectively speaking, this is probably not the tenth best game from this year that I have played. The game is fairly simple, and it may have some limited replayability. However, it is a war game that Abigail will happily play. As the title implies the game simulates the 1861 battle of Bull Run. One player controls the union and the other controls the rebels. This game has an unique die system, where at the beginning of a turn the player rolls dice and the numbers rolled determines what actions can be taken. The combat is also a bit of a dice fest, and even though it is abstract the game capture the feel of a Civil War battle. Since September or so we have played the game three times, and I am fairly sure it will get several more plays.

9. Belfort

This is one of three games on this list that we do not (yet) own. I have only had a chance to play the game once but I greatly enjoyed that play. Belfort is a rather unique euro game that combines a couple of major mechanics found in other games. At it's core the game is a worker placement game where players place workers in available spots that allow for specific actions. What makes Belfort unique is what the actions are being used for. Players use the actions to get resources to build buildings on the board. When a building is built the player claims the location on the board. Players will score points based on how much of one of the five areas they control. This worker placement and area control mixture made for a neat game.

8. Quarriors

Quarriors is a love it or hate it sort of game. The best way to explain the game is to call it a deck building game with dice. Players roll dice and use what is rolled to either buy new dice or summon creatures to defeat other player's creatures and score points. A lot of people complain about the game having double luck, but luck is inherent to rolling six dice a turn. As a light, quick game I find Quarriors a lot of fun because rolling a fistful of dice is good times.

7. King of Tokyo

This is another game that we do not have. Our main reason for not getting it is that King of Tokyo is not a good two player only game. However, it is another game that proves that dice are fun. In King of Tokyo each player is a city destroying monster. The goal is to be in Tokyo the longest and score points. However, it is a giant game of king of the hill and the players will try to knock someone out of Tokyo. All of this is primarily done using dice. The game is a fun experience.

6. Eminent Domain

Eminent Domain is a game that Abigail and I pre-ordered because it sounded like it would contain elements of two of our favorite games: Dominion and Race for the Galaxy. Like Dominion, Eminent Domain is a deck building game, but it plays vastly different. Eminent Domain is all about building a space empire of planets and technology and utilizing these elements to score points. The game is fun and it is all about being very efficient. Despite liking it, I am very bad it and Abigail tends to win (which is probably why she likes it!)

5. Ninjato

Ninjato proves that everything is better with Ninjas. Ninjato is a euro game that gives players a limited amount of actions each turn, so players have to decide what is the best use of their actions. While some of the scoring is similar to another game we like (Stone Age), the heart of Ninjato is using ninjas to raid noble houses. The game has a neat mechanic where the player has to decide if they want to sneak or fight guards. If they sneak they have to play cards lower than the guard and if they sneak they have to go higher. The whole game is fun with a great theme, and I like it because I happen to be listed in the rule book as a playtester.

4. A Few Acres of Snow

A Few Acres of Snow, which happens to be by the same person who made Test of Fire, is the second war game on the list. A Few Acres of Snow is unique in that it has players build a deck, but the deck building is one element of the game. The player play the British and French and fight for control of Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries. The game is very unique and kind of hard to describe briefly. All of the mechanics work together really well, and best of all this is yet another war game that Abigail will willingly play (but she does not like wargames).

3. Eclipse

Eclipse is the final game on the list that we do not have, and we probably will not just because the cost is so high (MSRP of $99). As far as design and play goes, this may be the best game that I have played this year. The two games above it only get the nod because I have them and can play them more regularly. Eclipse is a space empire game. In fact it is even a 4X game. 4X games (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) tend to be long, complex affairs. However, Eclipse is fairly simple to understand and all of the mechanics work so well. In the game I played three people were all competitive for the win and we were all in the chase for the win. Even better the whole game only took 2 1/2 hours. I will gladly play Eclipse any chance I get.

2. Yomi

Earlier this year, I included Yomi on my list of top ten favorite games period. It might still be there in the future because this is such a fun game. Yomi simulates fighting video games in a way that works so well. Each turn players pick either an attack, a throw, or a block/dodge. Players reveal these cards simultaneously and who wins is determined by a paper rock scissors mechanic. Combos and special moves are possible as well. The game has 10 character and each character has a deck of cards that is completely unique and plays differently from the other characters. The only reason why Yomi does not have a TON of plays by this point is because Abigail does not like it anywhere near as much as I do

1. Blood Bowl: Team Manager

My favorite game from 2011 is easily this card game. I absolutely love playing it. Blood Bowl: Team Manager is an abstract fantasy(emphasis on fantasy) football game. The players are not playing individual games but controlling a team over a season. The players use their team cards to compete over highlight reels which give them bonuses like points, new players, and upgrades. The unique theme, the dynamic card interactions, and the head to head play all make this a real winner for me. Of the 34 games released in 2011 that I have played, this is easily my favorite.

Fun with numbers

2011-12-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

Because it lets me and it takes all of two seconds, I log my plays on the website board game geek. This serves no real function other creating a record of how much and how often I play specific games. I can also look back at what I have played in big segments like this:
Third Year of Recorded Plays

To Boldly Go . . .

2011-11-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks, I have developed a bit of a space theme. One of the main drives behind this is that I have been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix. I liked this show back in the day when it was on, and I am enjoying it quite a bit again. However, there are a couple of things that I am left questioning. The first is the set design. I find it odd that they would take time to carpet the bridge, or put decorative plants in the hallways. Watching several episodes in a row, I have noticed the writers rely on encountering a mysterious "advance entity" a lot. It is really convenient for them because they can basically pull off what ever they want and explain it away as a mysterious advance life form.
Any way watching Star Trek, led me to think more about playing Warcosm (more on that in a second). One of the worst parts about warcosm is that the components it comes with barely count as components, so I traded for a copy of an old game called Starfire, so that I could use board and counters for Warcosm. The game also came with an old catalog. The company mostly made Star Fleet games, based in a version of the Star Trek universe. The main game, Star Fleet Battles looks fun. Though I have read it is a beast to learn because there is a lot of micro-management. One of the neat things about Star Trek is the way power is always reallocated (you know, "Scotty, I need more power!"). In Star Fleet Battles power gets allocated to all the systems. . .every turn. A more managable version, called Federation Commander exists and it looks like that I would love.

The catalog also had an entry for a game called Federation and Empire. This is a grand strategy Star Trek game, where players take a role of a faction and fight an entire war from on a galactic scale. The depth and length of this game puts it in the "monster game" category. To spend dozens and dozens of hours over a map, building and moving my forces, sounds like an epic time. Playing this game is now on my "bucket list".

To further increase this Star Trek theme, this week at half price books I got a DVD that has every Star Trek comic book ever made. In the 80's-90's DC had a fairly successful Star Trek and Next Generation series. In addition to those there is a series from the 60s, plus movie adaptions and several mini-series. All in all this is over 500 comics. Even better with a couple of clicks, I can read them on the iPad.

Speaking of the ipad, Star Trek is not the only space themed entertainment I have been indulging in. A couple of weeks ago a game for the ipad came out called Star Base Orion.

This is a 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate). It is made with the limitations and advantages of the ipad in mind. For the past couple of weeks it has actually been my main video game to play. It is a lot of fun to start from one small home world, slowly expand, colonizing new worlds, and then eventually take over neighboring races to rule the galaxy.

Finally back to Warcosm. Back in October, I wrote about enhancing games, and I mentioned an idea I had to create an indepth Warcosm campaign. Last week I started doing that, so when I am done, I will have created everything needed to play the Nebula War.

I am still only in season three of Star Trek the Next Generation, have some 490 comics to still read, and I have plans to play a board game called Space Empires 4X in the next couple of weeks. This means this space theme may continue through the month of November.

Zombie Day 2011

2011-10-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, was the third year we did Zombie Day. Because of scheduling, this Zombie day was a bit different in that the festivities got split up over two days. Follow the link for a run down of what we did this year in celebration of the undead
Zombie Day 2011

Top Ten Games for Couples

2011-10-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

This is exciting. I had a request that makes for a perfect blog post. The request: from facebook: "Why don't y'all post up a recommendation list of fave 2-player games"

The list of our favorite two player games would not really be for everyone. For example Warhammer: Invasion and Cthulhu Rising would probably be on our list, but those games are not for everyone. So what follows is not necessarily my favorite games for two, but the games that I think are best for couples. These are ten games I would recommend to couples who were looking to get games beyond Scrabble to play together. It is in descending order for dramatic effect.

10. Tank on Tank

I am going to assume that for the most part guys are more interested then girls than playing war games. That is at least how it is for the two of us. Tank on Tank is the perfect war games for couples. The game has very simple rules so it is very simple to play. The big plus is the game plays really quick, like 15-20 minutes. That means that even if one person does not really like the idea of war games then the easy rules and quick play time makes it so that it can still be playable.

9. Pandemic

I think a co-op game is a good pick for two players, because it can be fun working together. I think this is a good pick. This one about curing the world of diseases as the right mixture of theme, difficulty and replayability to make it a good pick.

8. Roll Through the Ages

Rolling dice is fun, but traditional dice games like Yahtzee do not really a lot of meaningful choices or strategy. Roll Through the Ages changes that. The goal is to abstractly create a Civilization. Players roll dice up to three time keeping results, and have to balance feeding their people between building new cities, building monuments or investing in technology. It is quick, has great components, and for a game with all dice offers a decent amount of strategy and decision. The game plays up to four, but I think it is most fun with two.

7. Yomi

The theme may not be the most appealing to everyone (a fighting video game), but this is a great two player game. The game is all about trying to get into the other player's head, read their intentions and get one step ahead of them. This game is great for people who really know each other, because knowing how an opponent thinks, and having the opponent know how you think (and know that you know how they think) makes for a great game. If the fantasy martial arts theme is a turn off, then Pecking Order, while not as fun, offers a similar experience.

6. Ticket to Ride: Switzerland
Ticket to Ride is a highly accessible game that is all about collecting colored sets of cards and then trading in those cards for trains that are used to complete routes, that score points. The game is easy, fun, and has some depth to it. Ticket to Ride can in general work for two players, but the Switzerland map expansion is specifically made to be really good for two players. The smaller map delivers. This has been out of print and kind of hard to get, but before the end of the year it is suppose to be reprinted.

5. Campaign Manager 2008

Campaign Manager is a two player game that has the players heading up the presidential campaign for Obama or McCain as they compete over the 2008 battleground states. Each turn a player has to decide to play a card or draw a card. If they play a card then it will give some sort of advantage in a state, but passing a drawing a card is the only way to get the much needed card. This game is all about balancing and making the right play at the right time. One of my initial concerns is that the game would not stand up to multiple plays, but we have played it eight times since March, and thus far the game has really held up well and is still a lot of fun.

4. Haggis

Haggis is a good "gateway" game. Meaning this is a good game to transition someone from the standard fare of games into the wider world of awesome games they have never played. even though it has it's own unique deck, Haggis has a lot in tradition with traditional card games. Haggis is a "climbing game". This means instead of following suit, the following player must play something higher than what was just played. Without going into a detailed explanation it is hard to give more detail about the game, but it works really well for two players, and at the low $15 price point it is really worth getting.

3. San Juan

Our most player game together is Race for the Galaxy. However, this game has a very steep learning curve and takes about a dozen games to really start getting a handle on it. San Juan, which is very similar to Race for the Galaxy, is the game that got us into it. In San Juan players are building various structures. the structures are the cards. To build, they have to pay for it by discarding cards. They can also produce goods (which are done by using the cards), and then trade good for more cards, to build more things. It is really neat how something that has the depth of a full board game has been replicated with cards. We got rid of San Juan because after coming back to it after Race for the Galaxy, it did not compare. However, it is still a good game and one I would highly recommend.

2. Builder's Duel

This is a fantastic two player game. Both players are trying to complete a building first. To do so they must collect resources and refine some resources as well. Each turn there are nine possible actions that a player might be able to do. One player will get to do three of them, and the other will get to do two. To determine who is who, the players essentially flip valued coins instead of rolling dice. This game is perfect for a couple that is looking for a game that feels and delivers a Euro game experience, but has been specifically crafted for two people.

1. Battle Line/Schotten-Totten

This game exist in two different forms. One is themed as ancient battles and the other as a cartoonish drunk Scotsman theme. The theme does not matter a lot to the game. Battle Line may be the perfect game for a couple to play together. It is quick, easy, and offers tons of agonizing decisions. The goal is to win five "flags" and to win flags players play a card in front of one of the 9 possibilities. Players are trying to form sets stronger than their opponents. Since only one card is played a time, there is a lot of tensions as players get in a spot where they are hoping the next card drawn is 'the one they need." The game plays quick. It is engaging, but not a brain burner. This makes it a great game to play while sitting across from each other and discussing how the day went. Since it plays quick, of the game ends, just keep the conversation going, shuffle, and play again.

Pre-Order Madness

2011-10-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

This morning I went on a bit of a game pre-ordering game. There was one game that if I wanted to pre-order I needed to do it by tomorrow. Since I was doing one, I figured I might as well go ahead and put myself down for all of the games that I have been thinking of pre-ordering. After it was all said and done, I had committed to five games, so here are the games that I will be getting some day.

Divided Republic
This was the game that I had to pre-order before the end of Sunday. As of right now there are two ways pre-order games: Kickstarter and P-500. Kickstarter is a website where people seek funding for a whole lot of different products. People support projects that they are interested in by pledging money at various levels.   Each project as a certain amount of money it needs to give the project the money it needs to happen, and they have to set a date to reach their goal by. This game's kickstarter campaign ends on Sunday night, so I backed it for the cost of the game.   This means if it reaches its funding, then after the game is printed I will get sent a copy.
This game is about the election of 1860. It is for 2-4 players, with each player playing one of the major parties in the election. The game is card driven and players will have to decide if they want to play cards for needed political influence of play the card for an unique effect. I like the historical element of the game and that the game also has a neat element where everyone can lose if the civil war breaks out, so players have to balance their playing to win, without tipping the balance so much that war breaks out.

Empires of the Void
As I posted last week, I created a game for a game design contest. The game that I created was distilled down from a game idea I had for a much bigger game.   Here is a post that details the game I was working on.   This video explains Empires of the Void:

I know that you most likely did not read my post and you did not watch the video, so I will tell you that the Empires of the Void has a LOT of similarities to the game I was thinking about making.   I figured I might as well save myself the trouble of making it and support this game. This is also a kickstarter game.

Manoeuvre: Distant Lands
This is an expansion to a game we already have. It adds 4 new armies to the game. This game is a P500 game. This is the other way of pre-ordering and it is used by a variety of companies that mostly publish war games. The way this works, is the game is put on the P500 list and the company begins taking pre-orders. Once the game reaches 500 pre-orders it "makes the cut". Once a game has made the cut, and it is ready then it is given a production slot. When the game begins shipping, the company charges the pre-orders. Often the P500 price is cheaper than the retail price.

Thunder Alley

This is also a P500 game. It is a NASCAR racing game that comes with two tracks (Super speedway and short track). In this game players control a team of cars. One of the neat things about this game is that it is card driven, instead of dice. This game just got added to GMT's P500 list, but I am really excited about it and I am looking forward to following the game as it develops.

1989

This is a game I have had in my mind to pre-order for a while. It is a 2 player game where players try to sway former soviet block countries to democracy or stay communist. The game is card driven, and each card can be used for multiple purposes. Players have to decide how to best use the cards. This game is developed by the same people who made a game we like called Campaign Manager.

All of these games will be coming out at some point in 2012, so now I just have to wait. . .a while.

Comic Books, Part 2

2011-09-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

This week ended the reboot of the DC universe. Throughout the month, they released 52 new #1 issues. It will be interesting to see how many of these 52 comic books find an audience and actually keep going. I checked out the digital previews for all 52 issues, but in the end I only tried eight of them. The big question is which ones will I stick with. What follows are my thoughts about each of the different issues, and what the likely hood of continuing to read the series will be:

Batgirl
As I stated at the beginning of the month I was going to check this one out because I really liked the cover. I am glad I did, because this was easily my favorite one. The story telling was great, and I really liked how they portrayed batgirl as a character with depth. She has enough confidence to dress up and fight crime, but at the same time she deals with a good deal of insecurity. The issue also introduced an intriguing villain. For the foreseeable future, I plan to stick with Batgirl.

Detective Comics/Batman
I am lumping these two together because they are both Batman comics. I am fairly sure that I am going to follow one of them, but I am not sure which one. I liked the artwork of Detective comics more. However, I liked the story telling and pacing of Batman more. Back to Detective comics, I think the first story arc sounds more intriguing and if Detective comics stays true to the name, I like the idea of having more mystery oriented stories. I think in the end, I will plan on following both of them for the first story arc, and then based on which story arc I liked the best stick with that one.

Green Arrow
I am a little torn on Green Arrow. As I mentioned previously, he is one of my favorite characters. For the reboot, they basically made the Green Arrow as Steve Jobs, the superhero. This works in some ways, and it gives him a supporting cast that is good. I like the set up for the first story arc (people using super powers to feed narcissism and gain fame). However, I found some of the scripting and dialogue to be not the greatest. I will stick with Green Arrow for the first few story arcs, but if I find this reading monthly comic books is costing more than I want, this might be the first one that I drop.

All Star Western
I think it is kind of neat that for this reboot, DC reached way back into the history for this title. In practice, this is a continuation of the Jonah Hex series, but eventually they will have some side stories in the back after the main story starring Hex. The first issue was outstanding, as it takes place in a Victorian Era Gotham City. Everything about the story worked really well, and at the end I was really looking forward to the next issue. I suppose that means they got me on this one for sure.

Blue Beetle
I had read that Blue Beetle was going to be a 100% re-boot. With a lot of these, especially Batman the re-boot picked up in the middle. They cut out a lot of the surrounding stuff, but it is clear that Batman has been doing his thing for a few years already. However, I was interested in getting in on the ground floor of a super hero. The Blue Beetle who is a teenage kid who, through a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, merges with an alien artifact that crafts him into the Blue Beetle. The artifact's original design is to completely re-program the main character and use him as a weapon to destroy earth. However, since the artifact was damage the Blue Beetle can resist the artifact and attempt to use the powers for good. The whole thing is very "comic bookey" and that is ok. I am not sure if I want to continue this because. . . .

Grifter
I also really liked Grifter. From now on, I will be buying these on month behind when they drop in price a dollar, so I do not want to follow more than five books because that will still be $10 a month. This means that I can only go with Blue Beetle or Grifter. I loved the set up of Grifter. The main character, wakes up preventing some sort of invasion of the body snatchers style take over of his body by an alien. However, since the process had started he can now hear these aliens telepathic communications. This leads him to killing these aliens, who other see as normal people. The whole first issue had a real TV pilot feel to it, and it got me interested. However, Batgirl, Batman, Green Arrow, and Jonah Hex are all non-super powered characters like Grifter. Granted Grifter uses guns and is more of the reluctant hero/ amoral hero, but for variety sake I might want the more super powered Blue Beetle, but at the same time I want to know what happens in Grifter. I am leaning to Blue Beetle, but still undecided.

Demon Knights
The way they try to sell Demon Knights is like the Magnificent Seven in the Dark Ages, with magic. That is a decent description. I thought the art of this comic was good, but for me the story left a bit to be desired. It is a cliche in fantasy RPGs that adventures start with all of the character happening to all be in the same tavern at the right time that some sort of event happens that propels them on their quest. This also describes the first issue of Demon Knights. I thought it was ok, but it was not compelling enough for me to stick with it.

I know that in January or some time near the beginning of next year, they are going to release two more new titles, Justice Society of America and Batman, Inc. I plan on checking out both of those as well. I enjoyed re-exploring comics this month. It was fun to be part of the excitement of this relaunch, and I hope the same good feelings continue over the months as I read the first few story arcs of my chosen series.

Enhancing Games

2011-09-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

While I did post it on facebook, I failed to mention here that I am very close to succeeding in my goal this year (and last year) of making my own game. If you are curious you can check it out here. I am hoping to make final improvements and make the game available as a free "print and play" game. I had fun making this game, and I do have a couple of ideas for other games. However, I have realized something about myself. When it comes to being creative, I may enjoy creating content for something that already exist rather than create something new.
I think this is why I enjoy being the game master in a role playing game so much. There is a lot of potential for being creative, but I do not have to start from the scratch. The frame work and nitty gritty details (such as the the mechanics, game balance, and over arching theme/feel of the game) has been done by someone else. I then have the creativity to play within that frame work. It is kind of like the difference between finding new ways to play in a playground that someone else built and building one's own playground.

With that in mind I have been thinking the past couple of weeks of ways that I would like to improve games I already have.
Warcosm

Warcosm is a starship combat game that is extremely easy to play and a lot of fun. The biggest problem is that the game is from a small company and the ugly components are substandard. I want to improve this game in two ways. The first is to make a mounted hex board to play on, and to replace the mono-chromatic, really small counters with bigger more colorful ship counters. This is a fairly easy fix. On the website rpgnow.com, and indie RPG website there are several PDFs of Star map hexes and starship counters available.
The other thing I want to do is create scenarios. One of the things Warcosm allows players to do is to easily create new star ships. Much like a miniatures game, I want to create a whole fleet of readily available ship types for the races in the game. Then for creating various scenarios the objective and situational rules will need to be defined. Each scenario will have a point limit, and ships can be selected from the lists of created ships to fill the point limit for the engagement.
The best part is that the website for Warcosm, has an open,unanswered call for someone to do something like this. Knowing that others might be able to enjoy what I create is a strong motivator.

Zombies!!!
I know that objectively when compared to a lot of other games, Zombies is not that great. However, it was one of my first "real" (read: Non-mass market) games. The components (plastic zombies, city tiles, cards) are excellent and it really seems that they could be used to support a much better game.
I do not think it would take a whole lot of effort to make Zombies into a Left 4 Dead like board game. It could be either a co-op game or an overlord vs. players game. I have several ideas on how to make this happen, but I think for it to be really effective I would need a slightly smaller scale to work with something like the graveyard expansion or prison expansions for the game:

I am kind of torn on this one though. Part of me wants to go ahead and order the expansions that I feel like i need to create something awesome and have something ready to go by Zombie Day (October 29th this year!). The other part of me is hesitant to spend money for expansions that are for a game that I really do not play much at all.

Elfball
This is a fairly easy one to do, but the most expensive option. I got Elfball at Gen Con this year. The main business model of Elfball is to be a vehicle for selling miniatures. I opted to get the paper stand-ins for the miniatures so I could mess around with all of the teams. However, I have been looking for a reason to try my hand at painting miniatures for a while, and this seems like a good place to start.

Wooden Ship and Iron Men
This is a very fun game of naval warfare that has a unique way of doing simultaneous turns. While I like the game, I have to admit it is not much to look at

This is a game that is just crying out for miniatures to make it awesome:

The problem is that miniatures of this type are rather expensive. There is an old game from the 60's called Broadsides that has plastic miniatures that I hear work really well, and I could probably find the game on ebay for not to much. However, Abigail really dislikes this game. I like it enough to keep it, but I am not sure I want to spend money improving it.

So that is what I am thinking about. If I decide to go for the Zombies improvement, I will probably start that soon, and if I decide against it I will start working on Warcosm.

Comic Books

2011-09-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

For several years (from 4th grade to Sophomore year of high school) I was really big into comic books. My main comic books at that time were X-Men comics. I kind of gave up on comic books for four reasons. First, we moved to Ramsey and the closest place to buy comics was over 20 minutes away. Second, my subscriptions ran out just after Marvel Comics had declared bankruptcy and there was some question if they would continue publishing. Third, I was getting tired of the soap opera nature of X-Men. The comic had originally appealed to me because the X-Men were persecuted because they were different. However, the X-Men story lines were increasingly becoming introverted and more about the inter-dealings of the X-Men, their friends, and personal enemies. I was also annoyed that story lines that started when I was in 5th grade still had not been resolved by my sophomore year of high school. The final reason is that I began to get into the Star Wars CCG and RPG and the money available to a high student without a job was limited.

Despite that, I still enjoyed comic books. I find comics as an avenue for story telling to be a great one. The mixture of art and narrative is rather compelling. A couple of years ago, I spent about 16 months reading the Walking Dead comic but it was troublesome for a couple of reasons. First, I had to remember to go to the comic book store, and if I forgot then I might miss a month. The second major issue was storage. Comic books piled up.

This year though, I have begun to get back into comic books some, mostly due to the iPad. The iPad is a perfect fit for comic books. One of the things I really like about it is the digital store never runs out of supply, so that I can get the issues I want at my leisure. I also like that there is no storage issue.

