Expanding your social circle

It seems to me that one thing that tends to go hand in hand with being somewhat nerdy and/or geeky is that we also tend to have a bit of an awkward relationship with socialization, at least the kind that is considered 'normal' (I'm not trying to generalize or 'speak for all nerds/geeks' when I use the word 'we' by the way). For me, at least, it's either awkward small talk that I trudge through because it's the nice thing to do (also I can't stand sitting in silence with someone - I have to be extremely comfortable with a person to do that and be okay with it) or an exclamation of enthusiasm at finding someone who shares even one of my interest one little bit and I proceed to talk their ears off about that one subject - possibly even putting them off the subject for life (it's happened).

Kickstarter: What Games I'm Backing and Why

I thought this would be a suitable follow-up to my last blog, where I confessed to having become a Kickstarter addict. I wrote a bit about things that turned me off a project, but I didn't really go into what actually turns me onto one. What makes a project actually stand out to me. More accurately, what games specifically stood out to me in such a way that I decided to back them, and for what reason. And then there's the whole aspect of why I'm backing games on Kickstarter that I haven't even played yet when there are currently published games that I would really, really like to own right now, but haven't purchased yet.

Help! I'm turning into a Kickstarter Addict!

Let me just start this by saying that I am by no means a newcomer to crowd-funding, I backed my first project back in April 2014, and for the following year and a half I only backed a handful of projects. I had a very relaxed relationship to crowd-funding as a whole, never looked for projects, they simply came to me through the fan communities that I was a part of.

Then I was introduced to the table top section of Kickstarter. It started innocently enough; someone in my gaming group shared a link to a board game campaign that was mere hours away from funding. I clicked it, was instantly wowed by the vibrant look of the game. I read through the campaign information, looked through the pledge levels and was not only pleased with the game presented, but also how decently priced it was, so I pledged and helped fund my first ever board game Kickstarter. It could have ended there, and with every single other campaign I had backed before that was how it ended - except I couldn't help but think that if this amazing looking game was on this platform - what else could be there?

Organising my boardgames: A Castle For All Seasons

Been a little while since I did one of these, so moving further down my shelf we have A Castle for All Seasons, a game I bought second hand last year before even having played it, but that has seen a lot of play time since. This game originally intends to keep game resources on the board itself, but the space allocated to each resource is not that great and I've found that it's much simpler to keep the resources off the board, as you don't risk accidentally covering up the amount of said resource is given, which makes the game ideal for my kind of organisation.

Organising my boardgames: Lords of Waterdeep

Moving on to the second sorted out game on my game shelf and one of my favourite games we have Lords of Waterdeep. Now this game originally came with an insert specifically made with organisation in mind. Every player piece had its place, same with the cards, buildings, resources and so forth. The insert even made sure the game board sat snugly inside, making sure to keep all the game components in place, however there were two issues with the original game set-up that made me abandon it. Firstly the game lid was so narrow it would not stay in place if the game didn't sit horizontally, meaning I had to tie something around the box before packing it whenever I took it somewhere, also the game had absolutely no room for an expansion, so when I added the expansion to my collection, the original game box and insert simply had to go.

Organising my boardgames: Bora Bora

Starting off my segment of showing off my organising solution for various games is probably one of my more interesting solutions. When I kicked off this thing, my intention was to mainly box up the resources that you needed in the game and not really anything that was key to the game's set-up. With Bora Bora this originally meant only a few components initially made it into a box, but then I started rethinking the system a bit to see if there wasn't one more way to tweak it. Turns out there is.

Organising my boardgames

Over a year ago I posted about how I had made my own big box solution for Catan. Since then (in fact in the past week or so) I've gotten into somewhat of an organising craze. I've been going through most of the games in my collection and figured out ways to not only keep the components separate and tidy, but also significantly reducing set-up and clean-up time needed for the games in question.

First Time Playing: Suburbia

This is a game where each player work to build a city. You construct buildings of different types trying to balance out population growth and income in order to stay afloat. Suburbia was described to me as the board game version of Sim City, which I found to be a very fitting description. The main goal is to construct the city which ends up with the largest population, but in order to get population you need to stay on top of both population and income growth as they will decrease as your city expands.

First Time Playing: Dos Rios

This is another one of the games I bought off another member of my gaming group, this one I hadn't even heard of before, but I looked it up on the web to see what kind of mechanics it had, and since it was worker placement, I decided to get it. Thankfully, when this one came up at a game night, one of the other people already knew it, so it wasn't up to me to teach them. In Dos Rios you are manipulating two rivers by building dams, so that the water will flow to areas occupied by your player pieces or houses in an attempt to get money and/or wood.

Settlers of Catan: My own big box solution

I love Settlers of Catan, and especially its many brilliant expansions. But with a game that you can mix and match bits and pieces, playing a ton of different scenarios, storage can become a bit of a hassle, especially if you want to keep your options open, but don't fancy having a major clean-up involving multiple boxes every time you play a game (or taking lots of time to set a game up). I've trialed and error'd my way, using utility boxes, labelled zip-lock bags, all of it to simplify setting up and clearing away the game, as well as making the game easier to bring along with me. And I can now proudly say that I've found a way to put the game and all its expansions into one single box (or, well... case).

