As our current RPG campaign approaches a (somewhat premature) close, we must once again enter a round of negotiations over what to play next. This is somewhat difficult for our group, because we split on our preferences for all the major axes distinguishing styles of play: upbeat/downbeat, internal/external conflict, first-person/third-person narration, all those labels that […]
Perhaps it’s just because I heard a clip from “This American Life†last night portraying the geniuses of Wall Street as the most self-pitying sons of bitches in the universe. They haven’t been victimized so much as the remaining 99% of America, much citizens of developing nations upon which the US squats, but they see […]
This month’s game day was something of a bust in one respect: we only had two guests, who already hang out often with each other (and with Eileene), so there wasn’t much in the way of contact with distant friends. But that shortcoming had a silver lining, in that Tor and Nik are both willing […]
Reluctantly, Eileene told me about the new SpecTrek app she bought for her android phone-plus—reluctantly because it’s pretty dorky. The idea is your phone reports an outbreak of ghosts in your neighborhood and, using some map utility, selects a nearby spot where you can chase one down. When you arrive at the destination, you get […]
I got an exposure to the board game 7 Wonders last night. Players represent the home cities of the seven ancient wonders of the world and try to rack up the most victory points by the end of the game. Building your wonder can play a big role in this, but doesn’t strictly have to; […]
I got an exposure to the board game 7 Wonders last night. Players represent the home cities of the seven ancient wonders of the world and try to rack up the most victory points by the end of the game. Building your wonder can play a big role in this, but doesn’t strictly have to; […]
Last night, one of my fellow RPG players delighted to announce that this was the first time that her character had been allowed to operate independently, to which she hastily added “with the sanction of the rest of the group,†because her character is a sneaky little bastard, a liar and thief with no regard […]
Last night, one of my fellow RPG players delighted to announce that this was the first time that her character had been allowed to operate independently, to which she hastily added “with the sanction of the rest of the group,†because her character is a sneaky little bastard, a liar and thief with no regard […]
On our Boston trip, Brian introduced me to an iPad game called “Trainyard.†Excellent. Your goal is to shepherd colored trains from starting depots to the proper exit stations, indicated by matching colors. When trains meet, they share colors, so a blue train that bumps into a yellow train becomes green. If the trains meet […]
Mmm… Portal. For those who have lived in a Siberian cave for the past decade, Portal is a game—a series of puzzles, really—that employ a first-person shooter engine but replace the usual bullet-shooting gun with a gun that shoots magical teleportation gates: shoot a blue gate onto a sufficiently large, flat surface, shoot an orange […]