I have gotten a couple of one shots and mini-series, plus I have also committed to reading the first major story arc of the Green Arrow series from several years ago.

I like the Green Arrow, because like Bat Man he is a hero who has no superhuman abilities.

I feel like this is a good time to get back into comic books because starting this week DC (one of the major comic book companies) is rebooting their entire universe. All of their comics will start over at issue #1. Instead of being shackled by 70+ years of convoluted stories they will re-create everything. I think that is an excellent and exciting idea. I intend on getting Detective Comics #1 to get in on new Batman story arcs. I also plan on getting All Star Western #1, which is a pulp-ish Western. In a few months I might also check out Batgirl #1, mostly because I really like the cover.

The best part about the new reboot is that all of the issues will be released day and date on the ipad, so I can get the issues when they come out or I can wait and get them at some later date. So I am looking forward to continue to tip-toe back into comic books.

youtube fun

2011-08-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

I can not believe I did not share this here when we first made the video. Back in March, just for fun we made a music video. One of the members of the church who is a professional musician works with the youth a lot, so we made a video to one of his songs. It turned out really awesome.

This same person is moving to Texas. The youth threw a going away party for him last Sunday. One of the things we did for that party was to make a random video in his honor. We filmed this using an iphone at a lock in. The whole process only took an hour an half. All things considered it turned out well enough to be funny.

Busiest Summer Ever

2011-08-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

So my last blog post was over two months ago . .. oops. I have a good reason for the long delay though. Since my last post I have done the following:

1. Attending Annual Conference
2. Took Sr. High youth to Huntsville Alabama for a week long mission trip
3. Spent a week watching Connor while Abigail started a new job
4. Spent a week doing "Boot Camp" and introduction to youth group for 7th graders
5. Spent a week away as a co-director at church camp
6. Took a group of 20 people on a Canoe and Caving trip to Southern Indiana.
7. Attended Gen Con.

It was an extremely, busy, crazy summer! I do not have the time or energy to re-cap everything in future blog posts, many of these events will probably make my top ten list for the year. Now that the craziness is behind me and I back to just normal busyness, I hope to post a bit more regularly again.

To get started, here is a link to a list that details everything I did at Gen Con this year: What I Played and Bought at Gen Con 2011

Thoughts on Love Wins

2011-06-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

After reading a lot of different opinions on Love Wins, the newest book by Rob Bell, I decided I should probably read it for myself.   So I did that. What follows are my thoughts on the book. I think the best way to go through it is roughly chapter by chapter. If you do not want to read the details here is my brief summary: I do not recommend this book. While poetically written, the issues at hand are quickly muddled. There are some excellent observations in the book, but the conclusion is a distortion of scripture at best and heresy at worst.

So if you want to know why I have arrived at that summary, keep reading:

The first chapter of the book is nothing but questions. Lots, and lots of questions. These questions are intentionally asked to point out the contradictions and logical flaws in Evangelical theology when it comes to heaven and hell. One of the things that Bell exposes is that in this regard contemporary evangelical theology is a mess of mixed ideas. Specifically, there are contradictory ideas that people have free will to choose or not to choose AND everything happens for a reason. I am willing to bet many Christians probably do believe both of these things, and they never think how in opposition they are. These convergent streams of thought come to a head at the issue of salvation. It seems that at some level Rob Bell himself is trying to hold versions of these thoughts and this book is his how he weaves together his own beliefs. I made a comment early on, that Bell needs to read Wesley because it seems that a notion of previenent grace would have been helpful in answering a lot of his questions.

Questions are asked to help find answers. The troubling part about this first chapter, is that these questions are not made to find answers. The questions that Bell asks are used to ask even more questions, or they are largely rhetorical. Like all rhetorical questions, they are less questions and more statements that chip away at something. Without stating it, Bell is using the questions in this chapter to weaken a theological position that he is going to completely tear down later. This position is Penal Substitution or really just about any traditional understanding of Atonement.

The next chapter that focuses on heaven is the strongest part of the book. Bell does a great job at dismissing some of the more ridiculous myths about heaven (like all sitting on clouds playing harps). One of the best points that Bell makes in the book is in this section. Bell writes accurately, "What we find Jesus teaching over and over and over again is that he's interested in our heart being transformed, so that we can actually handle heaven." He then follows up that thought with this one: "Eternal life does not begin when we die; it starts now."   Bell makes the point that being a Christian is not all a mystical afterlife, but it is about a changed life that starts now. Bell makes a very astute observation I have never thought of before. He points out that the Bible never says that when we are made new in heaven that it will be easy. We assume that there will be a magical switch flipped that makes us perfect. Other than it makes it easier for us, there really is know reason to assume this, and it helps give a complete picture about why holy living in this life is so important.

The rest of the book, really is devoted to Bell's understanding of hell. First he discusses hell as a place, and then gives his theological reasoning for what he believes. It is really at this point that Bell really loses me. First he argues that Hell is not a metaphysical location, but it is instead a state of being. At least I think.   Bell never really clearly states his position in a definable way. He, at best, just gives impressions of what he believes. The closest Bell gets to actually defining hell in his understanding is when he writes: Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story. Right. . I am not sure that really means anything. Since nothing is put down in certainty, from this point forward I am writing about how I understood Bell's thoughts . . so I could be wrong in my understanding.

The way that Bell arrives to his understanding of hell not being an actual place of judgment is highly suspect at best. First (and this is a problem elsewhere in the book as well) Bell is highly selective in what he pays attention to in the scripture. He states what he says are all the instances of hell talked about in the Bible, but he leaves a few out like Matthew 25:41: "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." One of the major arguments that Bell makes in this area involves a terrible twisting of scripture. Bell takes Jesus' parable of Lazarus and the Rich man and the argues that this is not about the afterlife and judgment, but is instead about making God honoring choices in the present.    Now in part this is true, because the story does serve as a warning. However, to completely write off the contents of the story as pure allegory is not a good idea. Especially, with the way that Bell goes about doing this. The crux of his argument is that that Hebrews did not really care or give much thought about what happens after death. Really? Existential angst, the fear of death, is a universal part of the human condition. To write that ancient Jews would not have given thought to what happens after death is foolish. To discount an entire scripture based on this faulty reasoning is irresponsible.

Much of the last third of the book or so is devoted to Bell explaining what he believes happens after death. As best as I understand, Bell believes that people do live in hell for a while, meaning hell is there "state of being". However, Bell argues that in the end God gets what God wants.   What God wants is the salvation and redemption of everything and everyone. He specifically cites Philippians 2 and Psalm 22 as his reasoning for this.    Many of the critiques of this book is that Bell is a universalist. He is not in the traditional sense. The standard view of universalism: "many paths up the same mountain" is a posistion he denies in the book. However, Bell does believe in universal salvation. He does seem to believe that in the time frame of eternity everyone will eventually turn to and accept God. In doing so they will be redeemed and freed from their hellish state of being.

Bell's argument is based in God's love.   He believes that God loves everyone so much that God never, ever gives up on them even after death. God, after all according to the bible, is love. The fallacy in Bell's argument is that he completely leaves out another fundamental element of God's nature: God is just. Because God is perfectly just, God must punish sin. This is why the cross, the sacrificial act of Jesus to pay our penalty is the ultimate act of love. Without God's pardon, without the grace of the cross, God's love is weakened.   Bell's argument may be appealing to many, but carried out to it's logical conclusion it presents a God that is weakened, a Cross that is pointless, and a God that is not radically loving.

Bell presents the gospel without the gospel. He presents following Christ as a Lord but not a savior. Bell categorically and unconditionally denies atonement in his book. Ironically, in Bell's book love loses because by denying God's love for us on the cross, the love that saves us from hell, he denies the very nature of love: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.(Romans 5:6-8)

It is my strongest conviction that Bell is wrong in what he writes in this book, and because of how this book is written it can be very misleading and I think it is best avoided.

The Marshmallow Art of War

2011-05-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we had a Marshmallow War with the youth group. Unlike some other similar events, I have done in the past this one did not have a higher purpose. It was a fellowship event that existed for the simple reason of getting the teens together for some good clean fun.

We got soaked, mosquito bitten, and there was an accident that led to a black eye but all seventeen people who participated had a blast. One of the things I noticed is how something as silly as shooting marshmallows at each other with PVC pipe can teach some of the basic strategms of warfare. Here are some of the things that I observed.

Perhaps the most obvious one is that posistioning is important. Any advantage that can be gained by terrain should be exploited. We played in an area that was mostly brush and it did not take long for everyone to hug close to the path edge hoping to get a smal advantage from the brush cover. Along the same lines, flanking and avoiding being flanked is huge, but I think that is obvious. The other strategy learned is that defense is always safer than offense. The burden is truly on the attacker and this gives the defender more options.

Even more important than positioning is morale. Morale is what really wins battles. Now it seems kind of odd that morale would actually factor in to a game of capture the flag with fourteen people but it really did. Here are three experiences that illustrate this. First, I was engaged in a fire fight. We were both shooting at each other. I called for help from a team mate and soon as he started moving our way my opponent ran away and we were able to really press the attack. This also illustrates the importance of numbers. If possible a side always wants to amass more numbers at the point of attack than the defender. Again this is common sense, but it is important. We purposely played so that part of our team floated between attacking and defending. These floaters were not suppose to engage but only back up the people engaged, son that we would have superior numbers.

Another example of the importance of morale is a time when I was holding a path cross roads, and we were outnumber 4-2. If we retreated then the other side would have most likely achieved a breakthrough. The other person on my team wanted to retreat but I ordered him to hold the line ( yeah, I think I may have really said that). He did hold, took one of the other team out and then got himself. I was now outnumbered three to one, but I held and ended up taking out two making it one on one. We shot each other, ending the engagement. I did not retreat because I knew if I did we would lose. If invested in the cause, then the very real possibility of defeat is a big morale booster.

The final morale example comes from a time in a game when both sides had broken down in cohesion, and because everyone was split up, everyone was on their own. I ended up in a one on one encounter. Given how inaccurate the marshmallow shooters were, it was an even fight. I charged at him anyway. Despite, now having the defensive position, his morale faltered and he retreated. The appearance of strength was actually more important than actual strength.

The final war strategy revealed from the marshmallow war was the importance of leadership. Myself and another youth leader functioned as the default leaders, and when we were actively leading the teens on our side, things went better.

So I have written all of this while at a RIM conference where the topic is conflict management and I doing so I realized these general strategies of warfare really apply to all interpersonal conflict. In an argument we do not usually think about flanking but that is what we do. We look for arguments that might catch others by surprise.

In our interactions with others, winning at all cost should not be the goal. When we have conflict in relationship, we shouldn't view it as a battle to be won. When we start viewing our conflicts as battles and using tactics of war, then the only real casualty will be relationships.

Sadly we as people are usually quick to escalate an argument to the level of a battle. When we do we stop looking at the other person as a person. They are now an enemy. We start looking for ways to take the superior defensive position, look for flanking opportunities, and find ways to demoralize.

They have not talked about people using these strategies at this conference, these are dots that I connected. It can be helpful to know the tactics that people may use in s disagreement. However, what I need to learn is how to disarm these situations, instead of fighting back.

By the way I typed this on an iPad, so I am sorry for any mistakes.

Top Ten Board Games (2011 Edition)

2011-05-07T16:14:00.000-07:00

For the past two years in May I have posted a list of my top ten favorite games. Between 2009 and 2010, there were several changes because of different games I had played. In 2011, there are once again several changes. As I thought about my favorite games this year, I realized that most played does not equal favorite. There are some games that I really love, but because of long play time or (more likely) long set up time, so as of May 2011, here are my top 10 favorite games, in descending order the more dramatic effect possible:

10. A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Board Game

Last year at number seven, I had Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game. Those two games are made by the same company, and both games are heavily thematic and require a little bit of luck. Even though we play Last Night on Earth more and despite Last Night on Earth being about Zombies I like this game more. I like this game more because the narrative in the game is stronger. In Last Night on Earth it is humans vs. zombies so it feels more adversarial. In this game, it is versus a game controlled villain.   The narrative of this game really comes through, and every time I play I feel like I am taking part in an interactive pulp horror story. As the picture shows, the set up for this game can be a bit of a pain, but every time I have played it has been a satisfying experience.

9. Yomi

Yomi is the newest game on the list, as it came out at the very beginning of 2011. Yomi is a card game that simulates fighting video games. At it's core, Yomi uses a rock-paper-scissors mechanics. Both players decide on playing an attack, a throw, or a block/dodge. The cards are then revealed at the same time. Attack beats throw, throw beats block/dodge, and block/dodge beats attack. It is possible to pull of combos and special moves in this game.
Yomi also has a lot of trying to figure out your opponent. There is a lot of "I know that they know that I want to attack, but since they know that I know that they know . . . " type of thinking going on in this game. I really like that.

8. The Resistance

Last year, I included Ca$h and Gun$ on the list, and said that if I was going to play a group with six players, then I wanted it to be that one. The Resistance has become my large group game of choice. There is a game, Mafia, that I have played with youth groups a lot. Mafia is a fun game, but it has a fatal flaw in that players get eliminated and once a player is eliminated they do not come back. The Resistance has all of the fun of Mafia without player elimination.
The idea of The Resistance is that everyone is part of a resistance movement against an evil government. However, some people in the group are actually government spies. The group will vote on people to send on missions. If a spy goes on a mission, then they can cause the mission to fail. If no one causes the mission to fail, then it succeeds. If there are three successful missions, the resistance wins. If there are three failed missions the spies win. For the Resistance members, the game is all about figuring out the spies, and for the spies they try not to get caught. This is a high social interaction game.

7. Agricola

This game dropped a couple of spots from last year, but it is still a game that I enjoy. Agricola is a game about farming. That may sound dreadfully boring, but this game is absolutely brutal and intense. Agricola is a worker placement game, which means everyone has workers they can place on the board which enables certain actions. However, there are NEVER enough workers to do everything that one feels like they need to do. This problem is compounded by the fact that only one player can use any one action spot on a given turn. So players are always competing (especially for wood!) for various spots on the board.
I have an odd relationship with this game. Every time I play this game I get a little frustrated at it. About a fourth of the way through the game I feel completely screwed, and like I have no chance of pulling anything off. However, by the end of the game my farm has for the most part come together, I have a reliable way to feed my farming family, and everything is running well enough. Even if I lose the game, there is a lot of satisfaction from feeling like I have a job well done.

6. London

At the beginning of this year, I listed Manouevere as my favorite game of 2010, and London has number two. However, you will notice Manouevere is not on this list but London is. I suppose that means along with being my 6th favorite game, London is also my best game from 2010.
In London, players are rebuilding the city after the great fire of 1666 and taking it all the way to 1900.   While there is a board component to London, it is a fairly small, yet important, part of the game. For the most part London is a game of hand management and card interaction. Players will build cards to their city by putting them in front of them. They will then activate these cards for points and resources.   The game features a lot of tactical decision making, and interesting card interactions. We have only had the game for a few months, but we have already played it several times, and we will be playing it a lot more.

5. Small World

Small World continues to be one of my favorite games. This game is based around a light conflict theme, and the game is all about making the most of one's turn, each and every turn.
One of the complaints I had about Small World is that during the last few turns it can grind and become very mathematical as everyone begins calculating the optimal move to eek out the most points. However, a fairly recent expansion, Tales and Legends, fixes that. Tales and Legends adds a random event each turn. Players know which event is coming, so they can plan ahead some, but the expansion reinforces the idea of making every turn count.

4. Warhammer: Invasion
In middle school through high school, I was all about collectible card game. I have played 8 different CCGs at various points. I love the idea of making my own deck, but I dislike the money pit aspect. Warhammer: Invasion gives me the best of deck building without the random, expensive booster packs. Every month or so a battle pack comes out with 20 new cards, and I can get the battle pack and have all the cards. I have really enjoyed building decks in this game, and I also really like the game play. Warhammer: Invasion is a resource management game. Along with managing resources the game offers a lot of potential for card interaction and neat card combos.

3. Race for the Galaxy

In 2009 and 2010 I listed Race for the Galaxy has my number one game. This year, it has fallen two spots. I still really like Race for the Galaxy. I still like the clever use of the cards and the tactical decisions the game offers. Race for the Galaxy is still our most played game, and I still really enjoy it. However, if I am honest with myself I probably do enjoy the other two games a bit more.
One of the reasons for this is neither Abigail and I care a whole lot for the newest expansion for the game. Mostly because it adds prestige. Prestige is another form of points that comes from playing certain cards. The problem with prestige is there is no guarantee a player will get prestige cards in their hand. There is a bonus for being the prestige leader, so if one player gets prestige by luck and the other player does not it gives an unfair advantage. I suppose we could play without the expansion ,but neither one of us like that for reasons we are not sure.

2. Dominion

That is a picture of every card currently available in Dominion. With each and every expansion, Dominion gets better because more options are available and new combos are revealed. Most of the games I like are tactical, which means most of the important decisions are made turn by turn. Dominion is a very strategic game. At the beginning of the game, 10 cards are available for purchase and players need to figure out which cards they want to buy as the game progresses. They will use the cards to enable them to more efficiently buy victory point cards. Everyone starts with a small deck of cards, but as they buy cards their deck grows. This game is always fun and seems to be infinity replayable.

1. Memoir '44

The picture is of everything that is currently available for Memoir '44. We have all of that except for the bag to the right, and one of the paper maps that is in there somewhere. Memoir '44 has a really long set up time, which is why it does not play as much as some of the other games. However, Abigail and I both really like this game. The game simulates WWII battles. Players have a hand of cards that they use to command units, and to battle players role custom dice. The game system is very simple but it is very flexible. Terrain tiles are placed on a blank board to create a wide variety of battles. The game has 173 published scenarios right now.
The most recent expansion for the game adds a new board that is bigger, and deeper than the normal board.

These breakthrough maps are very unique to play, and are just yet another way to enjoy this game. Even though we do not always play it, when we do I really enjoy it every time we play. For now anyway, Memoir '44 is my favorite game.

Gen Con 2011 Hype!

2011-05-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was event registration for Gen Con opened up, and I signed up for events. I was already at a really high level of excitement for Gen Con, but now that has gone even higher. I am really looking forward to those four days in August. I am still trying to find the best balance for the perfect Gen Con experience. Last year I participated in 9 ticketed events. This year, I will be taking part in 12. This increase was a conscious decision, because last year I felt like I spent to much time meandering around the great dealer hall. There is a LOT to do and see in that main hall, but it is also a huge time sink and it can become very easy to just end up spending a lot of time doing nothing but walking around.

While you may or may not care about my plans are, I am super excited. Posting my plans is my way of sharing the excitement :)

So here is everything I have planned right now for Gen Con.

On Thursday, I will begin the day bright and early by playing in a Zombies!!! event. In two of the past three years, I was signed up for a Zombies!!! event but canceled both times. This year I will start with it. This is suppose to be a Zombies game played on a 3D board, and using some new rules for Giant Spiders they are play testing.

The next event I have on Thursday is a Warhammer: Invasion tournament. However, right now I am slightly worried. The "real" tournament is on Saturday, but Abigail will be with me on Saturday. Despite being good at the game, she does not want to play in the tournament and she does not want to wait on me to play, so I am playing in the "practice" tournament instead. Unfortunately, as of right now I am the only one signed up for it. Hopefully, that will change.

Assuming, I do not go far in the tournament at 1pm I will go to a Malifaux rules demo (if I miss the demo it is ok, because it was a free ticket). Malifaux is a "weird" west miniatures game that I think look really neat.

The next event I have on Thursday is a full game of Dust Tactics. This game is a miniatures game/board game hybrid. I am assuming since this event is being run by the company that makes the game that we will be using the pretty pre-painted models.

The final event that I am doing on Thursday is the one that I am running, which is also a miniatures game. This one, Tombstones n' Tumbleweeds, is a Wild West games. In it two players will play bank robbers trying to get out of town while the other two players play a lawman posse.

I need to play this game several times over the summer so that I have the rules down inside and out, so if you would like to help me out and play a game that would be awesome :)

In a lot of ways, Thursday is my miniatures day. I love miniatures games, but Abigail really dislikes them. This means I do not get to play them very often, so I am getting my fix on Thursday. If the Warhammer: Invasion tournament ends up not happening then I will probably try to find one more miniatures event.

On Friday, Abigail will be with me and we are going to begin in the morning by playing a learning game of Empire Builder. Empire Builder is a train game that is part of the "crayon rail" series. Abigail has really wanted to play a crayon rail game, so this is the perfect opportunity for us to do this together.

We do not have much scheduled during the rest of the day, so that we can take in the dealer's hall together. In the evening, we will be playing in a Memoir '44: Overlord game together.

Memoir '44 is one of our favorite games, and Overlord is a really great way to play it. We did this last year, and had a blast.

We actually have a hotel room next to the convention center on Friday night so in the evening we will not have to drive home.

On Saturday the day will begin with another miniatures game. One of my highlights last year was playing a game ran by John Bobeck, author of the Games of War. The only event that he was running that did not conflict with anything else was at 9:00 AM. It will be a 90 minute small squad game set in Vietnam.

I am really looking forward to it.

We will not have anything planned until the mid afternoon the rest of that day. At 3:00 PM we will get to play a game of Small World: Underground

Small World is one of my favorite games, and this is the sequel.

After Small World we will then play in a Race for the Galaxy tournament. Race for the Galaxy is our most played game, and it is one we are both decent at. Last year we played in a tournament for this game, and I finished second.

Finally, on Saturday we will end it with the "Mayfair Open Gaming Shindig. We debated between getting a library pass for Saturday evening or doing this, but our biggest fear with the library pass is we would have difficulty finding a game we both wanted to play. Plus, it cost more AND we would not be able to use all of the hours so it felt kind of wasteful. This Mayfair event will have snacks, give us a glimpse of some unreleased Mayfair game, and get some open gaming in.

Of course, for our Friday and Saturday plans to work, we have to find someone to watch Connor first .. .

On Sunday I plan on once again going to the Gen Con Christian worship service. After that, I will be hosting my RPG event, The Society of Crime Fighters. This game will last a good four hours, so that will pretty much take me to the end of Gen Con.

That is all of the scheduled events. Along with what is scheduled, Abigail and I plan on demoing a lot of games in the demo hall. I am most excited about checking out Fortune and Glory at Gen Con.

This is a game made by a company who has a couple of other games I really like. The game is made to emulate pulp adventures (like Indiana Jones), and it looks really good. We will also spend a lot of time demoing Mayfair games so that we can collect the Catan resource ribbons. Every year Mayfair gives out ribbons for trying their games, and a complete set earns people special Catan promo items and a 50% off coupon.

Now I just have to wait for August to get here. However, since June and July are SUPER busy I think the time will probably pass fairly quickly.

Something I learned about myself

2011-04-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Back a few months ago, I put one of my goals for the year was to regularly write a serial story. The idea was to update the story every other week. The last time I updated it was February 6th.

I sat down multiple times to update it, but I had zero motivation to do so, and the reason why is what I learned about myself.

I do not dislike writing creatively and I do enjoy it to a degree. However, I can not really say that I like it a lot either. Given the limited amount of time I have in a week to do "fun" stuff I would rather play a board game, play a video game or read much more than I want to write. What I discovered is that I LOVE to create a story, but I do not care a whole lot about actually writing the story.

You see, I already knew what was going to happen to Dirk Sullivan. A couple of the details may be foggy, but for the most part I know how the Death Blossom story is going to end. I had a ton of fun crafting that story in my head. However, the actual process of putting the story onto paper is kind of tedious. I know that is part of the writing process, and just like an athlete pushes through the pain in training to get to the finished project, a writer is suppose to push through the tedium to get to the finished project. I don't want to do that though. The finished project is not worth it to me.

That being said, I still love to create stories, and what I have realized (especially as I prepare for Gen Con) is the best venue for me to create stories is Role Playing Games. As a RPG gamemaster I get to create the backbone of a story. I craft the story, and then work collaboratively with the players to feel in the details of the story. The last time I actively played a RPG was back in college, but after I get through the craziness of the summer I am going to seriously look into the possibility of getting back into it. I have no idea how to go about doing this, but it is worth giving a shot. I do enjoy creating stories, and I do not want to give up on that.

