Monthly Archives: May 2014

so, I played a game with W Eric Martin at ACD Games Day.

2014 Spiel des Jahres Nominations are out!

reviews, , , ,

Nominations for the 2014 Spiele des Jahres, Germany’s prestigious Game of the Year Award, are out and there are at least a couple of surprises.

The three nominees for SdJ 2014 are CAMEL UP, CONCEPT and SPLENDOR.

          

I’m super excited to see CONCEPT get a nomination. It was one of the best new games I played at The Gathering in April. It’s a brilliant idea beautifully executed, and one I’ll write more about later. Suffice it to say, it was the one game I put on order with my FLGS as soon as I returned home.

CAMEL UP is the game I played the most at The Gathering this year. I think I must have played seven or eight games, at least, and I taught at least half of those. It’s a fast and furious game of wagering on camel races and playing the odds, with a very clever physical gimmick to handle the die rolling. I plan to add this game to my collection as soon as it’s available in the US (which shouldn’t be long, now that it’s SdJ Nominated). It’ll be a perfect game for Madison Board Games & Beer nights.

Read more about these and the Nominees for Kinderspiel and Kennerspiel des Jahres over on BoardGameGeek News.

pandAntics!- a silly party game idea

game seeds, , , ,

It’s after hours at the zoo and the animals are ready to cut loose and party! To do so, they must cooperate to rearrange their enclosures and follow The Plan…

It’s pandAntics!, a cooperative party game of limited communication [think UGG-TECT, the caveman construction game, but cooperative. With zoo animals].

Each round has a specific puzzle card with a goal to be met. One animal is nominated to be the ring leader; only she sees the goal card, and she must direct all other animal’s actions to complete it. [The puzzles should be challenging, but also generate laughter and fun.]

But it wouldn’t be fun if it were that simple and straightforward! Each round, players are dealt an animal role card that dictates their means of communication and modes of action. Some examples: The Elephant may make an ‘arm-trunk’ to pick up certain blocks, but can only ‘speak’ in trumpeting sounds. The Rhinoceros makes no sounds, but can push any block in a straight line. The Horse doesn’t speak, but can nod ‘yes’ or shake his head for ‘no.’ The Snake may only hiss and point at things with a snakey arm, etc.

Can you bridge the inter-special communication gap?

true confession:

Roma.JPG

When I play tested Roma at The Gathering, I taught it from memory and…I forgot a rule.

Turns out it played better without it, so I got rid of it. #serendipity

failure isn’t an option; it’s inevitable

This, right here. I need to embrace this, internalize it. You do, too, if you haven’t already.

“Every failure is an opportunity for betterment. Every failure is another chance to get it right. Don’t give these away out of fear or shyness. Fail faster, because failing is how we get it right.”

Fail faster.

Adding this to my list of mantras.