First Time Playing: Witch of Salem

Not that long before Christmas, someone in my gaming group was selling off a bunch of games, so I ended up buying six of them, all of which I hadn't played before, and most of them I hadn't even heard of. Witch of Salem was one of the games I bought, and apart from hearing the title in passing, I really didn't know anything about it, except it sounded interesting. When I opened the box and looked through the components, I was convinced this had to be the first game I tried. The artwork was absolutely stunning, the theme was right up my alley, and I'm also a person who enjoys co-operative gameplay.

First Time Playing: Libertalia

I tend to have two specific modes when gaming. There's the strategy mode, where I'm choosing what actions to do and which players to target according to who is in the lead or have the potential to take it. Then there's vengeance mode. I'm not above admitting that I'm not fond of being the target of other players (but then again, who is?). If I'm in the lead or will potentially get ahead, fair enough, it's good strategy for them to do so and I cannot begrudge them that. But when I'm dead last and still get targeted, I'm not a happy camper and I will devote the rest of my game to destroying said player. The reason I mention this, is because that exact thing happened when I played Libertalia in my gaming group.

First Time Playing: Nexus Ops

My initial thought when seeing this game was that the set-up reminded me a bit of Eclipse. Of course it plays faster, is less complex and have far superior playing pieces (they glow - at least the version I played came with those pieces). And while I'm no Star Wars fan, one of the playing pieces was quickly nicknamed Jabba the Hut (guess which one). In Nexus Ops we play for dominance over space, mining resources, waging battles against one another, the whole time trying to fulfil secret missions in order to score bonus points.

First Time Playing: Flash Point Fire Rescue

This is a game that I've heard mentioned in various gaming videos online, so I was really excited to finally get to try it out when my gaming group bought the game recently. In Flash Point Fire Rescue we play as a team of firemen, each with a special ability, who together have to keep a fire in check while going through the house, rescuing the people trapped within it. If we manage to rescue enough people without the house collapsing on top of us, we win the game.

First Time Playing: Legends of Andor

I need to start this with a warning to any dragon lovers out there. If you intend to play this game, be prepared to get completely and utterly distracted from the other players' attempt to teach you the rules of this game - as you will pretend to fly the dragon figure across the board map, have it land in the pile of golden coins, making Hobbit references the whole time. Legends of Andor is a visually stunning game that makes you want it to be a great playing experience before you as much as glance at the rules. I'm not kidding, it's absolutely gorgeous.

First Time Playing: Cardcassonne: The Card Game

So, I'm not entirely sure why this game is named the way it is, as it virtually has no similarities to the original Carcassonne game of drawing tiles and claiming land. Here with Cardcassonne: The Card Game we are laying cards into rows, delicately balancing between playing out cards and claiming a row. Claim a row too soon, and you might be missing out on points - wait too long and someone else might just claim that row before you get to it.

First Time Playing: Firefly: The Game

This game was a definite yes for my gaming collection the very minute I learned of its development. I'm a huge Firefly fan. I've met most of the cast (and recurring people) from both show and movie, gone crazy in the merchandise department (official and not so official), written fanfiction and made fanvideos. I desperately wanted to join the kickstarter campaign, but unfortunately they weren't taking non-American pledges (big frown). Best I could do was pre-order Firefly: The Game the minute I got the chance, which I did, and I was so excited when it finally arrived in the mail that I instantly wanted to play it - even though my friend, who was with me that day, had no knowledge of the show, whatsoever. You can probably imagine how well that went...

First Time Playing: Bruges

So, this was the game I voted for on the game night I ended up playing Kemet instead. And thankfully it didn't take long before I got the chance to try it out. In Bruges your goal is to gain status within a town through building houses, canals and hiring different characters to work for you. There are many different ways to score points, both throughout the game and at the end, and you will soon discover that there is no sure fire way to win

First Time Playing: 7 Wonders

So, I have briefly heard of 7 Wonders, seen it pop up in various gaming videos, and noticed it on the shelf at my gaming group, it just never came up as a suggestion until now. I didn't feel it was all that well explained to me. And I have mostly avoided looking up further information on this game. Because not every game you are introduced to will be thoroughly explained, and since this column is all about that first time experience, and not specifically a review of the game itself, I think it's just as important to capture and express that confusion as it is to explain the actual game.

First Time Playing: Kemet

In our gaming group we generally try to decide by majority on what games we want to play, but we also try to make sure there is at least one player in the mix that knows the game and is able to teach it to the rest of the group. Sometimes that can lead to a logistical problem, like when two games hold the majority of votes, and only one member knows both. That happened this week, but since I was in the mood to try out a new game, and the other players were more keen on Kemet than the one I initially voted for, I just went with the flow. And one of the first thoughts that came to mind as the box was opened and I got a good look at the pieces was that this game looked absolutely gorgeous.