For those who really are curious, here is a brief synopsis of how the rest of the Dirk Sullivan story goes. Dirk discovers that Eddie the Rottweiler is working with philanthropist William Newhouse to abduct and transport homeless transients out of the city. Dirk discovers these people are being shipped to Brazil, and he flies his plane down there to discover what is going on. In Brazil he follows Newhouse's trail into the amazon and discovers some of the homeless people he watch get abducted. Only these people are now mindless husks trying to kill him. If you read the story thus far, you know why they are mindless husks is because they have been infected by a genetically modified fungus. Yes, they are plant zombies. You really should not be surprised that I was ultimately writing a zombie story. Anyway, Newhouse captures Dirk and explains that he is looking for the key to life beyond death, to immortality. Newhouse then tries to infect Dirk with the fungus, but he escapes. How he escapes this is the one major detail I never worked out. Anyway, Dirk then fights Newhouse and defeats him. In the process of the fight, Newhouse gets infected with his own fungus. Dirk creates an explosion to destroy Newhouse's fungus facility and escapes on a boat into the Amazon. The story ends by revealing a zombified Newhouse survived the explosion and wonders into the rain forest, his immortality achieved.

Gen Con Events :)

2011-04-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

Gen Con is one of the highlights of my year. Along with open gaming and a huge dealer hall, one of the big draws of Gen Con is getting to play in events. These events allow me to compete (such as last year's Race for the Galaxy Tournament where I finished second) and play games I would not normally get to play (like miniatures and RPGs).

Back in January, I posted a list of things I want to do this year, and that list is off to a great start. One of the things on that list was run events at Gen Con, and I am going to be able to do that because the events I submitted were approved!

So if you are going to Gen Con this year, you should play in at least one of my events. I am running a Pulp fiction super hero Role playing game and a Wild West miniatures game. If you are not going to Gen Con, then sometime between now and August, you should play one of these two games with me so that I can practice running them.

Here are the descriptions of what I am running:

Event Title: Showdown at High Noon
Game ID: HMN1118329 (Historical Miniatures)

Start Time: Thursday @ 6 PM
Duration: 3 Hours
System: Tombstones n' Tumbleweeds, 1st Edition
Description:
In the old and lawless wild west, adventure is never far. A gang of bandits has ridden into town for a stick up at the State Bank. At the same time the local sheriff has rounded up a posse to go huntin'. The outlaws and lawmen emerge in the streets at the same time as the clock strikes noon. Which side will you choose? This game will use Disposable Miniatures from Precis Intermedia.

Event Title: The Society of Crimefighters
Game ID: RPG1118331 (role playing game)

Start Time: Sunday @ 11 AM
Duration: 4 hours
System: Two Fisted Tales, Revised
Description:
It is 1938, and the Society of Crime Fighters is doing what it can to fight for justice and be a beacon of light in a dark time. However, when the Society finds out about a crisis on a secret government Zeppelin, their skills will be tested as they get dragged into a plot that takes them to the heart of Nazi Germany! This game of high action and adventure evokes the feelings of pulp fiction and golden age super heroes.

Game Tournament

2011-04-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

Last year, Abigail and I played through all of our games. In the middle of that process, she had the idea of doing a tournament and that is what we did this year. Last night, we finished the first round. It took us a 2 1/2 months to play through 64 games.

I already wrote out the results. It took a long time so I would greatly appreciate it if you would follow the link Thanks!
One Couples Personal Geek Madness-round-1

Game Concept

2011-03-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

At Jr. High youth group in April, we will be using a Super Hero theme, as we talk about Jesus as part of the Lent curriculum. For the first week I wanted to play a game where they got to be superheroes, and I thought a board game would be a good way to do this. Unfortunately, there are only a few Super hero board games. However, all of these games had to be ruled out because of price, availability, or accessibility.

I came up with my own idea for a super hero game. I will not be able to make it for the beginning of April, so at youth group we will play a video game (Marvel vs. Capcom 3). However, I think that this game has a lot of potential. I am going to try and explain what I am thinking, so let me know what you think?

The idea of the game is that each player will control a hero that they created. The winner of the game is the one who reaches a certain level of hero points. Hero points are the both the victory points of the game but also the currency, to make heroes stronger, re-roll dice, etc. Hero points are earned by fighting crime and defeating super villains.

At the beginning of the game, an evil plot will be selected. Each plot will have a super villain associated with them. The easiest way to get hero points is to defeat the super villain. However, doing so will not be easy as other conditions will have to be met. Each evil plot has sub missions, as the Super villain tries to gather the pieces needed to fulfill their evil plot. Some of these sub-missions might be to defeat a lesser super villain in a certain area of the board, or to make a certain skill roll in a certain area, with-in a time frame. Completing these sub-missions will make it easier to complete the plot.

While, the best way to get a lot of hero points is to defeat the super villain, it is possible to get hero points through other methods. Each time a player moves to a space they can encounter it, and fight crime. Some spaces have pre-set encounters while others require drawing from a card deck.

Instead of moving and completing missions/encounters, heroes may also use their turn to train or draw Heroic cards. These heroic cards can be used at various points for bonuses or character specific missions, that help make the story of each hero unique.

That is an overview of the game. The game play is attribute and dice based. There are three attributes: Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. Each hero will have a rating, that the player will pick using a character creation system. For example, each player may have 12 points that will divide up among the attributes. When encountering spaces, players will have to make attribute checks. For example, to defeat a minor villain may require a strength test of 9. For each point a player has in that attribute they get to roll a six sided die, and the goal is to beat the number in the test. Hero points can be spent to up the number or even add an extra die, and in certain circumstance super powers that heroes have picked in creating their character can be used as well.

This gets to the last part of the game with the character creation process. To prevent players from always creating the same type of hero and playing the same type of game, Super heroes will be get super powers using a draft system. So each player will get dealt four super powers, they will keep one and pass the rest. The final card is discarded so that each player has three super powers available. Each super power has a point cost, that players will have to allocate from their available super power point pool. Plus, super powers have attribute requirements, so that the super powers players get will determine the direction their heroes go. It is also possible, to spend super power points at a 2 to 1 ratio as attribute points, so that a hero could have super human attributes.

That is the basic idea of the game. I think it could be very thematic and really capture the comic book feel in a fairly accessible game that still has some strategy and tactics to it. In most games like this, the characters are pre-created so being able to create an unique super hero each game would be very original and unlike any other game out there.

Hopefully that was not to hard to follow. So what do you think, does that sound like a fun game?

IndyCon 2011

2011-03-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was a great weekend. It hosted IndyCon, which is a weekend long local convention that is all about board games. Basically, a hotel meeting room has shelves with over 400 board games, and then tables set up. It is 50ish hours of straight gaming goodness.

I have gone the past two years, but this was the first year that I went all three days. It was also the first year that Abigail came with me. Connor spent the weekend with his grandparents, and it was the longest he has ever been away from both of us. With the exception of getting sick, he did really well.

Abigail and I had a blast over the weekend. When all was done, I had played 29 different games and 32 plays in total.   Since list are always fun, here are the top 10 games/experiences from this weekend

10. Crokinole
For the most part IndyCon was open gaming, but they did have a couple of organized events. One was Crokinole. Crokinole is a "flicking game" The goal is to flick wooden discs into the center hole or as close as possible. The scoring is similar to cornhole. I got destroyed in the tournament but played against Abigail a couple of times. The game is fun, but a good Crokinole board is not easy to store AND cost well over $100.

9. Kingsburg

On Sunday morning we got to play this well known game. Kingsburg is an action selection game, where players select actions for resources, and then us the resources for special abilities and points. The really clever part of this game is that to determine which action a player can use are dependent upon what numbers they roll on their dice. Abigail really liked the game, and we are going to try trading for it in the future.

8. Founding Fathers

On the early afternoon of Friday before Abigail arrived, I got to play this game, and that is great because this is a game I was very interested in. Founding Fathers has a very unique theme. The game is all about the writing of the constitution. The game is card driven, as all cards can be used for three actions (voting, debating, or their printed action). The game was fun and the mechanics worked well with the theme, I would really like to play this one again in the future.

7.Hammer of the Scots

On Saturday night, I stayed up late. Someone asked if I wanted to play War of the Ring. This is a 2 player Lord of the Rings war game that is epic in scope. Sadly, neither of us knew how to play and it would take a while to get through the rules. Since it was also a two player war game and one I know, I offered to teach this one instead. In this game, one person plays the English and the other plays the Scots. One might consider this the Braveheart board game. I played the English, and things went well for me. The Scottish player did a couple of puzzling things like abandon the strategically important Fife territory. With that territory undefended, my path to Northern Scotland was not blocked. I was able to have the king lead a huge army and take all of Northern Scotland. The other player had William Wallace in the south, and I thought he might successfully capture those territories, but he had a string of awful dice rolls. This led to me winning on the third turn.

6. Survive

This is a fairly new game that I got to play on Saturday. Survive is a really good looking game with nice looking components. The game is all about the sinking of Atlantis. Each player is assigned a color, and the goal is to get the most points worth of people off the island to safety. Sadly for the meeples, there are sharks and sea serpents trying to eat them. This is a light game that allows for a lot of opportunities to be mean to other players. It was a lot of fun!

5. Raffle
One of the neat things about IndyCon is how many games they give away. Each person gets a number of raffle tickets based on how many days they are going to be present. Since Abigail and I were there for all three days, we got a combined total of 10 tickets. We used them to great effect:

We ended up winning four games. The game I really wanted to win was Campaign Manager 2008. I have been trying to trade for this game for some time. They had multiple copies to give away, so I put three of my tickets down to win one of them and it worked! Abigail and I also each put a ticket into Nuns on the Run (a hide and seek board game), and they drew my name as well. Abigail put one ticket into Loch Ness because it was Scotland related and won that. We kind of wonder if she was the only person to put a ticket in for that game. They also did several second chance drawings, where they took all of the unselected tickets and drew from them. Out of that mix, Abigail was drawn and she won Globalization- a game we know nothing about!

4. Race for the Galaxy Draft

Last year I listed Race for the Galaxy as my favorite game. There is a version of this game where players actually select the cards they will play with and make a personal deck instead of using a big common deck. Because playing the draft variant requires people who really know the game well, it does not happen that often. On Saturday Abigail and I sat down with two other people who play the game a lot and ran a draft. It was fun, but we both did really bad at it.

3. Homesteaders

Homesteaders is a game that we have, but we have not played very much. It is an auction game, where players bid for the right to build stuff. There are multiple buildings and multiple paths to victory. This is a game that we will need to play more because it is a lot of fun. Over the weekend, Abigail won a lot of games but this is the game she did the best in, she absolutely crushed everyone. Either on purpose or accident, she stumbled upon a sound strategy and was able stick with it and maximize the strategy for a lot of points.

2. Glen More

Glen More is one of the games that Abigail gave me for my birthday, and I was really happy the two of us got to play it in a full five player game. The game is a tile laying game, that has a lot of very unique mechanics. I really like this game because it is a very tactical game. There is no winning strategy to use form the beginning. Each turn a player needs to evaluate their best move. I also like that there are multiple paths to victory. There are ways to score points at intervals though the game and there are ways to earn points through tile abilities. I focused on two of the three special scoring categories and Abigail earned points through her tiles. This made for a close game, with Abigail beating my by one point.
1. Cyclades

I love Cyclades. I think it is an amazing game, and I even briefly owned it. However, Abigail could not stand the game so we traded it. I was really happy to play a four player game on Sunday. In Cyclades the goal is to get two metropolises. This can be done in three ways: build four types of buildings, collect four philosophers, or take over a metropolis that someone else already built. The neat thing about this game, is that there is an auction mechanic that determines what actions a player can take on their turn. This was a really good game. One player built a metropolis, and then promptly had it taken over.    The person who took it over was in position to win two different ways. It took a coordinated effort to prevent that from happening. While that was going on, I managed to also get a metropolis, putting two on the board. I maneuvered so that I was able to make a play for the other metropolis. I attacked with even strength, which means it came down to a series of dice rolls which I came out of on top, and won the game.

FIGHT!!!

2011-02-21T05:40:00.000-08:00

I have been a long time fan of fighting games. Along with the Mario games and Castle Wolfenstein, fighting games are what really cemented me into liking video games. The funny thing is that I have never been all that good at fighting games. This past week I got a couple of new games, that have me trying to pull of combos again.   What follows is the history of my flirtatious affair with fighting games.

Round 1
The first game that started everything was Mortal Kombat. In the early/mid 90's there were really two big fighting games, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2. Street Fighter was the technical game, but Mortal Kombat was the flashy game, and with it's over the top violence , it was the one that drew me in. In 8th grade, we had a Sega CD and one of the games I had for it was the arcade port of the original mortal kombat. I got really good at that game. Once that year , I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. I felt fine, but I was contagious and banned from school for a couple of days. The entire time all I did was play Mortal Kombat on the Sega CD.

The next year, my freshmen year, Mortal Kombat 3 came out for the consoles. This was the first game that I bought the day it came out. I saved up for a couple of months, and got my parents to take me to Best Buy the day it came out.
I even got the strategy guide (only strategy guide I ever bought!) so that I had a list of all the special moves, fatalities, and combos.   I played this game a lot, and I was really good at it. As a side note, I have bought this game more than any other. After buying it for the SNES, I eventually bought it for the PS2 has part of a Midway games collection.   Then when I got the 360, it was released as an arcade game and I bought it a third time.

During this time, the other fighting game that I played a lot was World Heroes. My dad (and brother) bowled a lot at Franklin lanes in Evansville. That means I spent a decent amount of time there, and so I played video games in their diner area. They had a multi-game Neo-Geo cabinet that had World Heroes as one of the games. One of the fighters was a Bruce Lee inspired copy, he was fast as a fighter and I played him.
Every time I was the bowling alley I would play it, and I kept getting better at the game until I finally beat it. It is the only arcade cabinet game I can claim to have actually beat. Also, from time to time we would rent games and when I got to pick the game I always gravitated to fighting games. Eventually though, with computer games and the Nintendo 64 I began to move away from fighting games.

Round 2
In college at the very beginning of my Junior year, I bought a Nintendo 64 off of ebay. This was at the very tale end of the N64's lifespan, and after Christmas of that year a lot of places had a fire sale on Nintendo 64 games. I picked up several, including some bad fighting games. I really liked bad fighting games, because they were unbalanced messes that were great for button mashing. One specifically was Xena: Talisman of Fate.
This game was unique in that it allowed up to four fighters at a time on screen, and had silly special moves like Caesar calling for a catapult strike. We had a lot of fun with it. Another one I spent way to much time on was Bio-Freaks. It is not a good game. Don't play it.

When I graduated college and got a PS2 I got a beginning group of games that included Tekken Tag Tournament. I once again put a lot of time into a fighting game, as I beat the game with every single character. A year later on the PS2, I really got into Mortal Kombat: Deception. One of the big sell points of this game was that it had extra modes. It had an adventure mode, which was a neat idea. It also had a puzzle fighter clone, and my favorite part chess mode.
Chess mode took the game's fighting and gave it more context beyond climbing a ladder to a main boss. This idea of putting the fight game in a meta-game of sorts was one I really liked, and one that was used in Soul Calibur III.
Soul Calibur III is probably the fighting game I had the most fun playing. It had a create a fighter mode that was neat, and I spent a lot of time with that. However, my favorite part was the Tales of Souls mode. In this mode, the player took created characters through levels in a very light RTS game. When an enemy character and a player controlled player occupied the same space, then there was a fight using the fighting game engine. The Tales of Souls game play was simple, but adding the extra level of game to give a context to the fighting really made a great game for me.

On the PS2 and into the 360 there were a few other fighting games that I messed around with, but nothing serious. On the 360 though, my game got stepped up.

Round 3, Final Round.
On the 360, I pre-ordered Soul Calibur IV. Given how much I loved the third one, it was a given. The fact that Yoda and Darth Vader were playable characters made me really excited for the game.
I played Soul Calibur IV a decent amount online. In fact, after the original Mortal Kombat on the sega CD, Soul Calibur IV is the first fighting game I took seriously. I practiced in practice mode to best learn how to preform special moves and combos. I played over 100 matches online. I do not remember my record, but I won more than I lost. I mostly played Amy. She was a fast character with a couple of change up combos. This meant I went from a high attack to a low attack, which was very hard to block against, as one of the hits would most likely connect.

That year (2008) for Christmas, there was not a whole lot I really wanted. So when my parents asked for a Christmas list, they said I needed to put more on there to give them better options. On a lark, I added a specialized controller for fighting games and that is what I got.

Since I now had a specialized controller for fighting games, I had to get a new one! I downloaded a couple of arcade titles, but there were several fighting games set to come out in 2009. I spent time researching the various options. The popular title that year was Street Fighter IV, but I bypassed that one to go with BlazBlue.
BlazBlue was really great, because playing the game was like playing cartoon. It looked really, really good. It also had story missions with branching paths for each characters, so I really enjoyed playing though those. I also played BlazBlue online, and my record was just above .500.   In the end, I did not play the game as much I would have liked. Other shiny games like Halo: ODST and Modern Warfare 2 distracted me. Then Connor came along, and my game playing dropped dramatically.

Finish Him!!!
This gets us to now. The motivation for this post is that I got two new fighting games in the last week. The first is Marvel vs. Capcom 3. I knew that I was going to get a fighting game this year and I chose this one over the new Mortal Kombat for a few reasons.
First, this one has a larger roster of fighters so if I want to mess around with it there is more to do. Second, the online play will be stronger and last longer in this game most likely. Third, it is rated T so I can use it at youth group events like lock-ins. In Marvel vs. Capcom 3 instead of having multiple rounds like a lot of fighting games, each player chooses three fighters. When all three fighters are defeated it is game over. After a lot of tinkering, I found a set up I like and will probably run with. I am going with Dante, X-23, and Captain America. If I decide I need more range after playing with this, I might sub in Deadpool or Chris. I have not really played online yet, because there are players in this game who can do scary crazy combos (starts at the 25 second mark):

But I will go online eventually.

The other game I got is Yomi. Yomi is actually a card game, that is made to simulate the type of fighting games that I have been talking about, and it is really, really good.
In Yomi each player takes a deck of cards representing a fighter. Then each player picks a card and reveals it at the same time. A paper rock scissors mechanic governs the game. Attacks beat throws. Throws beat block/dodge, and block/dodge beats attacks. If an attack or throw hits, then a combo can be started. There are even special moves, and hyper moves. This card game perfectly capture the best parts of fighting games, without any of the worst parts. The game simulates the fighting, the out guessing an opponent, and the joy of pulling off a combo. However, Yomi does not have the down side of fighting games like memorizing the inputs for special moves and combos, as well as having the manual dexterity to flawlessly enter a complex (and often long) line of inputs.

I will be playing Yomi a lot I think.

If you made it all the way to here, then good for you. There is only one thing left to say:

Reader 1 Wins!

Board Game Pre-Orders

2011-02-01T07:50:00.000-08:00

So my last post was about video games I am looking to get this year, so this one is about board games I am looking to get this year. We will most likely be getting more than five board games this year, but we already have five board games pre-ordered. The reason for pre-ordering these games is, for the most part, an economic one. For most of these games, if a person pre-orders them then they get the game for a cheaper price. Once a set number of people pre-order the game the company then commits to printing the game, charges the pre-orders, and uses that money to pay for the print run. This set up seems like a win all around. Companies lose a lot of the risk involved in printing a new game, consumers get to vote with their dollars, and get games at a discounted price. The games will be listed with how long we have had them pre-ordered.

Iron and Oak

I pre-ordered this game back in September, and of the games we have pre-ordered it is the one most likely not to come out this year. The game company, GMT games, needs at least 500 games pre-ordered before they will think about producing it, and Iron and Oak only has 412 pre-orders.
This is a tactical naval combat game set during the American Civil War. This means that in the game players control individual boats. I really like the idea of a tactical naval game, and we have one Wooden Ship and Iron Men. However, Abigail does not care much for that game because facing matters, players have to visualize movement, and it is fairly deterministic. Iron and Oak is a lighter game. Combat takes place on a 3 x 3 grid, so scale is abstracted. Plus the game has cards that influence combat and requires rolling a lot of dice. Other light war games that Abigail likes (Memoir 44, Trench Zone, and Manouvere) have those same characteristics. If this game sounds good to you, please pre-order it so it has a better chance of coming out this year.

Eminent Domain

The reason for pre-ordering this game was a little bit different. They used a website called Kickstarter.com to gain funding. Last year there was another game that used this website, called Alien Frontiers, it was critically acclaimed and it sold out of the print run before it was ever released. We wanted to make sure the same thing did not happen with this game, so we backed it and funded it (which also purchased our copy of the game).
This game has a sci-fi real estate theme. However, what sold us is this game has deck building like Dominion, and phase/role selection mechanics like Race for the Galaxy. Dominion and Race for the Galaxy are two of our favorite games, so anything that mixes the two is a must get for both of us.

Sun of York

This game has been on the pre-order list of GMT for a long time, but it is tentatively set to be released this July.
Sun of York is a tactical card game about the English Civil War. We both tend to like card games, so that it is a plus. Before pre-ordering I read the rules and watched a video demonstration. I think this is a game that I am really going to like.

Boots on the Ground

This is one of the games that I am most excited about getting this year. Boots on the Ground is a modern warfare game. Players control a squad of special force troops, and the game controls insurgents. This game seems like it will be very accessible but do a really good job at capturing the theme. One of the big appeals to this game is that it can be played in multiple ways. It can be played solo, co-op, competitively, and versus.

Zombie War

This is my most recent pre-order. The game is called Zombie War, how could I resist it? The game focuses on the world wide response to a zombie outbreak, much like the book World War Z or the game Zombie State. However, unlike most Zombie games, this a zombie game for Euro game fans. Each turn, players play a different role (like Government or Military). Each role has their own abilities and ways to score points. On the next turn, players switch roles, and who ever earns the most points wins. The victory point based game play sounds like something Abigail will like, and I like Zombies. This should be a winner.

The Video Game Post

2011-01-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

Remember back in the day, when I use to write about video games ALL the time? I wrote about video games so much, that at my wife's request I actually started a separate video game blog that I was really good about updating until Seminary started. I even had a following. There were random strangers who bookmarked my blog and everything.

I don't write about video games as much because I do not play them as much. There are two major and related reasons for this. The first, is that between a full time job and a kid I do not have as much time anymore. The second, is with the time I do have I would much rather spend it with Abigail than playing a video game by myself.

That being said, I still do play video games, just not as much. Two years ago I probably played video games a minimum of 10-15 hours a week. Now it is probably 2-5 hours a week, and some weeks it is even less than that. I have several small video game posts ideas, that if I I left them be they would never get posted. So I am going to put them all together into this one "video game post".

First, I played a game demo last night that I really liked. The game is called Breach. It is an online shooter that does so much right in my mind. The pacing and feel of the game is a great middle ground between the run and gun, twitch action of Call of Duty and the slower, more deliberate pacing of Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon. In addition to that, a major draw of this game is that one of the main game modes is the Battlefield style conquest games. In this game type there are various capture points on the map that teams try to hold. I played several of the maps last night, and the size of the maps is just right. Finally, this game includes fully destructible environments, with the added bonus of being completely vehicle free.

Of course, there are a couple of downsides to this game. First, it s a downloadable title that is online only. The game has no single player. The only way that I can play it is with other people. The reality of it is that in 3 to 6 months most of the players will be moving on, and I will be left with a game that I bought and can not play any more. Another downside is the timing. The game just came out and cost $15. In a couple of days, the new Call of Duty map pack comes out and also cost $15. They both cost the same, and they both involve online shooting. I really liked Breach, but I am heavily leaning to getting the map pack instead. That kind of makes me sad, because I did like what I played of Breach.

Second, I am having a hard time deciding what video games I want to get this year. Last year, Abigail and I decided that the best way to budget for video games is that I would get five new releases. In the end, I only bought four in 2010. Assuming, we go the same route this year I am having a hard time deciding which five to go with.

I do know that one of them will be DiRT 3. This is a rally racing game. I greatly enjoyed the original game, and missed out on the sequel. I am really looking forward to this one.

The other games I am considering kind of fit into three major categories:

1. Fighting
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: I am not very good at fighting games, but I have a soft spot for them, and really enjoy playing them from time to time. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is probably the big fighting game release this year, and if I want to really put some time in to playing online this is the one I should get. However, the single experience will be bare bones in this game, and I tend to be not the greatest at this series.

Mortal Kombat: Mortal Kombat is the reason why I like fighting games. There is a series reboot coming out this year. When it comes to being competitive, Mortal Kombat is the only series that I was good at. I could hold my own in Mortal Kombat: Deception and in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 when it was released on Xbox live arcade. I will probably get a fighting game this year, but only one so I need to decide between these two.
2. Shooting
Ghost Recon: future Soldier: I really like the Ghost Recon games, and GRAW 2 is one of my most played games on the 360, so I am very interested in this sequel. However, this game takes a more sci-fi future tech bend, and I am little worried that the future tech is going to make the multiplayer un-fun for me.

Aliens: Colonial Marines: This game is being made by the studio that has made the excellent Brothers in Arms games, so there is a good track record. The real sale to this game though is going through tight corridor and shooting aliens.

Gears of War 3: The first two Gears of War were very good single player games. The first one had good co-op (but the second was a let down). I also played a lot of multiplayer on the original Gears, but not so much for Gears 2. I want to play this game to finish it out, and I think some of the changes they are introducing may make multiplayer better.

CoD: Modern Warfare 3: Since 2005 there has been a new Call of Duty every year and I am sure this year will be no different. The games have always been good. Call of Duty is developed by two studios who alternate years. This year is an Infinity Ward year, which means the 2011 game will not be as good as the 2010 one. However, along with DiRT 3 this is probably the only other game that is a "Must Buy" at this point.

3. Single Player Epics
L.A. Noir: This is detective game that I have high hopes for. This game uses new technology that has incredible facial recognition. This means that players will be able to tell someone is lying or scared by the face on the screen.

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim: The previous Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion, is one of the best games that I have played. I put like 80 hours in to the game in like a month. The same company made Fallout 3, which is also one of my favorite games. The pedigree of this game, means that I will probably love it.

Mass Effect 3: I have played the first two Mass Effect games and I have been blown away by both of them. Mass Effect is a trilogy, where players can carry their characters over from game to game. For Mass Effect 2, I waited a few months and bought the game cheaper.

So that is 10 games, and I can only get 5 of them. DiRT 3 and the Call of Duty are for must gets, so that leaves 8 games for 3 spots. Any ideas?

What I Want to Do This Year

2011-01-10T21:00:00.001-08:00

So last year I posted a list of four things I wanted to make a point of doing in 2010. I batted .500, so by baseball standards I did awesome! I did successfully read a History book and I did succeed at greatly improving my disc golf game. By the end of the Fall I was hovering right around par at the Avon course for 18 holes. I did not get published again. In fact, with in a few weeks of writing that I honestly did not think about it during the entire year. I also did not successfully make my own board game. However, I got a really good start. I came up with an idea that I think is worth pursuing and I wrote a rough draft of the rules. I started working on a prototype, and then Abigail started school back up.

So this year, I have thought of what things I would like to accomplish this year. At the heart of these things is wanting to find balance. From August-December, Abigail and I really struggled with getting the balance right between working, being parents, being a couple, and being ourselves. We know that this balancing act does not get easier and we are starting to learn how to do it. All of these things I want to do this year are only possible with the proper balance.

1. Create a Board game
This is the third year, of wanting to do this. And this is the year! As already mentioned, I think I have an idea worth pursuing. So I will pursue away and make it happen this year.

2. Write Regularly
I have already taken the first steps to fulfilling this one. It is fully my intention to update a serial story twice a month. I already got it started, if you have not done so then you should really go read it!

3. Ride Regularly
Last year I got a bicycle that was made for riding on roads, and for about six weeks I was really good about riding it fairly regularly. Each time I went out I pushed myself a little further. Then, I had a really busy beginning to June. After that it was miserable hot. Then, Abigail started school, and it kind of just sat there. I probably will not do anything until Spring, but I want to be much more serious and more importantly regular about bike riding.

4. Run an Event at Gen Con
So I first went to Gen Con in 2008 for one day. Each year I have ratcheted up my experience. This year I am going to go through the process of trying to run my own event. As evidence to this blog, I like to create things for other people to experience. As of right now, I am making plans to run two events. The first is a Western Miniatures game and the second is a pulp heroes RPG. I am sure if I get this set up I will post more information, but if you are reading this AND you are going to Gen Con you should make plans to take part in these events (so at least one person does)

5. Read the Bible for a 3rd time
Now that does not mean I have only read it twice. There are some books like Romans, Ephesians, and 1 John that my reading of might be close to triple digits. By my count I have read the entire bible 2ish times. I have to say 2ish, because on the second time there are definitely parts of the Old Testament that I skimmed more than read. Like (I would hazard to guess) most Christians I have really over-emphasized the New Testament in my Bible Reading. I need to remedy that, and I am excited to see how Christ is revealed in even the most obscure passage of Old Testament law.

Top 10 Memories of 2010

2011-01-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

This is the final best of 2010 list, and it is always one of my favorite posts to make. 2010 was probably one of the most unique years of my life. I simultaneously feel like I did a ton, and that I did very little. This is of course, all because of Connor. This was the first year of having him around, and there were a lot of adjustments, and lessons to learn. As the lists will hopefully show, it was a good year :)

10. Iggy Baby Shower

When Connor was three weeks old, I began to phase back into work at the church. One of the groups I work with are the 5th and 6th graders and the group is called Iggy. Several of the girls in that group took it upon themselves to throw a baby shower for Connor. It was a very kind thing to do.

9. Sr. High Retreat/Jr. High Retreat (tie)
I am always a fan of retreats, so we will have to call this one a tie. Honestly, the Sr. High retreat feels like forever ago (it was in March). Most of my memories from that retreat are not related to the theme, but to the fun stuff that happened. We played a really great game of Capture the Flag, and had a rather incredible Euchre Tournament. The Jr. High retreat was memorable because it was great group of kids. Plus at the end just about all of them made the decision to be more serious about following Christ.

8. Church Softball Tournament
In the Fall, I worked to help get Avon UMC in a church softball tournament. We got absolutely destroyed the first game. In the second game, we were competitive but still lost. Even though we were the first team out, it was a lot of fun playing. This was my first time to play on an organized sports team since 2004. I am really hoping that playing in the tournament in October will be a stepping stone to having a full team this summer.

7. Going to Bub's

Even though it was completely irrational, wasteful, and unhealthy one of my life goals was to get my picture on a wall for eating something. This year, I did it by eating the one pound burger (that is the weight AFTER cooking). My strategy was to eat it as fast as possible, and that is exactly what I did. I went with a couple of youth and one of them got a quarter pound burger. I had consumed the whole pound before she had ate half of the smaller burger.

6. Christmas 2010

This Christmas was fun because of Connor. However, what really made this Christmas memorable is that my sister Kristen and her husband Matthew came over from England. This is the first time everyone was together since Connor was born, and it was the first time to spend Christmas with my entire family since 2007.

5. Sr. High Mission Trip

It seems every year that the Sr. High mission trip makes it on here. So next year, expect to see the 2011 trip to Alabama listed. This year's trip was good for a couple of reasons. First, the facility we stayed at, Camp Kingswood, was awesome. For anyone looking for a mission trip I highly recommend them. Second this trip was good because it was the first time I was on my own. I am not the most handy person in the world, so I have always tended to make sure there was another adult with me on site. That way I could be the cheerleader/quality control person and the other adult could be the foreman/expert. As it worked this time, I was the sole adult with six juniors and seniors. We figured it out, and built the deck/big step thing you see in the picture.

4. Connor's first birthday party

Connor's first birthday was good for all the reasons one might expect. It was good to have so many people who cared for him in on place. It was fun to watch him eat cake and open gifts. It was also meaningful to celebrate one year of him being around. Along with his birthday party, I have to include his ACTUAL birthday four days later. We went to the children museum and had a lot of fun. Connor absolutely loved it.

3. Abigail's 30th Birthday

For Abigail's birthday we went to the West Baden Hotel. The location was very beautiful and the weekend was very romantic. It was nice to know that even though we are parents, we can still just be a couple too.

2. Family Vacation to Cincinnati

It was fun going on vacation as a family. I think we planned this one perfectly. The pace we went at was exactly right. We really enjoyed going to the aquarium, biggest grocery store in the world, a baseball game, and the creation museum.

1. Gen Con with Abigail

The picture is the closest thing I have to a picture of us at Gen Con. This is a game we played together. For me Gen Con is one of the true highlights of the year. It is pretty much a four day celebration of everything I find fun. The best part about Gen Con this year is that Abigail went with me. We had a lot of fun there playing some of our favorite games like Race for the Galaxy and Memoir '44. There are 365 days in a year and in 2010 this day was the single most fun day I had.

I NEED to tell a story part two

2011-01-05T20:11:00.000-08:00

Not to long ago I wrote about my desire to be more serious about writing fiction. I am attempting to make good on that. I am going to be trying my hand at writing pulp fiction. My goal is to add to the serial story every other week. Follow the link, bookmark it, read, let me know what you think, and enjoy!

Tales of Daring

Top Ten 2010 Movies (Kind of)

2011-01-03T20:17:00.001-08:00

I have gotten to a point in my life, where I am very selective in movie watching. I really just don't want to invest 90 to 120+ in something that I have a feeling that I will not really care for. If a movie looks bad, cliche, or uninteresting I really want nothing to do with it. I would much rather spend that time doing a whole lot of other things. I have been heading this way for a while. The addition of Connor this year, plummeted my movie watching to really low. I watched a grand total of eight movies released this year. Now there actually are movies that I want to see, but I have not yet had the chance to see them yet. I went to a movie theater once the entire year. So this list will have 10 movies, but it will be divided up into two segments. The four best movies I saw this year, and the six movies from 2010 that I want to see still.
Four Best Movies I saw in 2010:

4. The Losers
With the A Team, Expendables, and this one there were a lot of mercenary action movies this year. While the Expendables had a better cast and more over the top action sequences (barely), I think I preferred this one a bit more. If anything because both movies had a similar villain, but the bad guy in the Losers was a bit more hateable in his smugness and conceit.

3. The Crazies
I suppose technically this movie is about distrust of a government that cares more about it's secrets than it's own people. That is there I suppose but the movie is really a good survival horror tale. It feels a bit like a zombie movie only sick crazy people replace the undead.

2. Book of Eli
In 2009, while playing Fallout 3 I had the thought what would it be like if someone had a Bible and followed God in a post-apocalyptic future. This movie is the answer. The action sequences were fantastic and I greatly enjoyed watching this one.

1. Toy Story 3
It is rather rare for a movie that is third in the series to actually be better than the first two, but Toy Story 3 does just that. It was an absolutely excellent story and well executed movie. Despite being animated, I am fairly confident this is not a movie for kids. The target audience are people who were kids when the first Toy Story came out in 1997.

And now the top six movies that I still want to see from 2010.

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1
I have seen all of the other Harry Potter movies, so why not this one as well?

5. Iron Man 2
Same deal, I liked the first Iron Man so I feel like watching the sequel is a good idea.

4. Red
I do not know a lot about this movie, except for the trailer shows Bruce Willis step out of a movie car firing a gun, and another guy shooting a RPG out of the air. That kind of over the top action movie magic, is usually a winner for me.

3. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Given the people I know who generally read this blog, they are going to think this pick is a dumb movie. However, I know that it is heavily inspired by comic books and video games. Plus, Scott Pilgrim lives in a world where disagreements are settled by over the top fights. Sounds like a movie that is made for me.

2. The A-Team
My brother said this is one of the most fun movies he watched this year. I like fun movies more than critically acclaimed movies so this will probably be a good use of my time.

1. Inception
I know this one is about dreams and has a surprise ending. Getting a lot of comparisons to the original Matrix is enough to make me want to see it. Several of the youth like this movie, and I have successfully avoided spoilers (unlike Shutter Island, which would be on this list if I did not already know the big twist). I really need to see this one soon, just so it does not accidentally get spoiled.

Top Ten Board/Card Games fo 2010

2010-12-31T11:08:00.000-08:00

It is my favorite time of the year to blog, because I get to make lists of all the fun stuff I did over the past year. This year I spent more free time (which I had less of this year than any other year) playing board and card games. One of the biggest reasons for this is because Abigail really went all in claiming gaming as a hobby this year. This year, she attended Gen Con, pre-ordered a game on her own, and less than an hour ago suggested how great it would be if we could have a specialized table for playing Dominion.

By my count I played about 30 games that were released in 2010. It was hard picking the 10 best, because the majority of the games I played from this year were good ones, but top 10 lists have a much better ring to them than a top 18 list. If you want to know more about the game, just click on the game's name and you will be taken to a site that gives you all the information you could want about it. Of course they are listed in descending order for dramatic effect.

10. Trenchzone

World War II games are fairly common. However, World War I games are a lot harder to come by. Especially World War I games that are not detailed hex and counter simulations. Trenchzone is a fairly easy and quick game that delivers a good tactical experience. Much of Trenchzone is spent trying to soften up enemy positions, while gathering one's own strength to go over the top. The World War I theme comes across well. The game is highly replayable, and I suspect that it will one that comes out a good deal in the future.

9. Nuns on the Run

Nuns on the Run is the second best game that I played this year without buying. The main reason for not getting this game is because it plays best with more than two. I really like the premise of this game. One player is in charge of the Abbess and prioress while the other players control nuns. The nuns have a secret wish, like a piece of cake, that they are trying to get. The nuns have to sneak out of their cells, get a key, obtain their wish, and make it back to their cell. The abbess and prioress are trying to catch them sneaking. I played this game at Gen Con and loved it. There is a game that I play with the youth called Underground Church, and Nuns on the Run takes what makes Underground Church and delivers it in a board game form.

8. Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League

Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League is based off of some sort of long running German serial story. I don't know much about the theme, but this is an excellent two player game. This game's essence is based in picking up goods on one world and delivering them to another. It works really well as a two player only game, and the game has some really interesting choices. In order to upgrade a ship requires spending victory points, so players have to decide if the upgrade will net them more points than they are spending throughout the game. This game plays quick and has a fast set up, so it is one that we will be playing a lot.

7. Ascension: Chronicles of the Godslayer

After Gen con there were two "deck building" games that had a lot of buzz: Heroes of Graxia and this one. I played Heroes of Graxia on the first day and bought it. I did not play Ascension until the last day and I was not sure if I got the right deck building game. Fortuantly, my secret santa fixed that for me. I think that Heroes of Graxia might technically be the better game, but the quick speed and set up of Ascension really lends it to being more fun. Plus, everyone i have taught Ascension to has instantly wanted to play it again. That is why Ascension is on the list and Heroes of Graxia is not (though Heroes of Graxia would probably be #13)

6. Frontline: D-Day

I have only played this game once, so it is really potential that puts this game so high on the list. This game came out in February of this year, and it was pretty much my most wanted game all year. I wanted to buy it at Gen Con, but could not find it, and I finally got it for Christmas from Abigail. Frontline is a card game that simulates skirmishes between WWII squads. Unlike other games, each card represents and individual person. The game does a great job of delivering a very miniatures like experience while still feeling like a card game. This game delivers everything that I wanted it to, and I can not wait to play it again. . . and again. . and again. . .

5. 7 Wonders

7 Wonders should be on this list if anything because it pulls off an incredible feat of playing up to seven players without dramatically increasing the play time. This is a civilization building game, where players use cards to slowly create a bigger and more powerful civilization. The great part of this game is that the main mechanic is card drafting, so players are taking a card from a hand and then passing the hand to someone else. There is also resource management and a lot of really unique card interactions. Like, Nuns on the Run the reason I do not have this one is because it does not play 2 players all that well.

4. Settlers of America: Trails to Rails

I like the Settlers of Catan, but there are some annoying flaws to the game. For example, when numbers do not roll the game stalls and it is possible to get stuck and unable to do anything. Settlers of America fixes those problems with a larger board, and the ability to get gold when the numbers are not rolling for a person. The best part of Settlers of America is the delivery of goods. Some complain that Settlers of Catan is all about luck and getting good numbers, but in Settlers of America how one uses their resources is what the game is all about because there are a lot more ways to use resources. The game plays a little long (2 hours minimum) but it has been a great experience each time I have played it.

3. Cyclades

Technically, Cyclades was released in 2009 BUT it was not available in the United States until March of 2010 so it counts. I love Cyclades. I love everything about the game. Sadly, Abigail hates the game. She hates everything about the game. I could go into more detail, but I already did so I will just point you there: Why I love it, Why she hates it. Because Abigail disliked the game I traded it for Zombie State, which was not a bad trade since that game would probably be # 11 on this list.

2. London

London is the game that Abigail pre-ordered this year. She likes anything London, the city and she likes games that have a lot of card interaction. It was pretty much a given she would like London, the game. In London players are rebuilding London after the great fire by playing cards that represent buildings in the city. Players then "run" their city for victory points and money. However, this also causes poverty. The game is all about getting cards that work well together and minimizing poverty. It is a good game that offers a lot of tough choices and deep strategies. Along with the next game, this is one that I think has potential to get a spot on my top 10 favorite games list.

1. Manoeuvre

Manoeuvre saw the second edition come out in 2010. The first edition came out in 2008, and that was when I was first getting into board games again so I missed out on it. I absolutely love this game. It contains armies for multiple countries and each country has their own deck of cards that controls attacking. There is a lot of strategic and tactical depth in this game. It is a game that I could play again and again with out getting tired of it. In May, when I make my annual list of favorite games I am sure Manoeuvre will have a spot on it, and it is my favorite game released in 2010.

I NEED to tell a story

2010-12-17T03:40:00.000-08:00

For the longest time, years in fact, when I had to list my hobbies I would always include reading and writing. I suppose in some ways, writing has been a hobby. For one year of my life I actually got paid to write video game reviews, and my previous post has a link to a lot of writing that I have done this year. So I do like to write, and it is an activity that I do engage in. However, when I listed "writing" as a hobby I usually meant fiction writing-that is something I do not do all that much.

I am not the greatest writer of fiction, but I do enjoy crafting a story. However, I have a really hard time writing if I do not have an audience. I know that good writers write for the sake of writing, but I have a hard time doing that. For me to find the motivation to sit down and write anything I need to know that someone other than me is going to read it.

I really have the desire to write for a couple of reasons. First, one of my life goals is to participate in national novel writing month. If I am going to do that, I need practice. Second, reading a youth ministry book about the importance of story, has reminded me of all the fun that I had with role playing games. Way back when I played RPGs I was the GM and I think I was not to bad at it. I liked being the GM because I got to create these interactive stories that the players experienced. For the past 10 years or so I have really being able to create stories. Given my current life circumstances the odds of me ever playing a RPG, much less run one, are fairly low. Given that, here is my plan on how to be more serious about writing and have fun creating stories.

Starting in January I am going to create a new blog, that is going to be for a serial story. My plan is every two weeks (twice a month) to add to the story. Of course, there will probably be months (and looking ahead, June is one of those months), where I might fall short. Hopefully, I will actually have people reading this story who will help keep me accountable.

So the question is what story do I want to tell. There are three genres that I would be most interested in exploring, and I would love feedback as to which one to go with:

1. Space Opera
Being a huge Star Wars fan, of course I want to tell stories set in space that involve big starships fighting it out and rebels fighting an evil empire. Well actually, I would probably avoid rebels and empires because it does not get more cliche than that. As I think about this genre, I probably would focus on spaceships and the fighting they then get into. One of things that I find most appealing about this game is that creativity can feed creativity. A game that I really like, Warcosm, is all about space opera spaceship battles. The game is a little free form in the creating of ships and scenearios. Thus, what I write I can then actually play and what I play I can write. This connection may help motivate me to stick with the writing process for the entire year.

2. High Fantasy
As I blogged about a couple of years ago, when I was in elementary school I created a fantasy world called Giam. From time to time, I have come back to this world. The advantage to going this way is I already have the beginnings of a story idea that date back to about 2003. The basic idea is a pair of siblings are destined to be the ones to stand against a tyrant, and the story is them coming to terms with the call in their life. A couple of the details are there, but the story is not very fleshed out, which means a serial story where I make it up as I go along anyway might be the way to finally tell this story. The only hesitation, is that fantasy worlds in general are highly derivative and not all that original. However, it is all for fun anyway so that may not matter.

3. Pulp Adventure
I really like the idea of pulp adventure. The most well known example of this type of story today is probably Indiana Jones. It is also a genre I have never really written in. However, I think it would be a lot of fun. I have an idea for a Private Investigator/Adventurer who travels the world in his plane and gets into all kinds of trouble and adventures. That sentence is all I have to go. I think writing these kind of stories would be fun, but my lack of experience with the genre and under-developed idea might make it harder for me to see it through.

So any suggestions?

The Games we Played This Year

2010-12-10T21:47:00.001-08:00

December into early January means that it is time for end of the year posts! I am not a huge fan of math, but I do like useless statistics, especially when they are about me and the things I am interested in. The board game website that I am active on allows users to record plays of games. Thus, I can tell you exactly how many times I have played a certain game since December of 2008, the month I started recording all of my plays.

I complied a list that broke down the games I played this year month by month. You can see that list here: 2nd Year of Recorded Plays

If you want a more detailed look at what I played, and if you want to see where a lot of the time I spent writing for fun went, I made another list that compiled all of my writings such as game reviews and sessions reports. You can see that list here (as well as a couple of pictures of Connor): My 2010 Contributions

The Santa Issue

2010-11-26T17:21:00.000-08:00

Yes I know that it has been three and a half months since I made a blog post. I can go back and look, but I think that is probably the longest I have ever gone without an updated. Really since about the end of August, I kind of feel like I have been running a marathon at a sprinting pace. Hopefully with this post, I can get back on the wagon and not lapse for so long.

So Christmas is just under a month away. Technically this is Connor's second Christmas, but he was only three days old for the first one. This will be his first "real" Christmas. Abigail and I have talked a lot about what kind of Advent and Christmas traditions we want to establish and how we want to celebrate this time of the year. Abigail has had a lot of great ideas about how to do this.

One thing that we have talked a lot about is Santa Claus-specifically how we do NOT want to include Santa in our celebration of Christmas. I know this goes against the norm, but we do not want Connor to believe in Santa Claus. We are very resolved in this decision. However, there are some complications with implementing this, and we are hoping we could get some good ideas as to how to address these complications.

First it is worth stating why we have reached this decision. There are three major reasons why we do not want to teach Connor about Santa Claus.

#1 Santa Distracts from the true meaning of Christmas
The simple reality is that in America Christmas is more of a social consumer holiday than it is a religious celebration. It is also a simple reality that Santa Claus does a lot to create this reality. For parents, there is the joy of giving and seeing happiness in the children, For children, Santa Claus is all about receiving the material things they want. When one's focus is one receiving for themselves, it is impossible to focus on anything else-such as celebrating that extravagant love God that was displayed by the coming of Jesus as an infant.

#2 Santa creates God Confusion
I will state up front this is personally a big issue I have with teaching about Santa Claus, and I admit it is probably not that big of an issue to a lot of people. However, it really bothers me. Young Children think in concrete terms, so often they are taught about God in simple terms. Such as God can always see you and knows all about you. God wants you to be good to others, and if you need or want something you should pray and tell God about it. What do we teach kids about Santa? That Santa can always see you and knows all about you. Santa wants you to be good, and if you want something then tell Santa about it. In seminary and beyond, I have heard multiple stories about people, who has young children, who prayed to Santa Claus or whose image of God WAS Santa Clause. In addition to that, I have read multiple stories of atheists, who turned to atheism, when they realized Santa was lie. Because if Santa is not true, then how could God be true? Like I said, this really bothers me and I do not see it worth the risk.

#3 Why Lie to the kid?
Santa Claus is intention deception. For what purpose? I do not like the idea of intentionally telling a big lie to Connor for your years.

As I mentioned, we have talked a LOT about this, and we both believe these reasons are worth leaving Santa out of Christmas. However, we did discuss the counterpoint, that is why we should include Santa and we found those arguments lacking. From our discussions, we identified two main reasons as to why we might want to include Santa

#1 So Connor experiences the Christmas Magic
One of the reasons why one might want to teach about Santa, is so a child experiences the joy of receiving a gift from a magical source. One could argue that not teaching a child about Santa deprives them of the wonder of believing in something big and wonderful, such as a man with magical abilities who fulfills the gift wishes of children. However, I am not sure if this reason is good enough. Why teach Connor that he gets gifts from Santa because he has been good, when we can tie the giving of gifts to the real reason of Christmas. We celebrate Christmas because God gave us the greatest gift of all, and God gave us this gift out of love. To help celebrate Christmas we also give gifts to those that we love. When it comes to the issue of "Christmas magic" why teach him about magic to only later tell him it is a lie? I would rather teach him about the real miracles in the Bible, and let him find wonder in those stories.

#2 Everyone else believes in Santa
Just because everyone else does it, is not really a good reason. It certainly does not outweigh all the other reasons. However, this is where we need some help. We are unsure how to handle it in the future, when Connor is exposed to Santa which is going to happen. We are also uncertain about how to explain to other adults, are wishes to not have our children believe in Santa Claus without directing them to a lengthy blog post. One of the things we have talked about doing is teaching Connor about Santa, but not teaching him to believe in Santa. So Santa, is another story just like all of the other story books he already has. Given how all of the books about Santa are works of fiction anyway, it is not that much of a stretch. However, this gets us to the problem of what do we do when Connor interacts with other kids who do believe in Santa. All of these potential issues are years down the road, but we are not sure how to deal with them, and we would love any pointers or advice on this subject. Thanks!

Gen con 2010

2010-08-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

Last week was one of the best weeks of the year: Gen Con week. I spent five days basically doing what I like the do the most which is play games.

If you want to know about my experiences, then I strongly urge you to go read this list: What I Played and Bought at Gen Con. The list is basically a complete list of everything I did at Gen Con, and it turned out to be a rather popular list so you also get to read the thoughts of others.

If you don't want to read the whole things here is a condensed top five (but you really should read the list!):

5.Shopping
I do not really care for shopping, but when I have a lot of funds to spend on what I want it is a bit different :)
Earlier this year, I preformed a wedding and we agreed that the money I got from the wedding could be used for Gen Con. They paid a lot more than what we are kind of thinking, which mean I got a couple of more new games than I was expecting.

4. The Games of War
One of the events I played in was a miniatures game set in the Napoleon time frame. It used the rules from, the Games of War (which I wrote about previously). The author, who was running, the event made it a lot of fun and playing it that game really was a highlight of Gen con for me.

3. Playing board games 36 stories up
On Wednesday and Saturday one of the major things I did was open gaming. Open gaming is like it sounds. There are tables set up, there are games, and the tables are open to play them. The cool part of this is the open gaming was at the Skyline Club, 36 stories up in The Bank of America Building. It was nice playing board games with such a lovely view.

2. Settlers of America: Trails to Rails
The best part by far of Gen Con was that Abigail came on Friday. We had a lot of fun together. One of the things we did was play the New Settlers of Catan game. We both liked it and we met people who lie in the area that we might be able to get together with in the future.

1. Memoir '44 Overlord
This is one of the things I was most looking forward to. Memoir '44 is one of my favorite games. Usually Abigail and I play against each other, but in Overlord it becomes a 4 vs. 4 team game so we got to play on the same team. What makes it better is that we were the underdogs in the scenario and won!

First Family Vacation with Connor

2010-07-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

Last week we took our first vacation with Connor. We decided to keep it simple and went to Cincinnati. We basically just did one major thing a day and for the most part took it easy. So this is a brief description of what we did, with pictures :)

Tuesday
We did not do a whole lot on Tuesday. We got to Cincinnati in the late afternoon and went to Ikea, because Abigail had a gift card from a while ago she needed to use, and this was the closest one. It is a big store, but not my thing. However, they did have smooth concrete floors with carts that had four wheels that all swiveled independently. This mean the cart did cool things like glide sideways, and it spun really easily. I think I got Connor to spin a 720 in the cart at one point.
After that we went to a restaurant that Abigail got a "groupon" for called Chezburger Cafe. It was a burger and shake place. I was tempted to get my picture on the wall by completing their speed eating challenge, but instead went for a brownie batter milkshake and a regular burger. It was good stuff. From there we drove all the way across the Cincinnati area to the hotel we were staying at.

Wednesday
Every day we got a late start (on purpose) Every morning, we also began with taking Connor to the pool. Which he enjoyed:

In the late morning/early afternoon we went to the Newport Aquarium. Going to the aquarium was the main reason that we chose this area. Earlier this summer, we took him to the Indianapolis Zoo and he loved watching the fish. He got a little tired at the aquarium, but he did enjoy it:

After the aquarium, Connor was spent and we still had most of the day, so we went to a local game store in the same area called Newport Games. It was an absolutely amazing store to browse. It focused on miniatures and wargames. Along with the typical warhammer stuff, he also had bookshelves absolutly stuffed with old obscure games, new small press games, new big box games, and out of print books about war. It felt like every shelf held a buried treasure, and it was a lot of fun to browse. We did end up leaving the store with the game Naval Battles, which is a lot of fun.
That evening we went to Skyline Chili, because we were in the Cincinnati area after all. Connor enjoyed the aquarium, but for all of today he was running a little temperature and this night was a little rough for everyone.

Thursday
We got an even later start on Thursday. We drove to Jungle Jim's, which is a huge (as in 6 1/2 acres huge) grocery store. I think they may possibly have everything that is edible.

Along with some of the food that Abigail liked from England we walked out with chocolate flavored soda and shrimp flavored chips. After a while in the grocery store, Connor was tired and we tracked down a Caribou Coffee, which is a Starbucks like place that Abigail really likes.

In the evening we took Connor to his first baseball game. We did not go to a Reds game, but went for the dramatically cheaper Freedom who just happened to be playing the Evansville Otters.

Friday
On Friday, on our way home we stopped at the Creation Museum. Without getting to much into what the museum is all about, a few thoughts. First, I was absolutely shocked at how busy the place was. I assumed that the crowd would be really lite. It was beyond packed. We got there an hour after they were open, and we were in the overflow parking. It was almost to busy for us to be there with a stroller. So we skipped parts of it. I did think that the place was put together really well. They did a good job at making the point, that this is an interpretation of science that assumes the Bible is the inspired, factual word of God. They focused on their understanding of the science of the creation story and flood, mixed with a standard gospel presentation.

My biggest thought was, trying to figure out what the point for the place existing is. It was very obvious that the vast majority of people there agreed with everything they were being told AND already knew it all. It all seemed a little self gratifying. I do think something I would like to do in the future though is take a group to both the Natural History Museum in Cincinnati and the Creation Museum. I think it could lead to a fascinating discussion.
Connor did fall asleep for most of it, despite the crowds.

Saturday
We returned home Friday night, but Saturday was still part of our vacation because it ended on Sunday. We did not do a whole lot on Saturday. However, we did try to see if Connor was the cutest baby in Hendricks County.

He did not win. As you can tell from the picture, he was really tired. Also, when he got the judges he did not smile. He smiles for everyone but he does not preform, so he did not smile. Seriously, if he acted like he did when it was over, he might have won.

Sunday
On Sunday, we went to the Brickyard 400. Because I had just started at Avon last year, we missed the race which is a family tradition. This year Abigail's step dad went as well while her mom watched Connor.

Connor did look cute in his Jeff Gordon outfit.

I think it was a good vacation!

My last Creative Writing Attempt

2010-07-07T21:42:00.001-07:00

I realized that I never actually posted this here. I know at some point in the going on 8 years (really, that long?!?) that I have been writing a blog I mentioned how I like to write especially creatively, but I never actually do it. This happens for two reasons, I feel like I need an audience to write, I do not just do it for myself. I do not know why that is the case but it is. Second, I feel that I am terrible at writing characters. My favorite part of writing is crafting a story and creating a world, and I feel like I am terrible at making fleshed out, interesting characters. In short, my writing skills are suited to be RPG GM.
Anyway, I wrote this back in October. When I got the expansion for A Touch of Evil, it had rules for solo play and I tested them out. I also wrote a session report about the game I played, and I decided to have a little fun about it by writing the session report in a narrative style, specifically as if it was an excerpt of a chapter from a history book. I was rather impressed with myself :)

An Excerpt from: The Complete History of the Sanctum of the Mobius Malus

As the previous chapter showed the 18th century was a productive time for the order in Europe. However, a history of the Sanctum of the Moebius Malus in the Americas during the 18th century is not much of a history of all. After the tragedy that was the Salem Witch Trials the order appeared to completely disappear from the American colonies. One might be tempted to believe that the American order was dissolved only to be reestablished in the late 19th century if it were not for the Eliza Letters. These letters prove that the order did not dissolve but only went into deep hiding and secrecy to prevent puritans from once again taking a legitimate witch hunt and turning it into a farce.

The Eliza Letters are a collection of letters written from a fully ordained inquisitor whose only name is listed as Eliza. These letters are all addressed to the High Inquisitor. While there is no other evidence of this in Europe or later in American history, it would appear that in the American branch of the order it at one time was standard practice to update constant progress reports about hunts and inquisitions via letters. The Eliza Letters give a remarkable glimpse into the practices of a secretive order during a little known time, and this collection of writers tells quite a story in it’s own right.

In 1801, Eliza was dispatched to the village of Shadowbrook [Footnote: There is no town in the United states known as Shadowbrook, so the location is unknown. Most likely, this town is located somewhere in New England. It may no longer exist or at some point the town changed names]. Eliza came to Shadowbrook to investigate several unexplained murders that had a strong linking to the supernatural. The first letter dated October 1st describes what Eliza found in the town:

“I have found the people of Shadowbrook to be of a most fearful disposition. Upon arriving I was greeted by a most amible Dr. Manning. The good Dr. grimly allowed me to inspect the most recent victim and the visage of horror captured on the face of the deceased is haunting. The eyes are not just dead-it as if the soul has been consumed, and I dare fear that is what is happening to these poor victims in Shadowbrook. I have a grim feeling about this place. The wind is cool and at all hours a faint and sinister laughter can be heard whispering in the breeze. The devil is clearly at work here.”

From the town Eliza set off to an inn on the outskirts of town. The journey and inquisition at the inn was successful. While it is not clear how, at the inn Eliza discovered the town priest, Reverend Harding was an apostate and traitor to the faith. The reverend was in league with the evil, and was somehow marking parishioners to be victims. The magistrate was contacted, but the reverend had already disappeared.

In the letter dated October 4th, it is revealed that what brought the order to Shadowbrook in the first place was a plea of help from a brother Darius who lived in the cloistered monastery outside of Shadowbrook. Eliza journeyed to the monastery and her letters recount what she discovered there:

“The situation in Shadowbrook is far worse than we faired. I made my way to the monastery to seek out Brother Darius. I was greeted by the head abbot who behaved most peculiarly. I did not trust the man and my suspicions were well placed. When my back was turned he attacked me with a knife. It was promptly revealed that the man was possessed by a most vile demon who referred to himself as the host. We engaged in martial combat, I triumphed and exorcised the demon. The demon had held the brothers in fear for their lives and the immediately thanked me for the service. They gifted me with a censer that I feel is imbued with the power of our Lord and I have renewed my oath of devotion to our holy cause.”

Eliza never met with Brother Darius because that night the evil struck again, leaving a victim at the inn. Eliza went to investigate the death, and she heard many tales about a wailing shriek that chilled the blood of the entire inn. Also, at the inn Eliza met one of the town elders, a Lady Handbrook, who concerned, with the well being of the people was also on the hunt for the supernatural killer. Based off the reports of the inn patrons, Eliza is able to deduce and give a name to the evil: banshee [Footnote: For a more detailed entry on banshees refer to chapter XX. When the order dealt with a great host of banshees during the Irish potato famine. In brief, banshees are demonic spirits of hate and malice that are tied to an earthly keepers. The soul of a banshee is held by another, making them soulless creatures who try to fill a hunger by devouring the souls of others]

The banshee returned to the inn the next night and attacked Eliza herself. Eliza barely survived this deadly encounter and was only saved by the devotion of Brother Darius. Eliza recounts these events in the October 6th letter.

“By the grace of God I live, after a most frightful encounter, that will no doubt chill my dreams for the rest of my days. I patrolled the grounds of the inn after nightfall, when I heard a most grievous noise. It sounded as if death itself was wailing. The shrill shriek turned my blood to ice. Without delay, a ghastly shade of a bluish hue was upon me from the sky. The banshee had the figure of a woman but beauty had left her face and her eyes burned with intense hatred. I tried to fight but I was powerless against the wraith. She gripped me and I felt the life leave me. I passed out from the ordeal. When I awoke I found myself back at the monastery. I owe my life to brother Darius. He found me in the clutches of the banshee and drove off the creature with the piety of his faith. Brother Darius is taking me through a secret passage to see Lord Handbrook and see if he can shed any light on why this evil is here.”

While in the passageway between the monastery and the manor, Eliza and Darius encountered a barrow shade in service to the banshee but their combined faith easily exorcised the ghost. Lord Handbrook, an apparent pillar of the community, did not seem to offer much help and Eliza journeyed back to the town to make a most remarkable discovery as she writes in the October 7th letter:

“I have come into the possession of a most remarkable relic. It is a runic amulet that has extraordinary power. I must confess, high inquisitor, I am troubled that the amulet does not have any marking that glorify our Lord and Savior. Yet, I do not believe the source of this amulet to be demonic. When I wield it my hands burn with righteousness, and I am sure this will be the flame that is needed to banish the evil that afflicts this place.”

It seems that a sense of evil continued to fall over the land. Night after night saw a full moon, and the air increasingly became unnaturally cold. The banshee once again struck at the inn, this time killing Lady Handbrook. Eliza journeyed back to the inn and on the road and encountered a man claiming to be the grounds keeper of the Handbrook Manor. This was a deeply troubling encounter for Eliza. She claimed the man spoke in macabre riddles that greatly troubled her. In the letter for October 9th, Eliza refused to recount the riddles and tales of the man but did share with the high inquisitor two conclusions that she came to. First, the grounds keeper was an evil man who was tied to the banshee. Second, it was clear that the grounds keeper wanted Eliza to continue her investigation at the inn. Since the man could not be trusted she turned back looking for any clues she could find in the bog. In the bog, Eliza could hear wailings of the banshee in the wind and through what she claimed, was the leading of the Spirit, followed the sound to the lake’s edge where she deduced the banshee’s lair was on the “forgotten island.”

Eliza and Darius recruited the help on Dr. Manning and Lord Handbrook and on the evening of October 10th the hunting party went to the island to confront the banshee. A terrible fight must have taken place, but the exact details of the epic struggle are a mystery. The last letter on the collection is dated October 17th and it is a short one. In this letter Eliza writes:

I am finally strong enough to write to you. On the 10th of the month, we exorcised the banshee. My intuition about the amulet was proven true. It’s holy power allowed me to wound the creature. Dr. Manning is dead. Poor Darius is dead. I must only be alive because God wills it. The banshee had its grips on me, and me on it. Holy fires burned it, while unholy ice stole my breath. All I can say is the hell spawn perished before did I. Lord Handbrook has seen to my care and when I am well enough to travel, I will come and make a full testimony on this affair.”

The “Shadowbrook affair” from the letters is a remarkable tale of heroism in the face of evil. Yet, it is only a precursor to what the Sanctum of the Moebius Malus had in store for it later in the 19th century.

For Independence Day

2010-07-03T18:18:00.001-07:00

Which World War 2 General Are You? Your Result: General George S. “Ol' Blood and Guts” Patton “May God have mercy on my enemies—because I won't” Nothing less than total victory is acceptable for you. God help anybody who gets in your way, be they friend or foe. You'll bite the bullet and do your duty, but you always reserve the right to complain vociferously while you bide your time.
You are General Curtis “Bombs Away” Lemay
Field Marshal Irwin “the Desert Fox” Rommel
Field Marshal Bernard “Monty” Montgomery
Field Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
Which World War 2 General Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Six Months of Fiction

2010-06-22T17:20:00.000-07:00

Going into the beginning of this year, I had a decent number of books to read. I made this more by taking big advantage of a Walden Books going out of business. I recently finished my fiction backlog. I know for big time readers, this is quite honestly a fairly pathetic list, but considering I squeezed these books into everything else I have going on. . I feel pleased with it. After three years of Seminary reading, I am still wanting the most basic escapist reading I can find, which is why the vast majority of the books I have read this year are licensed science fiction. Here is a description/thoughts on the books I read in the order I read them:

Star Wars: Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber
This book combined two of my favorite things: Star Wars and Zombies. They did a decent job getting Zombies to fit in a Star Wars setting, though the author tried to hard to create horror movie set pieces that really came off as cliche and forced. However, it was a nice surprise to find Han Solo in this book as it gives a lot of weight to his "I've seen a lot of strange things" comment in the first Star Wars movie.

Halo: Evolutions by Various authors
This book is a collection of short stories set in the Halo Universe. I read most of the books on this list in about a week or so. However, this one took me about a month. This was partially because it was a bit bigger, but also because the short story model made it hard to get really involved in the book. The stories ended to quickly to make me want to keep flipping the pages. Some of the stories were garbage (like Pariah). Some were neat side stories (like Dirt). Some filled in neat elements of the Halo Universe (like The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole) and others, like Human Weakness, are required reading to truly understand the storyline told in the video games. The biggest problem with this book is that the vast majority of the characters all died in the end. I know this makes the stories tie up really neatly, as well as helps to reinforce the hopeless struggle humanity finds itself in, but it go annoying story after story.

Plague of the Dead by Z.A. Recht
This is one of the books I got at the going out of business sale, and it is a Zombie novel. The book follows the idea of zombies being caused by a virus, and follows what happens when the virus goes global. It is a good zombie story, but it is a bit of a downer that the book was written as part of a series, but only one sequel was ever published so I know that even if I read that book as well the overall story is never really completed.

EVE: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales
This is another book I got from the sale, and I bought because the front cover is awesome:

The book is based on a Sci-Fi MMO and this book was a tie in to some sort of major expansion they released for the game. The universe they have created is an interesting one, though I do find the way that they essentially explain in-game respawning in a book form. What makes sense in the confines of a game system can be a little silly when put on paper. Despite that, the story was not bad. It had four separate stories that all slowly got closer and closer together until the final mashup in the end, where the actions of one character directly impacted that of another. The biggest problem with the book is that it was a fantastic set up for an expansion to a game I am never going to play.

Agincourt byBernard Cornwall
I tip-toed closer to my goal of reading a history book this year, by reading a work of historical fiction. This book follows an archer as he goes from an obscure English village to being an archer at the battle of Agincourt. The author does a good job at creating likable characters, relaying the grittiness of history, and telling a good story. However, the author did rely a bit to heavily on Dues Ex Machima, as the voice of a Saint speaking to the main character is what drove a lot of the character's actions and thus the story. Despite that, it was a very good read and after the previous three books it was nice to have a full novel with a full ending.

Halo: The Cole Protocol by Tobias S. Bucknell
At this point I have played all of the Halo games and read the books, so I figured I should continue. The Halo universe is really a good sci-fi universe, and I much prefer the UNSC vs. the Covenant to the dryness of the Federation vs. Klingons/Romulans/Cardassians/ whoever. I also think the Halo universe is best when the stories do not have Master Chief in them. This is just a fun story that is steeped deep in Halo lore. It uses Lt. Keyes as the main character, reveals a lot about the inner workings of Elite society, and is all about fulfilling the Cole protocol. I know that last sentence only means something to a dedicated Halo fan, but those touches were the accents on a solid story.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
How in the world, have I lived 29 years and not read this book? This books was originally published before I could read, so I really have no excuse. This is an absolutely excellent book that was way ahead of its time, and in many ways still is. a Sci-fi war between Earth and an insect alien species is the backdrop for a story that explores human nature, as well as creatively speculates on the power of the internet (and this was back in 1985), as well as the use of video games in education. This book should be considered a must read for everyone.

Mass Effect: Ascension by Drew Karpyshyn
After loving the Mass Effect video game, I read the first book that served as a prequel of sorts to the first game. The second Mass Effect book serves a prequel to the second game and uses the same character as the first book. This was an enjoyable story and I am really looking forward (even more) to playing Mass Effect 2.

Now that I have read all of the fiction books it is time for me to begin reading my history book, and after that I plan on reading more books like the ones on this list from the library before reading a more academic book about video games and Christianity.

Help Fix My Rules

2010-06-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

As you might remember one of my goals this year is to create a game. Well there is a contest of sorts, a game publisher has put out an open call for submissions, with a promise to publish at least one of them. Participating in something like this, is the kind of motivation that I need to actually complete this goal. So the first wave of this contest requires submitting rules by July 15th. Now I know I need to actually make a prototype of this game and start playing it, but I went ahead and wrote a copy of the rules out so I can start getting that worked out. So I would greatly appreciate it you would read these rules, share ideas, and let me know how I can make them more clear. Thanks :)

The Auxiliary Units
London, 1950. It has been ten years since Nazi Germany succeeded in eliminating the Royal Air Force and successfully carried out Operation Sea Lion which put the British Isle under Nazi control. For ten years Britain has been ruled by Germany, but for many the war never ended. In preparation for an invasion former Prime Minster Winston Churchill created a secret army of Auxiliary units to run a resistance movement. The Auxiliary Units have successfully fought the ruling regime, and open rebellion is close. However, over the past decade the Auxiliaries have fragmented and different factions are fighting for different things. Only one faction can have enough influence to lead the coming rebellion.

Components
1 Board, 20 cell tokens (five of each color), 1 six sided die, 1 20 sided die, ?? Cards

Overview
In this game players control a resistance faction trying to overthrow the ruling Nazi regime. This is done by sending cells on missions to recruit, gather supplies, gather intelligence, or go on subversive acts. In doing so the resistance factions will destabilize the ruling regime until their iron grip slips and the population rises in open rebellion. Which ever faction has gained the most influence through their subversive acts will be the leading group of the rebellion and the winner of the game.

Set Up
The board is set up in the middle of the table and each player is randomly assigned a faction. The players take the cell tokens that match that factions color, one is kept in front of them, on the colored, full strength side up as active and the other tokens are set aside. The deck marked procurement should be shuffled and placed beside the board near the procurement area on the operations side of the board. The same should be done with the deck marked intelligence and the deck marked training. The deck marked Nazis should be shuffled and placed on the special operations side of the board. Finally, the deck marked crackdown should be placed below the bottom of the board. Use whatever method players want to decide who will be the first starting player and that player takes the first player marker.

Game Turn Overview
Each game turn is divided into three phases. Players will take turns going first. After a player goes first for a turn, they will pass the first player marker to their left. The three phases are:
1. Orders: Beginning with the start player, the players take turns placing their active cell tokens on the board. Players only place one cell at a time.
2. Operations phase: Beginning with "recruitment" and going down the list of possible actions (recruitment, procurement, intelligence, training, and propaganda), any players who have a cell on one of these actions may use their cell to take the appropriate action. When a player executes an action, they remove their cell from the board. How these actions are resolved is explained in more detail in the next section.
3. Special Operations Phase: Beginning with the "Airport" and going down the locations on this side (airport, internment camp, weapons factory, and government center), any players who have a cell on one of the action spots of these locations may either execute a mission or preform reconnaissance. When a player executes an action, they remove their cell from the board. How these actions are resolved is explained in detail in the next section. Once the special operations phase is complete, the start player passes the start player marker to the left and a turn begins with the first phase.

Game Phases in Depth
Orders phase: During the order phase is when the players decide what actions they will have their active cells engage in. The start player places one of their cell tokens one one of the action spots. Only one cell can occupy a given spot, thus if a spot is already occupied no other cells can occupy that spot for the turn.

Operations Phase: In this phase the recruitment, procurement, intelligence, training, and propaganda actions are carried out if a cell token has been placed one one of the appropriate action spots. The details of these actions are described below:
Recruitment: During this action, cells can recruit members for new cells. If a player has a cell on the half strength side in play in the sleeper cell area, then they may claim that cell as an active cell token and use it beginning on the next orders turn. If a player does not have a cell in the sleeper area, then the player puts a new cell token on the half strength side in the sleeper cell area. There are two action spots for this action instead of one. A player who already has an active cell in one of the spots may not place a cell in the second spot as well.
Procurement: During this action, cells gather supplies through raids, theft, extortion, and other means. To execute this action, the player draws three cards from the procurement deck and they must choose to keep one. There are two types of cards in the procurement deck. The first type are item cards that are used for missions and the second are influence cards that are played immediately. If a player chooses an item card they may keep it secret until they choose to play it during a mission. If a player chooses to keep an influence card, they must play it immediately and follow the text of the card. If the card grants influence points they must immediately claim that number of points markers.
Intelligence: During this action, cells gather information about the orders and secrets of the ruling regime. To execute this action, the player draws three cards from the Intelligence Deck and they must choose to keep one. There are two types of cards in the intelligence deck. The first type are mission cards that are revealed to begin a mission at the various locations on the special operations side, and the second type are influence cards. Mission cards are to be kept secret until they are revealed to begin a mission during the special operations phase. If a player chooses to keep an influence card, they must play it immediately and follow the text of the card. If the card grants influence points they must immediately claim that number of points markers. There are two action spots for this action instead of one. A player who already has an active cell in one of the spots may not place a cell in the second spot as well.
Training: During this action, cell spend time training so they can effectively carry out missions. To execute this action, the player draws three cards from the training deck and they must choose to keep one. A player keeps the training cards secret until they choose to play them at the appropriate time while executing a mission during the special operations phase.
Propaganda: During this action, a cell spreads propaganda in an attempt to gain support of the people. There are six spots, numbered 1-6 in the propaganda section. Any players using a cell in propaganda must choose one of those numbered spots. During the propaganda action, the start player will roll a six sided die. If a number is rolled where any player has a cell token, then their propaganda was successful and that player gains three influence points an the destabilization track is moved down one.

Special Operations Phase: In this phase players have the opportunities to send their cells on mission or to preform reconnaissance in one of four locations: Airport, Internment camp, Arms Factory, and Government center. The two actions available in this phase are described below:
Missions: To preform a mission, a player must have cell token in one of the two action spots of the appropriate location. The player must also reveal a mission card and if the mission has item prerequisites they must reveal those as well. Any prerequisite items may be used during the mission. Every mission card list the enemy strength that the cell will have to deal with. This number is often 1 to 4. One at a time, the player undertaking the mission must reveal the top card of the Nazi deck. The cards in the Nazi deck will have a number listed between 19 and 11. The player whose cell is on the mission must roll a twenty side die and roll a number LESS than the one listed on the card. A player may use any applicable item cards, tactics cards, or reconnaissance tokens to lower the die roll after the roll has been made. If this roll is successful then the cell successfully fought or avoided the enemy threat and the next enemy card can be revealed and the process is repeated. If the roll against the nazi card is unsuccessful then the player must flip their cell token over to the half strength side. At this point, the player has two options. They may continue or abandon the mission. If they continue, then the player must face the same enemy card again and make a new roll in attempt to get lower than number listed on the enemy card. If a player fails to defeat a Nazi card by not rolling less than the listed number with a half strength cell, then half strength cell is lost (the token is put back into the inactive token pool) and the mission card and all prerequisite item cards are discarded. If the player chooses to abandon the mission, then they must discard the mission card, all prerequisite cards (even if they are unused), and move their half strength cell token to the sleeper cell area. If a player successfully defeats all of the enemy cards then they have successfully completed the mission. The player gets the listed influence points on the mission card and the destabilization track is moved down the listed amount.
Reconnaissance: To preform reconnaissance a player must have a cell token in one of the two action spots of a location. Instead of revealing a mission card, the player announces they are doing reconnaissance. To preform reconnaissance the player needs to roll a twenty sided die and roll below 19. If they are successful they get a reconnaissance marker for that location. This marker can be used on a mission to decrease a roll to defeat an enemy card. If the player rolls a 19 or 20 on the reconnaissance roll then they must flip their cell token to half strength and move it to the sleeper cell area.
Since all special operation locations have two action spots, it is possible for a single player to occupy both spots. If this happens, the player may preform reconnaissance and then a mission or vice versa. A player may also send both cells one one mission. A player may not send two cells on two different locations on the same turn.

Destabilization Track
The Destabilization track is what triggers the game's end. When this track reaches zero the game is over. Which ever player's actions reduce this track to zero gets three bonus influence points. On the destabilization track there are multiple red lines. Whenever the destabilization track is moved across one of these lines a crackdown card is drawn and immediately played. All players must comply to whatever condition the crackdown card calls for.

Broken Factions
It is theoretically possible for a player to have no active cells. If this happens then, the faction is broken but not defeated. If a player's only cell token is in the sleeper cell area, then during the operations phase, they get a free recruit action to restore the cell to full strength. If a player has no active cell tokens, then during the operations phase they get a free recruit action to create a new cell. The new cell is placed in the sleeper cell area at half strength.

2 Player special rules
When the game is being played with only two players then only one of the two action spots under recruitment and intelligence can be used.

Game End
Once the destabilization track reaches zero the game immediately ends, even if there are still cells left on the board to act. Which ever player's action causes the end of the game gets an immediate three bonus influence points. Whichever player has the most influence points at the end of the game is the winner and leader of the revolution. If players are tied then which ever player completed the most missions will be declared the winner. If players are still tied, then which ever player got more points from propaganda is the winner. If player still tied then settle it with pistols at dawn or share the victory.

Top Ten Favorite Board Games-2010 Edition

2010-05-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

Almost a year ago, I wrote about my top ten favorite board games. I think I might need to do this list on an annual basis, because a year apparently makes a big difference! Half of last year's list is no even on the list this year. This shows two things. First, my exposure to board games has greatly increased in the past year. Second, I am easily attracted by new and shiny things, which is why doing this list annually might be a great idea. So for this year anyway, here are my top ten favorite board games:

10. Ca$h 'n Gun$
If I am going to play a game with six people, then I want it to be this one. With rules explanation the game takes 10-15 minutes tops. This game is all kinds of fun, because it is all about pointing guns at each other. Seriously, take a look:

The whole idea is the players just robbed a bank, but since everyone is a greedy bank robber guns do the talking. Every turn everyone points their gun at some most of the time people are bluffing. Cowards can back out, and then the bullets fly. Whoever is left standing gets a share of the loot. . . if it splits evenly. The game is incredibly fun to play.

9. Havana

It is hard to say why this game appeals to me, but I really like it. In Havana, the players are building buildings for points. However, to build buildings players have to collect resources, money, and workers. To do this each turn players select two roles that serve various functions. One of the neat wrinkles is that the roles determine turn order, so not only do players have to play roles they want they have to also consider what happens if they do not go first. There is a lot of trying to outguess an opponent in this game without any direct conflict. This game knocked Citadels, which is also a role selection game out of my top ten. I prefer the dual roles and the sense of building something more in Havana.

8. Stone Age

This game got knocked down a couple of spots from last year, but it is still one of my favorites. Along with being a pretty game as the picture shows, Stone Age is a worker placement game. I tend to like worker placement games. If one of the main mechanics of a game is placing workers to do actions to win, then there is a good chance I will like it. I especially like Stone Age because it is easy to play, uses dice really well, and has multiple paths to victory. The biggest reason for the drop is because I have not gotten the opportunity to play this game as much as I would have liked in the past year.

7. Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game
Last year, when I made this list my brother was a little ashamed of me because it lacked Zombies!!! Last Night on Earth sort of fixes that omission, as it is the better Zombie game.

The game pits survivors against a zombie player, and does a great job at creating a narrative. Every game is different, and every game is fun as it creates a B-movie narrative. For example, last time I played it with my brother he was the zombies and I was the survivors. I had lost two survivors to the horde, and the other two were filling up the truck so they could get out of dodge before the sun set. Both of my survivors were wounded on the very last turn of the game a lucky shotgun shot took out every single zombie that was about to kill me and I escaped. It was rather epic.

6. Warhammer: Invasion

I use to really be in to collectible card games (especially Star Wars). I loved the idea of creating and tweaking a deck and the card interactions. However, CCGs are money pits as their are inevitably multiple copies of cards that will never ever get touched. Warhammer is a new model of customizable games, where there are no random booster packs. Their are regular 40 card expansions, but they can be bought knowing exactly what is in them. However, out of the base box Warhammer plays great. Warhammer is a mix between a CCG and a board game. It has the card combos and direct combat of CCG but it also has more board game style resource management and base building. In a lot of ways Warhammer Invasion is, on paper, my perfect game. The most amazing part is that Abigail actually likes it!

5. Agricola
Agricola is a game about farming. Seriously. The game is all about raising animals and planting crops.

That picture may look intimidating, and the first time the game is intimating. It has a lot of little parts and a lot going on. At it's core Agricola is a worker placement game about farming. The addictive part of this game is that there is NEVER enough workers to accomplish what you want to get done. This means that even after winning and having a successful farm full of vegetables and livestock I want to play again because I always feel like I could do just a little better. We got this game a couple of months ago and it has already been played multiple times. In a year, this might even go a little higher. . .

4. Small World

Last year when I made this list, this game was really new to me and it has moved up. I really like Small World. In this game players control a race such as elves, orcs, etc. Each game the race has a different power so one game it might be peace loving elves and the next it might be ransacking elves. Each player uses their race to conquer territory, but the world is to small so players run into each other fairly quickly. Each race can only expand so far, so the tricks is letting go of your race at just the right time to take a new one and start conquering all over again. Small World plays really well with 2-5 players, and I am always up for a game of it.

3. Dominion
A lot changed in my favorite games in a year, but my top three have not changed as number three is still Dominion. Dominion is hard game to describe. Theoretically the game is about players competing to increase their small European lands. However, the game is really all about mechanics. In Dominion each player starts out with a deck of some money and small victory points. They then use this money to buy more money of higher value and action cards that allow them to do more things. Each card bought is added to the deck that continues to grow, the whole point is buy more victory points eventually. The cool part about Dominion is that for any game there are 10 cards to buy, out of a possible twenty five.

This adds a lot of variety. In the past year, three expansions have come out for this game, increasing the amount of available action cards to 90. I will let someone else do the math, but I think this puts the possible combination of cards available into the trillions.

2. Memoir '44

Memoir '44 is a war game made easy. It uses a neat system that mixes cards and dice, as well as hitting the perfect blend of strategy and luck. One of the things I really like about Memoir '44 is that it uses terrain hexes to make the board, so it can be set up for a wide variety of scenarios. Recently, I finished getting the Memoir '44 expansions and this included Operation Overlord stuff. Overlord is a different way to play the game that uses maps the size of children.

I have not yet had the chance to play on one of these big things yet, but I am really, really looking forward to it.

1. Race for the Galaxy

Race for the Galaxy remains my absolute favorite game. One of the reasons why it is my favorite is because it the game that Abigail and I play together the most. I have played the game 148 times in the past 17 months and most of those have been with Abigail. Race for the Galaxy is a a card game about building a space empire with planets and developments. The game has multiple paths to victory and plays fairly quick. The game is all about taking what luck throws at you and making the best of it. The game has three expansions and we have them all. Each expansion adds a new layer, and the game is to the point where I think it might be impossible to teach the game with expansions to someone who has never played it, but we still love it!

So those are currently my favorite games. Who know, it will probably change by next year. So the only question left, is who wants to play a game?

My last sermon

2010-05-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I preached, and this is supppose to be a video of it. However, i only got audio. In either event take a look.

Top Ten Games I would like to play but have not

2010-04-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Since it is quickly approaching a month since my last post, I felt the need to write something. However, I got nothing. There was a forum post asking for the ten games that I have not played, but would like to. In some ways that is a hard question to answer for me, because the answer is everything. I like the experience of playing something new, so I am usually up for trying most games at least once. Abigail and I have both said how we wish there was a blockbuster of board games. Because she would probably be willing to play just about anything with me once, but she is not so big on the idea of buying the game to do that. Hopefully at Gen Con with the board game library we can do just that and rent some games we would like play. These 10 games are the game I would like to play the most, and if the price was right/funds were there, I would be willing to buy just for the privilege of trying them.

10. Frontline: D-Day: Abigail and I both like card games. This is game that uses cards (with some counters) to simulate squad level combat. There are other similar games that do this, but this one seems to get the perfect mix of depth and accessibility.

9. Here I Stand: This is a monster game that takes a conservative six hours to play. It also simulates the wars and political turmoil of the Reformation. This game is praised for its brilliant play and historical accuracy. The game is fairly expensive at $60, but if I knew that I would be able to play through the entire game with my brother in law then I would go for it. He knows a lot about the reformation and he likes strategic games, so it would be a very enjoyable experience and well worth the price.

8. In the Year of the Dragon: This is basically a disaster management game, as each turn more and more disasters afflict the player and they try to survive as best they can. Once a month I try to play with a game group if I can, and the first two or three times I went this game was played but I did not get to play, just see it played. This has left me really wanting to experience the game.

7. Pocket Battles: Celts vs Romans: One of my favorite games is Memoir '44. The biggest problem with Memoir '44 is the set up time. Pocket battles has been described in multiple places as being able to play Memoir '44 in 15 minutes anywhere. That sounds like my kind of game. The fact that it can be bought for $10, means it is really just a matter of time before this one is bought.

6. At the Gates of Loyang: Abigail and I both like the game Agricola. This game is by the same designer. The description from the linked website says this about the game: "At the Gates of Loyang is a trading game in which you are able to produce goods by planting them and later selling them to customers. You can use the abilities of some helpers to increase your income or production." If that description is even mostly accurate, it is assured to be a game that Abigail would love, and I would love to play it with her. I really think when we go to Gen Con together renting this and playing it should be a priority.

5. Shootin' Ladders: Frag Fest: So here is the concept of this game: Gingerbread men who have escaped from Candy land are now trying to kill each other on a Chutes and Ladders board. Here is a session report of the game, that reads like a demented children's book (complete with pictures!). This game looks like a blast to play and I really want to experience it.

4. Glory to Rome: Glory to Rome is a resource management game that is about building up Rome. It is also a card game. The main reason why I want to play this is because very often it is referenced as "If you like Race for the Galaxy, then you need to try this. .. ". Race for the Galaxy is our absolute, number one favorite game, meaning we really need to give this one a try.

3. Caylus: I really like worker placement games. In a worker placement game each player has so many workers, which they place on a board to allow the player to do a certain action. One of the games that really popularized this mechanic, as well as being considered one of the best worker placement games, is Caylus. It is high time I played it.

2. Hold the Line: As already established, I really like Memoir '44. This game is often stated as being similar to Memoir '44. However, the system is different enough to be a unique experience. It also simulates American Revolution battles, which would give a very different experience. Instead of taking up positions in terrain as it is in Memoir, this game is all about careful group maneuvers, cavalry charges, and holding the line.

1. Washington's War: Of all the games on the list, Washington's War is the one that I am probably most likely to get (with the exception of Pocket Battles). Washington's War simulates the entirety of the American Revolution. Outside of Risk and Axis and Allies, I have not played a tactical level game. This game has just about nothing bad said about it. The rules are simple, but the game offers depth, it has high replayability, and it only plays in 90 minutes. I have probably spent to much time reading about this game and I am so ready to play it.

Connor's favorite music

2010-03-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

So like most young babies, Connor is not to wild about going to sleep. From the stories I have heard though, Abigail and I can not complain. Connor is a great sleeper, and overall goes to sleep well. However, sometimes it is a struggle. We have been using music to help soothe Connor a good deal, and have found it fairly effective. There are three songs specifically that he seems to respond to better than most. I don't know why, but these three songs really calm Connor so I guess they are his favorite.

1. Be Thou My Vision

It is not the recording in the video, but it is as close as I could find. Connor loves this tune, we have a sung version but he responds best to a "Celtic Hymns "version that is all instrumental.

2. You Raise Me Up

This one makes Connor's mom happy. He really likes You Raise Me Up as sung by Celtic Woman. We have tried some other Celtic Woman music, and he seems to like it, but like the other two songs this one puts him right to sleep.

3. Halo theme: Corpomix

This one makes Connor's dad happy. :) I played this specific recording of the Halo theme song a couple of days to go, to see how he would react and he fell asleep half way through the song. Abigail did not believe me, so we tried using it on a night when he was a little cranky about going to sleep. By the third play through he was out. Today, Abigail broke down and played Connor Halo music on her own, and again he went right to sleep. I like to think he is dreaming of getting a killtacular.

What I want to Do this year update

2010-03-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

So two months ago (has it really been that long?) I blogged about four things I wanted to do this year. The year is only a few days away from being 1/4th over, so here is an update on how things are going.

One of the things I want to do this year is get good at disc golf. With the nice weather, I have been to play once, and I did well. I played with a couple of youth and I won. I played with the same youth last Summer/Fall and I only won once. The two things I need to work on in disc golf are my drives and consistency. Even when I throw it really well, my drives are a little short. When I watch the people who know what they are doing, they consistently go further on their drives than I do. Their are moments when I throw it just about perfect. I almost holed in one a Par three on my first outing, so I can do it, but I need to work on consistency. For every perfect throw, there are three complete failures.

I have not read a history book yet, or even thought about it. I do know that I will eventually read Scottish Battles. I bought it five years ago in Scotland (five years. .. really?), but then moved and started seminary. I read the first three chapters five years ago, but I will start over and finish it. I have not gotten to this yet because I have been busy reading fiction books. Since January 1st I have read Star Wars Dark Troopers (Star Wars Zombies!!!), Halo Evolutions (short stories in the Halo universe), Plague of the Dead (More Zombies!!!), and EVE: The Empyrean Age (Sci-fi book that I bought at half price because it had an awesome cover). I still have four more fiction books I want to get through (another Halo novel, a Mass Effect Novel, historical fiction, and Ender's Game). After those four books I will read my history book.

I have not even attempted to get published yet, but I am going to soon. When it comes to church work, Friday is my catch up, and "get'er done" day (did I really just use that phrase?!?) Since Connor has been born I have been perpetually behind, BUT the first Friday I am caught up then I plan on writing for publication. I have several items that I have thought that I can submit to Group Magazine, the magazine I got published in previously. I have also book marked the submission page of some other youth ministry sources as well as some Christian devotional sources.

The project I have put the most thought and effort into is creating a game. I actually started working on a prototype of a starship combat game. The idea was to create a game that was all about Space Opera style, large scale capitol ship battles. Basically a game that captured the feel of this:

I think I had some really solid ideas, but the scope was to big. To work the game required some really solid, clear artwork. . .which I can not do. Plus it required A LOT of pieces and cards,so realistically I could never make it well.

I do have several other ideas though. My experience with the space ship game has me thinking that I should start small and simple. I do have a couple of ideas along those lines. Back in September, I wrote rules for a game. There was a fairly big contest for creating a new 2 player rummy game. Whoever won the contest would get a contract to get their game published. I wrote these rules for a game that could have been a possible entry. However, I put my effort into making my failed Zombie game instead. I am thinking of revisiting this concept. We can begin play testing the game using card we already have from other games, and if it works I have some visual design ideas that I could actually pull off and make the game look good. The problem is that I tend not to like Rummy games, and Abigail tends not to like games about fighting. This is a rummy game about fighting. . .

I also have a game idea about gladiator combat, that I created several years ago. I still think the idea is sound and some of the concepts unique. Abigail and I played a rough prototype a couple of times and there are some kinks to work out, but it is a card/dice game so it would be easier to make than some other ideas.

I have also had two VERY vivid dreams about playing games that do not exist. The first was a card game based off a comic book series I am reading called Victorian Undead. This mini-series is about Sherlock Holmes and Zombies. In the game I dreamed of, cards were layed out to make a board of London. It is a two player game, one plays Sherlock Holmes/police and the other plays Moriarty. Each player has a deck of cards. The good deck is used to remove zombie cubes from London, and narrow down the location of Moriarty. The evil deck is used to put zombie cubes on London cards and move Moriarty. Holmes wins if the Zombies are cleared from the board or Moriarty is caught. Moriarty wins if London is over-run by Zombies or so many turns pass. In the dream playing the game was very vivid and I can still picture the components in detail, but not all of the rules are clear.

The other vivid game dream is very exciting. In this dream, I played a board game version of Race for the Galaxy. Race for the Galaxy is the most played game for Abigail and I. I remember in detail how to play this game from my dream, and I began writing down the rules. I think it would be a very fun and solid game, but this has the same problem of my starship game idea, in that it is a much bigger game to produce. Component wise the game requires 56 planet discs, 40 cards, a board, player boards, VP counters, and a lot of wood cubes. Abigail is very excited about the possibility of this game, but in the interest of fulfilling my goal of creating a game from start to finished, "professional-ish" product then I should start off small, and put this more ambitious idea on the back burner.

What do you think?

My Latest Posession Obsession

2010-03-05T15:07:00.000-08:00

From time to time, I get a little obsessive about obtaining something. When this happens, I spend a lot of time researching, looking up stuff about it, and generally thinking about it a lot. It tends that these possession obsession are always for periphery wants, stuff that may be a flop. Some times these wants are huge successes. Then other times. . . not so much.

So the latest thing that has caught my eye is this:

The Games of War: A Treasury of Rules for Battles with toy soldiers, ships, and planes, is a book that basically a book that allows for just about any toys to become a war game. Pictures of people playing with rules from this book just confirms how awesome I think it is:

Typically the reason why I obsess over getting things like this instead of just buying them, is I am unsure if I will actually get to enjoy them. For example, I am not sure if Abigial will EVER play a game using the rules from this book. She will play a complex Hex and Counter Sci-fi war game and like it, but miniatures even when simple and quick is a road she is hesitant to travel down. Though, while it would be nice I do not want this book to play with Abigail. My desire for wanting to get this, was really prompted by my dad.

You see for Christmas, my dad got Connor a set of bowling balls and pins. The thing is that these bowling pins are like three times his current size. They are gigantic. The recommend age on the is three, and even if he uses them early, it will still be years. Under Connor's crib there are toys still in boxes that he is all to young to play with. Some of them will sit in boxes for up to 12 months as well.

I want this book, because I want to use it to play with Connor. The idea of going to the dollar store, buying some army men, and then going to the park with some dice and a day of warfare sounds great :)

Of course there are couple of issues with this. First, it will be years seven or eight minimum, before this book can be used to its full effect. Plus there is the issue, of there is no guarantee that he would even like to do something like play a miniatures war game.

I know it is kind of like counting eggs before they hatch, putting the cart before the horse, etc but it can not be helped to think about it. I have thought of several things that I am looking forward to do with Connor.

I am looking forward to playing catch with him. I really do not care what kind of ball he prefers (I am personally pulling for frisbee but I know because of his grand parents he will have a baseball glove at a very early age).

I am looking forward to taking martial arts lessons with him.

I am looking forward to reading comic books with him. The added bonus of this is that comics have been shown to increase literacy, but I like the idea of going to the comic book store together, then reading them together and talking about the latest adventures of Batman or Spiderman or Green Lantern or Captain America or whoever.

Along the same lines, I am excited about reading the Chronicles of Narnia to him.

Even though his mom isn't signed on to this yet, I am really looking forward to some day getting him a go-kart.

This doesn't include the hundreds of little things, like catching fireflies with him on a summer day, or building a tent with sheets and chairs.

I know that some of these things that I am hoping will be "us" things may never happen, and that is ok. If just one of them comes to pass that will be great. I know it is possible that he turns out having exactly opposite interest of me, and that is fine. Right now, just seeing him smile pretty much makes my day, so doing something with him that he finds joy in will probably make my week. And I can't wait to do that, no matter what it is.

But anyway back to this book that is my current possession obsession. I have read everything there is to read about it on boardgamegeek as well as amazon.com . I even read the entire first chapter on google books. It is really to the point that I am going to have to fulfill my possession obsession or let it go. On the one hand, $26 does seem sort of expensive for something that just might get used several years down the road. Of course on the other hand, this book is essentially self published and in limited print so most likely it will not be available down the road. I know that Abigail will just role her eyes, but I imagine gratifying a hope of what may happen eventually is why "blow money" exist in the first place. . .

Video Games I am looking forward to in 2010.

2010-02-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

For the past several years, I have posted the top 10 video games I am looking forward to getting that year. That will not happen this year, because there is no way I am getting that many games (for the past five years I have averaged between 12-15 games a year). I am not getting that many games for a few reasons. First, I do not play video games as much as I use to. Since working at Avon, my video game playing has decreased because working full time has been more time demanding than working part time and going to seminary. Since, Connor has come I play even less. Also, in the past year the amount of board games Abigail and I play together has greatly increased. If I have the option between shooting random strangers or playing a game with the woman I love, I will choose the second option more often than not (sometimes the zombies just need to get shot though).
Second, video games are expensive, and diapers are more important than $60 discs.

Finally, I don't need that many new games. I technically have enough. However, one of the reasons for getting new games is because I enjoy the new experiences, and I like to play online shooters and the crowd moves from game to game with those. It is more fun to play with the masses than the hardcore remnant of any given online game.

So the plan we have this year, is we are budgeting to get five games. So here are the games I am planning on getting:

1. Halo: Reach
I have gotten every other Halo at this point, so why not? The squad based concept of Halo seems like a good one. Halo games have always been innovative, and I look forward to the new features this one is going to bring.

2. Ghost Recon: Future Warrior
I really like the Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter 2. It is a game with long legs, as my brother and I will still go back to it from time to time and it is going on three years old. This is the next iteration of the series, and it is going a little bit more science fiction. When the first GRAW came out it was kind of on the cutting edge of the co-op craze, so now that co-op is fully established in games, I am curious how they might improve upon it. Both this and Halo: Reach come out towards the end of 2010, so they will probably be the shooting games I play for the better part of 2011.

3. Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect is one of my absolute favorite games. I consider the original to be the best example of story telling pretty much ever. So the sequel is a no-brainer. This game is already out, but I am waiting to get it because it is single player only. The experience is not going anywhere, so I can wait for the price to drop.

4. Blood Bowl
I already got this game, as it came out last week. Blood Bowl is a digital version of one the most popular miniatures board games of all time. Blood Bowl is a fantasy sport that is a little rugby like. The game has a steep learning curve, but after several practice matches and reading beginner strategy guides for the board game, I am getting the hang of it. This is a game that, if I choose to keep at it, could play for several years.

Those four are easy picks, and in my mind must gets. For the fifth game though, there are several contenders, and I am not sure what to go with. Here is what I am considering:

1. Medal of Honor: I have always been a big fan of the Medal of Honor series. The past couple of entries (European Assault and Airborne) were vastly under-rated. Medal of Honor has developed the best FPS cover system. This game takes the series out of WWII and puts in modern day. I am a little worried, that the game is going to try to copy Modern Warfare 2 a bit to much, so I am waiting for more previews/reviews.

2. Dead Rising 2 : I loved the concept of the original Dead Rising, but the save system and structure of the game annoyed the crap out of me. When I found out the game was possible to make it to the end and not even beat it, I gave up. Dead Rising is all about killing zombies, so if they can fix the save system and make the game's progression a bit more standard, then this might be a must get as well.

3. Dead Space 2: Dead Space was a bit of a surprise hit for me. It was survival horror game, that actually provided the player with the ability to move and shoot well. It also had a neat plot and universe setting. Dead Space 2 promises to be more action oriented, and have online multiplayer. Exactly what the multiplayer is, will really depend on how much interest I have in getting this when it comes out.
4. R.U.S.E. : This is a non-traditional RTS set in WWII. Unlike other Real time strategy games that are all about building a base and attacking with a horde of units, R.U.S.E is more about controlling the battle from a less micromanaging scale. I have been watching all of the videos they have made available, and the game gives me a vibe of a real time board game. I am very interested in it, and this is another game I am following closely.

What I want to do this Year

2010-01-18T17:21:00.000-08:00

I am not really one to make personal goals. I am not an anal-retentive, Type A type of person. I do not set my eye on the prize, or any of those other cliches that go with making goals. The problem with making goals, especially out of the things that I am going to write about is it takes something that is suppose to be fun and turns it into an obligation. So these are not goals. These are not things that are part of some check list. They are however things I would like to do this year, and these are things that will not "just happen" they will take a purposeful effort. However, these are all things I genuinely want to do this year. If I accomplish any of them, then that is great. If not, then I suppose there is always next year. . .

1. Get Published Again
In 2006, when it rained it poured. I had always wanted to be professionally published, and it happened. A game of mine made it into a youth ministry magazine, and I was paid by a website for several video game reviews. In 2008, there was a small blip, when an article I submitted to a website made their top ten list of best resources, but that only sort of counts. For the most part, since 2006 I have not even tried to get published again. In part this is because seminary occupied a lot of time and mind share. However, if I am being honest I also did not try again because I did not want to fail. I had made it once, and I knew that odds were that I would not follow up with another success immediately. The youth group magazine still has an open submission policy, and there are some devotional resources that I can attempt to submit to. I want to do it, and the worst they can do is say no. . .repeatedly.

2. Make my own boardgame
Back in May of 2009, I wrote that I wanted to do this last year. To be fair, I kind of did. I made up a Zombie card game, that had customizable elements. I created prototype cards, play tested it, tweaked, and discovered the game wasn't very much fun. While the balance was not quite right, the last time I played it the game pretty much worked like I originally envisioned it. Unfortunately, when put in practice the idea did not work to well. Mechanics that were suppose to create a feeling of tension, created more annoyance. The game was suppose to be about surviving a Zombie Apocalypse, but the mechanics of the game felt more like sliding counters on an abacus. I have a lot of other ideas, and I want to bring one to fruition. Even better, there is a website called The Game Crafter. This works like book self publishing, only it is for board games. Which means after I create my game, I can pay to have it actually created professionally.

3. Read a History Book
I really do like history. However, with the exception of the books for my church history class, I have not read one because I chose to for a while. Reading for Seminary can be blamed for this, but half way through this year, I will have been out for a year. So it is high time I read a history book. I have one about the history of war in Scotland, that I think will be a perfect selection.

4. Get Good at Frisbee Golf
I live right next to a frisbee golf course. Last Summer/Fall I got to play a decent amount and my throw was really starting to improve. I hope to play A LOT of Frisbee golf this year. Since we live so close, and Abigail wants to walk with Connor in the park I do not see why I shouldn't play at least once a week.

5

Top Ten Memories of 2009

2010-01-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

It is a week late ( I think I have a good excuse!), but here are my top ten memories from the year. I know that this is Abigail's favorite thing I post, and after something memorable has happened she has asked me "will this make the top ten list?"

2009 is without a doubt my single most memorable year ever. I experienced more things this year, and had major stuff happen this year than any other. I think I could have easily expanded this into a top 20 list, and still not list everything that in other years would make the list. As always, the list is descending order for dramatic effect.

10. Jr. High Retreat

Over Halloween, was my first major event with the youth group at Avon UMC. We took the Jr. High to Camp Mone'to for a retreat. We used Harry Potter as the theme, and everything went very well and was well received. During the day, the youth loved to run around in the woods, even if we did get dangerously close for being lost (technically we were lost for about 2 minutes, but then I found the trail head I was looking for). Along with everything going really well, I was also happy that they all agreed to play an eight player game of A Touch of Evil, which is one of my favorites.

9. Aunt's Funeral
This would be the only sad memory on the list, but it is a memory worth remembering so it is here. After several months of struggling with numerous health issues, my aunt (mom's sister) passed away. I am fortunate that at 28, this is only the fourth funeral that I have attended.

8. Commissioning

As mentioned, this was a big year for me. One of the events that made it a big deal is this one. At the first Annual Conference of the Indiana Conference, I was commissioned as a provisional deacon. This is what I went to seminary for, and it was a pretty cool day.

7. Moving
I have moved a lot in my life, and this was my third time to do it as an "adult". This was the smallest move we have made, and I also think it was the easiest. It was probably easier because we had so much help. Friends from Epworth helped load the truck and unload the truck. Plus we were blown away by how many people from Avon came to help us unload everything.

6. Games in the Park

So with how eventful this year was, Abigail and I did not take a proper vacation over the summer. We did try doing some fun things here and there. One of those fun things is that one afternoon we went to the board game store, picked out a random game that we did not know anything about, and then spent the entire afternoon sitting at picnic table in the park playing it (and other games). This was a great moment, that we both loved spending together.

5. Gen-Con

In 2008, I just sort of dabbled with Gen Con, and over emphasized playing in ticketed events. This year I got the full Gen Con experience, and I got a little to sucked into the show room floor (there were just to many new bright and shiny things to try). This really is the best three days in gaming, and I think that this year when I go back I am going to make a point at getting in as much gaming as possible in the board game room and the publisher rooms.

4. Graduation Party

The actual graduation itself, was not overly memorable. Graduation ceremonies, even one's own are a little boring. This one was even worse because the commencement speaker was a black racist who was tragically stuck in 1968. However, the party after the graduation was awesome. It was a celebration that included my favorite things. There were video games being played, board games, family, friends, and food from Qdoba. It was pretty much awesome.

3. Epworth Mission Trip

I am really glad that for all intents and purposes, the last thing I did with the youth group at Epworth was this mission trip. It was a roller coaster getting there. We were originally scheduled to go to Mexico, but H1N1 got to the height of the panic the day the plane ticket money was due. We had to cancel and in the course of six hours, an alternate plan to go to Kentucky was made. It turned out to be a really good trip. Even though I did not interact with the youth at all during the day, the evenings were fun together. Plus, I got to go white water rafting on real rapids and that was a good time.

2. Niagara Falls

On the vacation request form, I listed my reason for this trip in September as "last fling as a childless couple", and that is exactly what it was. This trip was absolutly perfect, and I loved the time that Abigail and I got to spend together on it. Plus, the view from our room was AMAZING

1. Birth of Connor

Well of course, this had to be #1. The whole event from Abigail's water breaking, to the hours by her side while she was in labor, to watching the doctor pull Connor out of her is so surreal. The whole event is etched into my memory, but the enormity of it all leaves me almost saying "Did that really just happen?" Of course the fact that Connor is here verifies that it did. I am looking forward to making the list of 2010, and including all of the cute things that he does in this new year. He's already off to a great start!

Top 10 Board/Card Games of 2009

2010-01-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

Like movies most of the new games I played in 2009 were not published in 2009. However, I did play more 2009 games than I watched 2009 movies. This list also includes board game expansions as the good expansions add a lot to gameplay. I know that for most people these games do not mean much to people, so I included pictures. You probably will not be able to figure out what is going on in the pictures, but at least they add context.

10. Race for the Galaxy:Rebel vs. Imperium

Race for the Galaxy is the favorite for Abigail and I to play together. We played the game together well over 100 times in 2009. This expansion came out this year, and we got it immediately. We did not care for some of the new rules that were added, but the new cards to add to the deck were well received.

9. Castle Panic

Abigail and I like to play co-op games together because we get to be on a team together. My personal favorite co-op game is Ghost Stories, but for some reason we do not play that one as much. We do play Castle Panic a good amount though because it plays fairly quickly. Plus, the rules of Castle Panic are fairly simple, and I have a feeling that one day it will make an outstanding family game.

8. Arcana

I got this game at Gen Con in August after playing it. Arcana has some deck building in it, some bluffing, and deck building. Most of the games I have played with this have been two players. I think that three players would be the ideal number for this game but I have not played it that way yet.

7. Memoir 44: Campaign book vol 1

Memoir '44 is one of my favorite games. I really like how it combines luck, strategy, and versatility in a WWII combat game. A while ago I thought one of the coolest way to play this game would be to have scenarios that affect each other and lead into each other, creating a campaign. That is exactly what this expansion provides.

6. A Touch of Evil: Something Wicked

A Touch of Evil is a really fun "adventure game", where players control heroes trying to save a Colonial village from horror movie monsters. The base game is fun, but this expansions really, really adds a lot to the game. It doubles the size of the board, adds new heroes, new monsters, and much more variety. One of the reasons I really like this game is that it playing it naturally creates a narrative, as the session report I wrote about the game shows.

5. Endeavor

This is the only game on the list, that we do not have. We have both played and liked this game, but we do not have it because can only be played with three or more players. This game's theme is European Colonization, but it is slightly abstracted. One of the things I like about it is that there are multiple paths to victory.

4.Tobago

This is a game that I got for Christmas, and along with being a pretty game it is fun. This is a treasure hunting game, where players play cards that narrow down where the treasure is hidden. Players race for the treasure and after it is dug up, they push their luck to get the most treasure. We have only played the game with two players, and I really want to play with more people.

3. Dominion: Seaside

Dominion is a really fun game, that is all about building a deck while the game is being played. Seaside is an expansion for this game, that really adds a lot to the game. Plus with Seaside the possible combination of cards to play with each time is in the billions.

2. Warhammer Invasion

Warhammer Invasion is a Living Card game, which means there are regular optional expansions for it. This is different than a collectible card game, because there are no blind purchases. This game allows me to get the fun of building and crafting decks like I use to do with the Star Wars card game, but it is not a massive money sink. I also really like that while this is a card game, the resource management makes it feel a lot like a board game.

1. Small World

Small World is without a doubt my favorite game of the year, and one of my favorite games ever. In small world players control a fantasy civilization and use the special abilities of that civilization to conquer the world. the problem is that there is not enough space for everyone, hence the name of the game. There is a lot of conflict, but no player elimination. Plus the races and special abilities change every game, so each game is different and exciting.

So who wants to play a game?

Top 5 Movies of 2009

2010-01-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

I only saw between 10 or 15 movies that came out this year, so that is why this list is a top five and not top 10. over the next several months I am sure I will watch several other movies from 2009, but a best of the year list six months into the next year is not to exciting. Compared to the past several years though, Abigail and I did watch more movies in a theater than we have for a couple of years. So here are my top five movies from this year:

5. Avatar
Right now I still like Avatar, but the more I have thought about it the more I am cooled down on it. The movie is a visual treat, but the simplistic plot does not hold up to well. The movie essentially as a linear plot with no wrinkles. The "noble savages" are perfect, while the "white men" are evil, and a small number of the bad people go native. It has been done before with more subtly, but it has never looked so pretty. I don't think this is a movie I am going to want to go back to over and over again, but I enjoyed watching it.

4. Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day
Boondock Saints is one of my favorite movies. This movie is definitely one of for the fans, as it is very referential to the first movie. The movie attempts nothing new. It just tries to do things bigger and better than the first one. When the first one featured wise cracking Irish guys and great gun fights, then more of the same is a good deal.

3. Up
This is a great buddy movie. I have not watched a Pixar movie since The Incredibles, so I am glad that I watched this one. The loss that the old man feels is genuine, but the joy he finds in an unlikely friend is truly touching.

2.Star Trek
I have never been the biggest Star Trek fan. The Next Generation was good at the time, but going back it doesn't hold up to well (the bridge looks more like a living room than a military vessel). However, this movie is a stroke of brilliance. It both revitalizes the concept AND honors everything that came before it. Plus they made Star Trek better by using the plot of Star Wars:

1.Zombieland
I wrote a review of this movie back when I watched it. It may be the perfect Zombie movie. It is 100% fun to watch and without a doubt the best movie I watched this year.

My Favorite part of the Christmas Story

2009-12-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

At the church staff meeting this week, Pastor Karen asked everyone to think and share their favorite part of the Christmas story. I thought about this, and I described my favorite part as the "appendix" to the story. In the traditional lessons and carols Christmas eve service, the last lesson comes from John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The whole story is good, but the best part is the fact that God cared enough about us to invade a fallen world and save us from ourselves. The Incarnation is my favorite part of the Christmas story.

Along those lines, I absolutly love this song by Todd Agnew. Merry Christmas to all.

Fun with Statistics

2009-12-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

I dislike math.. . I mean really dislike math. Despite that, when it comes to statistics about me, I can not get enough of them. The link is a list I made that shares a bunch of my board game statistics (I have to find something to do on my day off when my Xbox is broken!)

One Year of Recorded Plays

Top 50 Movies finale

2009-11-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

As already mentioned this list will be a bit on the boring side, but here is the finish.

10. Boondock Saints
I love this movie. After the Star Wars movies, this is one that I can watch over and over again in a short time period. I find the two Irish brothers to be roll on the floor funny. The pacing, cinematography, and story telling are all stellar. Finally, I really like this movie because at its base (and then covered up with a bunch of bullets, blood, and f-bombs) is the question of human involvement with divine judgement.

9. Attack of the Clones
Every step this movie takes forward: A great portrayal of Obi-wan Kenobi in his prime, spot on soundtrack, Yoda fighting with a lightsaber, and Ankian's first step to the dark side (which I totally called was going to happen with Sand People killing his mom back in 2000) is completely stunted by a terrible love story that could have been done so much better. Still it is a Star Wars movie, and because of that it is one of my top movies.

8. The Matrix
I love this movie. It has a lot going for it. It has an intersting sci-fi premise, incredible style, good plot twist, exciting fights, and [phlisophical questions aobut belief. I watched this movie a ton in college, and The Matrix more than anything else is responsible for the Masked Banditz. It is a shame the sequels for so bad.

7. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

6. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

5. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The LotR movies have to come in a row because they really are not stand alone movies. Together the three movies tell the epic story. As far as how I enjoy them, it is in this order. Fellowship of the Ring is the slowest, but the Mines of Moria make up for that. The Two Towers is the best to watch because of the Smegol/Gollum interaction and the Battle of Helms Deep.

4. Revenge of the Sith
A while ago I wrote a blog where I ordered the Star Wars movies. At that time, I put this movie over Return of the Jedi. After watching all of the movies in a row, that has changed. The original trilogy really is a lot better than the prequels. However, the opening scene of this movie is so awesome.

3. Return of the Jedi
So Return of the Jedi started a trend in Star Wars storytelling that I am done with, and that is the fact that Tatooine shows up everywhere. With Return of the Jedi, Tatooine became the first planet to show up twice. Because of that, it is everywhere. I have read A LOT of Star Wars books and I promise every single one of them mentions Tattoine in some sort of reference. Luke described the planet as the furthest point from the bright spot of the universe, but apperently the entire Star Wars universe revolves around this planet.

2. A New Hope

1. Empire Strikes Back
If you have read previous Star Wars posts over the several years I have had a blog, then you know why I love this movie. If you havn't . .. then look it up.

Top 50 Movies (29-11)

2009-11-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

To be honest the top ten list will be boring (spoiler: 80% of it is Star Wars or Lord of the Rings), so this is where it gets exciting.

29. The Dark Knight
This is the best super hero movie ever. The portrayal of a grittier, less comic bookish Joker, portrayed perfectly by Heath Ledger, really put this one over the top.

28. Army of Darkness
This is without a doubt, one of the most quotable movies ever. I am not a huge fan of "B movies", unless it is a B movie that knows it and rejoices in this fact like Army of Darkness does.

27. Goonies
Three movies went a long way to defining my childhood: Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and Goonies. I can not express how badly I wanted to find a treasure map and a secret cave in my childhood. I remember one time even going into a storage room in the garage and looking all over the place just to make sure there wasn't a hidden map somewhere.

26. The Princess Bride
This movie is made by its excellent characters, simplistic fairy tale story, and witty writing. Just like Fred Savage wanted his grandfather to come back and read the story again, this is a movie that stands up very well to repeat viewings.

25. Serenity
Serenity is the Return of the Jedi of the Firefly story, and it was the end to a universe whose life was to short. Joss Wheadon's "space western" hits on a lot of the same high notes that Star Wars does (a "used" universe, constant hints at a back story, glimpses of a larger universe). However, the Firefly universe is a lot more gritty and gray. Also, the characters in Firefly are all absoluty awesome.

24. Clue
I think this movie is under appreciated. The mix of a "whodoneit?" with a comedy works really well. Tim Curry as the butler is incredibly hilarious.

23. The Rock
I don't really know how to articulate it, but there is a 90's action movie blue print. Many of these movies (The Rock, Speed, Broken Arrow, etc) have a very similar feel to them. In my opinion The Rock is the best of them. The fact that Sean Connery for all intents and purposes played an older James Bond (they just changed his name to Mason) is what really makes this one.

22. The Braveheart
This movie went a long way to spawning "the historical epic" that is common place now. Like other movies already on this list, Braveheart gives a historical looking setting and creates a fiction story using historical figures. Braveheart is the movie that historians love to hate for this reason, because the average American's knowledge of English history probably begins with Braveheart and ends with the Patriot. While not historically accurate in the least, Braveheart is a compelling story of love, loss, and honor.

21. Black Hawk Down
Because of this movie, I have shot countless terrorist on the streets of sandy war-torn cities in numerous video games. This movie is on this list for the same reason as other war movies, it just happens to be with contemporary warfare.

20. Zombieland
This is the newest movie on the list, and it may be artificially high because of its newness. However, I loved this movie. It was laugh out loud funny all throughout, and it had some great Zombie killing action.

19. Die Hard
Smart Mouth action heroes are common, but in Die Hard John McClain created the "every man" smart mouth action hero. This is officially my favorite "Christmas Movie", and Abigail and I try to watch it every Christmas eve.

18. Aliens
As scores of B-Movies and Sci-Fi Original movies will show, Space Marines are hard to get right. That is because every movie that features Space marines is trying desperately hard to capture the magic that is Aliens.

17. Shaun of the Dead
While Zombieland may replace it, this is my current favorite Zombie movie. Like Hot Fuzz the brilliance of Shaun of the Dead is that it makes fun of Zombie movies, while being a legitimate zombie movie.

16. Fight Club
I like this movies unique storytelling and its exploration of some of the dark effects that are consumer culture has on the human soul. I don't know if this is a human trait or just a male trait, but this movie touches on the fact that deep down that all of us want to beat the living crap out of something from time to time.

15. Ghostbusters
As mentioned in the Goonies post, this was one of the defining movies of my childhood. This was only accented by the fact that my favorite cartoon for a lot of elementary school was The Real Ghostbusters. I really wanted to catch a ghost, and one of my favorite books was even a "how to" guide on doing that.

14. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
This is the best Indiana Jones movie in my opinion. The action is top notch, and the interaction between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery is brilliant. I also like the undertones this movie has about faith.

13. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Funniest. Movie. Ever. I have seen this movie many, many times and I still laught at it.

12. 300
From the visual style of the movie, to the fights, to Gerard Butler's intensity this movie is just cool.

11. Saving Private Ryan
The D-Day invasion scene at the opening of this movie is still the most incredible thing I have ever seen in any movie. The story while mostly fabricated is a very good one. For me this is the definitive war movie.

Top 50 Movies (50-30)

2009-11-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

A while ago I listed my top 25 video games of all time. Since i have seen more movies, it is only fitting the list be twice as long. Plus, I need this long of a list because if I were to do a top five it would be boring as it is mostly Star Wars (top ten is similar as you will see. I am sure there is a favorte movie of mine that I completely spaced some how and left off, or the order may be slightly variable. However, this should be fairly close to accurate.

50. The Phantom Menance
This makes the list only because it is a Star Wars movie. You could be snotty and ask why The Clone Wars is not on the list for that reason, and that is because that was just a couple of TV show episodes shown in succession. You could be really snotty and ask why the ewok movies are not on the list. If either of those two movies had a lightsaber in them, then they would be.

49. Dodgeball: An Underdog Story
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. I find this movie to be hysterical. Plus if ESPN 8 were a real channel, I would watch it all the time.

48. Dawn of the Dead
This is the Zach Snyder remake not the original. I do like a good Zombie movie, and this is one is one of the best. It is very tense and bleak all throughout.

47. The Passion of the Christ
I try to watch this movie once a year on Easter. It is a hard movie to watch, but it is worth it every time.

46. Kingdom of Heaven
There are not enough quality movies with Medieval battle scenes. This movie has them, and it raises interesting questions about the nature of faith.

45. V for Vendetta
If a movie has at least one or two quality martial arts fights I will probably enjoy it. This does have one. On top of that it has an almost film noir feeling and raises questions about the nature of government.

44. Dead Poet Society
We all want a teacher like Mr. Keating. More over, if anyone has ever taught, it is there secret dream for students to stand up on their desk and call them captain.

43. We are Soldiers
As this list will quickly show, I like war movies. The best war movies deliver incredible visuals, capture the horrors of war, and the honors of war. This movie does all of that.

42. Enemy at the Gates41. The Man Who Knew to Little
A little known movie about a hapless man that is always in the right place at the right time. This movie shows off the comedic genius of Bill Murray

40. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
There needs to be more pulp hero movies, and they need to be more like this and less like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

39. Ocean's Eleven
I think this movie may be a little to "smart" for its own good, as I like it a bit less each time I watch it. Despite that, it is always fun to watch the heist go off as planned.

38. Aladdin
One of two Disney Movies on the list. This is mainly here because Robin Williams makes me laugh.

37. Zulu
If there is a movie in the history of cinema that needs to be remade it is this one. 100 British soldiers vs. 4,000 Zulu Warriors and the British win.

36. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
It is a shame Guy Ritchie does not make movies like this or Snatch any more. The set up is great and the dialogue is clever.

35. Fearless
Back to the Martial arts thing. I like a good fight, and if Jet Li is part of it then it is even better. This is a Kung-fu historical epic starting Jet Li and the fights are excellent.

34. Hot Fuzz
While not as good as Shaun of the Dead, this spoof on action movies is very well done. The movie is good because it parodies action movies, while still using legitimately using action movie conventions.

33. Gladiator
Historically, this movie is a huge mess. . . to the point that it should probably be considered fantasy. However, it is an excellent story of a hero.

32. Fist of Legend
I have watched a lot of kung fu movies, and this is probably my favorite. It has several very well done fights, PLUS a plot that is actually worth following.

31. The Lion King
The second Disney movie on the list. The voice acting for Scar is brilliant, but overall I really like the story of losing oneself and then finding it again.

30. Shawshank Redemption
This is not a "fun" movie to watch. However it is an absolute incredible one with great characters, great acting, and an amazing story of hope in a hopeless situation.

The Complete Star Wars Saga

2009-10-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

So last week, Avon schools were on Fall Break. For the youth who were not going anywhere I held a Star Wars marathon, because there was more than 1 who had never seen a Star Wars movie. Fourteen youth participated in this event, but only five made it the whole night (technically if take out the people who dozed off I think only one made it the whole night with me.)

Watching all of the Star Wars movies in one sitting was a life goal of mine. Now that I have taken in the whole Star Wars story at one time here are some of thoughts about my favorite movies

1. The Original Trilogy is better
I have long been a defender of the prequel movies, especially episodes II and III, claiming they are not that bad and that episode III especially is quite good. However, when viewed from a story telling perspective and viewing both prequels as separate story arcs in the same saga, the prequel does not hold a candle to the original. The main reason for this, comes down to pacing. The prequel trilogy is to rushed in its pacing. For example compare Episode IV to Episode I. In A New Hope, there are three segments that feel roughly equal (even though time wise they are not). In a very rough outline form the plot progresses as such Tatooine (introduction)==>Death Star (rising action)==> Yavin IV (finale). Episode I though progresses as such Naboo (introduction)===>Tatooine (Introudction/Rising Action)===>Coruscant (Rising Action)==>Naboo (finale). Star Wars as always uses a change in location to push the plot along, and in the prequel movies they are changing locations to many times. Compared to the movies of the original trilogy the pacing of the prequels feels far to rushed and hectic.

2. The Best part of the story is not explicit
So when viewed as one story, all of the Star Wars movies together really do tell a good epic, with Darth Vader as the main character. The problem is that a lot of the major themes that are associated with Darth Vader's story are present but not explicitly presented. For example, a major part of the Darth Vader story is that he is the "chosen one" who will bring "balance to the force." However, the story never resolves if he actually does it (this is partly because Return of the Jedi was made 16 years before Phantom Menace, but regardless). Darth Vader does restore balance to the force, but the details are not told. Here is how it goes down. One of the MAJOR problems with the prequels is they never explain why the force is out of balance in the first place. Some references are made, and it is sort of revealed the jedi believe the force is out of balance because the sith still exist. However, this is not it at all. The force is out of balance, because the Jedi have lost focus of the light side. The jedi became to much of a political entity and focused to much on periphery concerns (avoiding attachment) instead of focusing on others unconditionally (which Anikan says is the point of the Jedi. Taking young children from their families, and commanding a slave army are not actions that a "good" organization would do without serious moral qualms. The fact that the Jedi did this show they had sort of lost their way. This is shown by how arrogant the jedi are portrayed (examples include the librarian from episode II, and Yoda saying that arrogance was becoming common in jedi) This is why their ability to use the force had diminished, and this is why the force was out of balance. Darth Vader and the Emperor swung the balance the other way, and plunged the galaxy in darkness.
However, in the end Darth Vader redeemed himself. One of the cool aspects of Darth Vader is the path that led him to the dark side was a selfish desire to save some one else, but the action that redeemed him was a selfless act to save someone else. This action left Luke the last Jedi or Sith in the galaxy. More importantly, as a Jedi he had learned to face his anger and hate without giving into them. This means that Luke, the sole force user, was balanced and this was brought by the actions of Darth Vader so he did fulfill the prophecy in the end.

3. George Lucas can not be trusted with technology
One of the biggest things the prequel movies show is that George Lucas gets carried away when he has access to computers that can literally do anything. Prime example of this is Jar Jar Binks, which reaches its climax in episode I with a juvenile and unnecessary fart joke. Even the original trilogy is tainted by this with the special editions. Going to far with technology is best seen in Return of the Jedi.

4. The music is awesome
Well actually this is a no brainer, but when watched together it is absolutly incredible how good of a job John Williams did at integrating some of the original trilogy themes into the prequel trilogies. This is especially true with the Imperial march, it makes a foreboding quick appearance in episode I, comes out in a bit more force in the other 2 prequel movies, only to be full realized in Empire Strikes Back. This music is used very well to convey the rise of Darth Vader and the Empire.

5. Timing is odd
This is a nitpick, but the timing of the movies across the board is odd. With the exception of Episodes I and II and the time between the movies is never stated, and I only knew them from outside the movie sources. Also some of the movies, especially Attack of the Clones and the Empire Strikes Back have internal timing issues. Basically, these movies have to be watched with the assumption that the events are being portrayed in the best story telling order but not necessarily chronological order, because if the events are shown in a strict chronological order, then some of then the timing is truly odd and off.

6. The universe is better than the Story
The appeal of Star Wars to me has always been the universe. George Lucas did create an exciting galaxy far, far away that is fun to get a glimpse into. When compared to other modern epics like the Lord of the Rings, story wise Star Wars does not get close. However, I would rather play a video game or read a book set in the Star Wars universe because the setting is much more compelling. Plus, with the exception of Episode I (and Episode II when I am being cynical) Star Wars is always FUN to watch and get lost in.

Zombie Day 2009 Recap

2009-10-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Zombieland came out and my brother and I had plans to see it. However, these plans quickly grew from seeing a movie to a full on celebration of the undead, and thus Zombie day is born. Here is a recap of how we celebrated Zombie Day:

After getting some food (sadly I didn't know of any place local that served brain sandwiches), we started with some Left 4 Dead. This is THE zombie video game, that is all about playing well with others to survive Zombie hordes and infected with mean special abilities. Using the power of the internet we hooked up with someone else we knew who was unable to come up for Zombie Day but still wanted to take part. Left 4 Dead recently had a new level come out for download so we played that.

We played through co-operatively first and beat the level. We then tried it in versus, which is were one team plays as survivors and the other as Zombies. This did not go so well. In fact we got absolutly destroyed.

After that, my brother and I switched to another video game, Zombie Apocalypse. This is simple yet satisfying game that involves fighting wave after wave of Zombies

From there it was time to go see Zombieland.

This movie was absolutly incredible, in that it did everything right, and quite honestly it is hard to do Zombie movies right. This is because Zombies are really a setting for a movie. So the movie has to still stand as a good movie in whatever genre it is in (which fro Zombieland was clearly comedy). A good Zombie movie also has to make good use of the Zombies, which this one did. Finally, a good zombie movie in some way explores the human condition, by focusing on what makes us human (either the good or the bad) in a world that has gone dead. Zombieland does all of this well. Plus, Woody Harrelson plays one of the most fun to watch characters who may have ever been created. Abigail, who normally roles her eyes when it comes to Zombies even liked it.

After the mandatory Noble Romans deep dish Sicilian (aka the best pizza ever), we continued by taking on some 19th century Zombies in A Touch of Evil. This is a board game where everyone controls a hero and strives to be the person who defeats the evil villain and save the town of Shadowbrook. For this game the villain was the Necromancer, who had an army of zombies fighting for him.

After that we played a quick dice game called "Mmm. . .Brains!"

Theoretically this game is about Zombies collecting brains and then eating them. However it is a seriously stretched theme and the game is really about rolling dice. However, it is Zombie themed so it counts!
Zombie day ended with a little bit more Left 4 Dead and my brother being gracious enough to try a rough prototype of my own Zombie game.

We only began to scratch the surface of what could be done on Zombie day. Video game wise, we could have played Nazi Zombies, Resident Evil 5 co-op or rented a House of the Dead Wii game. When it comes to table top games we did not play Zombies!!!, Humans!!!, Last Night on Earth ,or Zombie Fluxx.

Plus, in theory by the end of the month I will be receiving in the mail All Things Zombie the boardgame, which is suppose to be the definitive Zombie game.

With all that potential, maybe Zombie Day should happen more than once a year. . .

LIfe Update

2009-09-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

It is now October. Wait . . what? October?!? Really? This year has been an absolute crazy time warp of a year. May 1st, seriously feels like a decade ago, but I can not believe that it has been exactly three months since I started at Avon. It seems so much shorter than that.

This is, I'm not kidding like my fourth time to attempt and write this post. My problem is that I do not know what to say or how to say it. In short, everything is going absolutely wonderful, and every time I tried to write about it . . meh.

So everything is going great,I could use a lot of adjectives to describe how well everything is going. The more interesting thing to know about would be the three biggest adjustments that I have been coming to terms with since coming to Avon. So here are three greatest adjustments I have had since starting at Avon three months ago.

1. Being Clergy
So honestly, I didn't expect this one. I have never been big on titles and formality. I am seeking ordination, because I believe that God has called me to commit my life to serving God through ministry and ordination is the way that the United Methodist Church recognizes that call. I knew that being a deacon technically made me clergy, I just didn't realize how it would affect me. In the two previous churches I was at, I was viewed and treated as a leader in the church. That is still true, but being clergy is also different. It is like going from a leader (lower-case) to a Leader (upper-case). There is just something different and more "weighty" about it. I guess the best way to explain this is an example. I was in a meeting, and I asked a question that brought up an issue that had not been given any consideration. After the meeting, the senior pastor, thanked me for doing that. She said it was a point that a young person needed to bring up, and she said it also needed to be said by a pastor and I was the only person who could do both of those things at once. Also, even though it has only been three months I am still not quite use to hearing people address me as "Pastor Sean" (I technically know they shouldn't do this as pastor is a title traditionally observed for elders and not deacons, but this church does not historically use the title of reverend so from the before I even came I was referred to as Pastor Sean to the church.)

2. Working Full Time
This is technically the first full time job I have ever had. I say technically because at Pizza Hut on a light week I would work 40 hours, usually it was 42-50 hours. As a camp counselor I worked tons and tons of hours. In Corydon there were several weeks, where between three jobs I worked over 60 hours, and at Epworth I worked part time and was a full time student. However, the summer jobs were temporary so even though I was working full time hours there was always a known end point. In Corydon one of my jobs (subbing) was optional and I could decide not to do it on any given day, and at Epworth how much time Seminary stuff occupied varied from week to week. This is the first where I put in 40 hours (or has been the case a little bit more than that) every week and then do it again next week with no fixed ending. I am not complaining about this at all, but it is an adjustment. I think in some ways this was a bigger adjustment for Abigail. There have been multiple times where she has asked me to do something the day of in the middle of the day and I have had to remind her that I have to work. Of all three of these adjustments, I think this one has been the easiest and we have gotten fully adjusted by this point.

3. Split Group
This is one the adjustment I fully knew and expected coming in, and it has probably been the hardest. I have worked in youth ministry for six years thus far, and all six of those years were done with a Jr. High/Sr. High combined group. Avon (thankfully!) has split Jr. High/Sr. High groups. All of my experience has been in planning to shoot for a middle ground, and now my lesson planning has to be more specialized by age. I think by an large this is going well, but there have been a couple of instances with both groups where I felt like I "missed the mark." I aimed to low for the Sr. High and I aimed to high for the Jr. High. I am continuing to work on this, and hopefully with practice I will find the sweet spot.

Oh Hell

2009-09-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched Hell House. This is a documentary about the original and biggest “hell house” in the country. Some times these events are called Judgment houses instead, but the principle is the same. They are an alternative haunted house that features graphic depictions of people dying from a un repentant sin and then suffering eternal consequences for it, while others repent of what they have done, accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and find eternal life.

This documentary was very well done, because like Jesus Camp it more or less just shows the events give a couple of different sides fair time, and stays fairly objective. Much of a “hell house” is based on shock value, and it is very easy to find it very, very offensive. Personally, I do not know if such scare tactics is the best way to reach lost souls, and they can deny it but the time of decision at the end was very much emotional manipulation.

One of the scenes they show is one of the church leaders talking to a group of people were very upset and offended by the experience. It was very impressive how loving the church leader was. Even though he was being cussed at and insulted, he never raised his voice and never acted in a way that could only be described as loving. Of this offended group, one of the more rational girls really hit the nail on the head of what caused this hell house to rub the wrong way. They portrayed the life situations as “black or white”. They had a scene where a girl gets raped at a “rave” and then out of depression commits suicide. The church member tried to stress that the girl went to hell not because of the rave or because she was depressed but because she did not know Jesus. However, the offended group missed that instead they just felt condemned because they had been to raves and felt like it was unfair the girl be eternally punished for making a bad decision while being depressed.

The problem is really one of absolute truth. The organizers of Hell House believe that there is absolute right (God, God’s will, and God’s command) and there is absolute wrong (sin). I agree with this. The problem is that they used human situations to convey this, and most human situations is a shade of grey. As creations made in God’s image (white) who are fallen into sin (black), grey is really the best color to describe us. The “humanness” of the situation is lost in hell house. Using the rave example, the human response should be to feel sorrow for a girl who suffered multiple date rapes. The Christian thing to do is support her and aid in her healing, not abandon her to condemnation.

Of course, one of the reasons why a Hell House can come off as offensive, especially to Christians, is because of how little we talk about hell. This is especially true in the main line denominations. We LOVE to talk about God’s love, and we should. However, we often over emphasize love at the detriment of what the consequences are if that love is rejected. “Fire and brimstone” in a United Methodist church just doesn’t happen. Mainline denominations may not need to go as far as preaching “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” once a month, but we should at least acknowledge there are eternal consequences for not accepting Jesus.

Of course this leads me to briefly state what I think this eternal consequence is. I believe that Jesus through His sacrifice atoned for our sins. When we accept this we become right with God and be with God. My understanding of heaven, is eternity with God, being surrounded and enveloped in God's loving presence. I have no idea what this looks like but I believe that God's love is what defines heaven. Thus, hell is eternal separation from God and the complete absence of this love. Again, I don't know what this looks or feels like, but I sort of doubt it involves being eternally poked with pitchforks.

One of the things that Hell House reminded me is that one of the sins that I am very guilty of is that I have quite literally loved people to Hell. I so wanted to not offend a person that I never took the time to share the gospel with them. I know that I am not alone in this failure of cravenness, and I know that I am forgiven but that does not make it any less tragic, and watching Hell House reminded me of that as well. I have spent a lot of time in churches and around church folk that I realized that my heart does not break enough for the lost, and that is something I should really seek to change.

Last Game Post

2009-09-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

So I know I said the last post was probably the last post about board games for a while, but this one really is. Honestly, there is no reason to read this unless your name is Abigail Johnson.

So Abigail, here is the list of games we have that I really want to play. Many of these games are games that we have not really played enough yet to do them justice. I know that you remember the game, but not by title so there is a short description to help you out. These are listed in the order of how I want to play them, and I look forward to doing them with you :)

1. Starship Catan: This is the two player Catan game that we had a blast playing. It just took a long time, but it is time we did it again!

2. Dynasties: This is the "china game", I know we just traded for it, and we have played it several times. I just can not get enough of it.

3. Hidden Conflict: This is one of the two games I got at Gen-Con that we have not played yet.

4. Palatinus: This is the other one from GenCon that we have not yet had the chance to play.

5. Hera and Zeus: We traded for this two player game, and we have only played it once. . .back in April. I don't think you cared for it but I want to give it another try.

6. Battleline: This is the one where we play cards in army formations (based on number and color). We both like this game, it is quick, but we hardly ever play it. Why is that?

7. The Ark of the Covenant: We traded for this game. It is Caracassone with a bible theme. We got it right before we moved, and we have only played it once.

8. Dominion: Intrigue: We have not played very much with the new Dominion expansion yet. Here is a perfect cheap date some night. Let's get pizza, and watch a movie, while playing Dominion the whole time. It would make my week :)

9. Ghost Stories: Is the co-op game where we are ninjas fighting ghosts. You have really enjoyed this game every time we have played it. We just have not played it enough.

10. Humans!!: Yes it is a Zombie game, but you and I have not played it with just the two of us yet.

11. Last Night on Earth: Yep the other Zombie game. I really just want to play this more, and you are the person I play games with.

12. Dungeoneer: Vault of the Lynch King: We traded for this right before we moved, and I have not read the rules yet. I need to, and we need to play it.

13. Arcana: This is the game I got at GenCon, where you compete to win cards to add to your deck. We have already played it several times, but we have not used the advanced rules yet.

Games I should probably stay away from (aka the pretty pictures post)

2009-08-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

So this will probably be the last game related post for a while. At GenCon two of the games I got to play were miniatures games. I played Star Wars pod racing, which was a variant of another game.

Along with that I also played a game called Reich of the Dead, which was a WWII man to man combat game that included. . .Nazi Zombies.

Essentially, miniature games are playing with toys with rules. There is also the element of being able to create and build something that is kind of cool. For example, the Reich of the Dead game had a fairly sweet "map" that we played on.

And compared to some of the other constructions at GenCon, that was fairly mild. These pictures are from a fantasy game:

What is really impressive, is that in the town set-up, each and every one of those buildings have removable roofs, and detailed interiors. I have always liked model terrain. For example, Abigail's mom and step-dad make really impressive Christmas village displays that are cool. However, it would most awesome to put together something similar that could be used for a game, and that is what miniatures are all about. On top of that, miniatures have a customizable aspect to them which I am truly all about when it comes to games. I could really see myself getting into miniature gaming if I let myself, whether it be a WWII game, fantasy game, or even straight up Zombie game.

The problem is that the stuff is bloody expensive. For example, in the Reich of the dead game I played, each figure cost $5. So if you look at the overview picture above for that game, the Nazi army alone cost roughly $220 (now in fairness, that is a game that was intended to have four players control that army, but still). Plus, in a traditional miniature games the figures come unpainted. Being able to do custom painting is one of the pluses of these games, but that also has an expense has the metal paints and small brushes are not exactly cheap. On top of that, terrain also has its own cost. So playing with miniatures is a very expensive endeavor.

Of course there are some cheaper options, in that of pre-painted miniatures, and some of these look fairly awesome. A video game that I really like is Battlestations: Pacific. Which has some strategy while controlling WWII-era naval and air forces in skirmish battles. There is apparently a pre-painted miniatures game that does this as well.

Even more awesome is that there are Pre-Painted Star Wars miniatures, that exist in two forms. There are miniatures for individual unit battles

AND for Starship battles

Seriously, how awesome is that?

The problem with these games is that they are collectible, which means they come in starter sets, which really do not have enough units to play the game out of the box, or blind booster packs which is built on a principle of buying a lot to get the units necessary. I suppose it is possible to buy singles, but for specific units that are "rares" I am sure the price gets rather high. So while the individual miniatures are cheaper and they come pre-painted, the collectible aspect also drives up the cost. It would be "cheaper" in theory to play these games as opposed to traditional miniatures, but the constant expansions make these a potentially greater money pit.

There are a few other options. There is a game called Arcane Legions.

the "commander units" come in random boosters, but it is possible to buy the commons on their own. Plus they are not completly randomized, so it is possible for about $270 to get the complete set, which in terms of miniatures and collectible games is an absolute steal. Unfortunately, I demoed this game at GenCon and thought that it was merely ok.

There are some other possibilities as well. The cheapest option is to find my lost book.

The company that made the Star Wars RPG I played a lot in high school also published some miniatures rules. I used the Star Wars micro machines, which I already had has the miniatures. I even bought some extra stormtrooper/rebel trooper packs and a felt mat. I think I even got my brother to play once, but it was when I was trying to figure it out and I do not think it went that well. I already had the Star Wars CCG, which was one Star Wars game I mostly played by myself, so I kind of did not pursue the miniatures that much. I still have all the micro machine men, but despite my attempts to find it the rule book is MIA. I can not imagine I would have gotten rid of it, since it is Star Wars and I only in the past couple of months purged my boxed star wars stuff. This leads me to conclude that the book got lost in a move, or is buried in some wayward box in my parent's storage shed/garage.

The other option is actually a board game called Okko, Era of the Asagiri. This game is essentially a miniatures game in a box, and it is promoted as such. The game comes with multiple boards and multiple units so that "armies" can be customized. There are a couple of downsides in that it is really not an army game, in that the game really just simulates ninja squad versus ninja squad. The other initial downside is that the game is made of cardboard

The plus side is that since it is a miniatures game in a box, they do make actual miniatures of the cardboard characters that can be used instead. These miniatures still require painting, but they are cheaper then traditional miniatures. In my opinion the extra investment of the miniatures are buildinig terrain would be worth it, because it turns the above image into this

Of course, the whole problem with this whole thing is that the games are only fun if I have someone to play them with. I know from brief flirtations with Mech Warrior several years ago that Abigail is not a big fan of measuring stuff out. This is another reason why Okko would be a good pick, because it is played on a square grid, that eliminates all measuring with rulers. I should probably stay away from miniature games in general because I know that I will like them way to much. . .but we will see. . .

Abigail's Top Ten Favorite Games

2009-08-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

Fair warning, the next few posts I make here will probably all be gaming related, as I am still glowing from GenCon. As you have probably realized I like making lists of the things I like. Abigail, on the other hand does not. She might be able to pick a couple of run away top favorites, but after that everything tends to fall into a "like" or "don't like" category. When I have asked what her top ten games are before, she could get to five or so and then it was "I don't know." However, I still want to know what they are. Since she is unable to pick out her top ten favorite games, I figured that with her permission I would take a stab at. So here are my guesses, in order of Abigail's favorite games. I realize that most people have probably not heard of most of these games, so I put links that you can follow if you want to know more.

10. Ticket to Ride
Trying to guess what would be #10 was a bit hard. It was between Ticket to Ride, Formula D,Battlelore, and Ghost Stories. In the end I went with Ticket to Ride, even though we don't actually own the game. We do however, have Ticket to Ride on the Xbox, and every two to three months Abigail seems to remember this and she plays it like crazy for a few days. The game is all about maximizing combinations in set collections, which I think appeals a lot to Abigail. If we had a copy of this game, I bet it would get played a decent amount, and cement itself as one of her top ten favorite games.

9. Rummikub
As all of the Sudoku books we have attest to, Abigail loves number puzzles. She also really likes organizing things. This is a game about organizing numbers, which means it is right up her alley. The only reason why it is low on this list, is because I really don't care much for the game, so we only play it occasionally.

8. 313
313 is a Rummy variant where the hand size starts at 3 and increases each round up to 13. Being Rummy, this has organization and set collection (you may start to notice several themes about the type of games Abigail likes). 313 is also Abigail's most played game as she grew up playing it regularly.

7. Blue Moon City
This is a game that we got because Abigail wanted it after looking at it. Blue Moon City has set collection and worker placement. In this game players collect cards and then play them to play a cube on a building. Once enough cubes have been placed on a building, the building is complete and everyone who contributed cubes to building it gets rewarded. The main reward is Crystals, which are then exchanged for victory points. It sounds terribly confusing to explain, but it is a lot of fun.

6. Cthulhu Rising
This is one of our newest games, as I just got it at Gen Con. As soon as I played it, I knew Abigail would love it. When I told her I was making this list, she confirmed how right I was by mentioning that I would have to include it on the list. Theoretically, this game is about the struggle between cultist trying to raise Cthulhu from his slumber and investigators trying to stop it. In reality, this is a numbers game played on two five-by-five grids, where players are trying to get pairs, three of a kind, etc of certain numbers. Despite being numbers, based it seems to be a fairly even match when Abigail and I play.

5. Bonnie and Clyde
This summer we really did not have a vacation, we just had some scattered fun days. One of those days what we decided to was buy the first game that we found appealing, and spend the afternoon playing it. Bonnie and Clyde is a form of Rummy, so once again it is all about collecting and playing sets of cards for points. However, this game adds extra strategy of having a car that moves across the board and can be used to score extra points.

4. Dominion
Dominion is a fun game that we play a lot. The goal of Dominion is to get the most points, but this is done by systematically building a deck from available cards. These cards, make it possible to do more actions, and eventually buy the big point cards. Like many of these games, Dominion is hard to explain, but easy to learn and play.
3. Stone Age
Every time we have played this game, win or lose, Abigail has commented how much she likes it. Stone Age is a worker placement game. Each turn every player has a certain number of workers that they can use for various purposes like collecting food or resources. The main goal of this game is to collect resources, and then trade those resources in for victory points. Whoever gets the most points wins. What is really fun about this game is there seems to always be a couple more actions that one wants to do, but can't so there are hard choices.

2. Settlers of Catan (with expansion)
Abigail has played close to 100 games of Catan online, and really likes this trading game. However, she has also stated that she thinks she might like Stone Age a bit more. I am betting though that if she had the choice between the Settlers of Catan with the Seafarers expansion and fishermen of Catan that she would choose Catan over Stone Age, which is why I put this game at #2

1. Race for the Galaxy
I believe that this is the single favorite game for both of us. Since getting it in December of last year, we have played the game on average over nine times a month. Like Blue Moon City and Stone Age, this game is about converting cards/resources into points. What is so great about Race for the Galaxy is that there are multiple strategies to do that, and what strategy to pursue will all depend on the starting planet and hand. Unfortunately, this game is not very new friendly player but we started playing it together so we are usually evenly matched.

So I think those are Abigail's top ten games, in the correct order. Now I just have to wait to find out how right or wrong I am.