As evidenced by the existence of this blog, I really do like games and gaming.  I’ve found a lot of friends through gaming, and somehow the complexities of various games allow me the immersion I seek.  But often, playing a game just isn’t a reasonable option, and so gaming projects present themselves.

Player Aids:  I enjoy making these.  So do lots of other game fans.  Cruise the files on BGG for your favorite games.  You are bound to find something wonderful.  Just today Rob sent me a link to a flash utility for playing the game Time Agent. 

Translations:  The need is not as great as it was ten years ago.  Nowadays most games come with English rules.  But I still enjoy sifting through the back catalog of German games, and seem to frequently need to do some translation work.  My current translation project is Nibelungen, a game that was given to me by a friend.  Apparently the game has passed through a few sets of hands prior to landing with me.  The fact that it was unpunched and untranslated may be a telling point.  But Nibelungen is based on Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and since I just toured Neuschwannstein Castle last fall, the theme is appealing.  I also hold some hope in the fact that Wolfgang Kramer is the designer.

Rules Reads:  I’ve fallen behind on this front.  New games to my collection that I still need to read the rules t include:  Shipyard, Rise of Empires, and Dodge City (early Hans im Glueck game).  This activity can be fun or it can be difficult.  Often I have good facility at reading rules and making sense of what is intended.  Other times, the rules bounce off and I struggle to make sense of it.

 Statistics:  I don’t warm to this the way some of my friends do (cough… Joe…cough), but I do enjoy maintaining a spreadsheet tracking which games the Tuesday night game club plays.  I have devised a system that rewards games for getting played, for the # of players it entertained, and the average rating the game achieves over time.  My players are given an option of rating the game in the following scale:

• Poor – Not so good, you would avoid it.
• OK – Decent game.  You would play, but probably never request it.
• Good – Nice game.  You might suggest it once in a while.
• Excellent – Tremendous game that you anticipate wanting to play frequently.
• Personal Endorsement – A game perfectly suited to your tastes.

I have been amused by how many players have requested that I allow them to have a “Very Good” rating.  But I have steadfastly refused to modify the scale, pointing out that a Very Good = Good in the statistics.  If it ain’t quite excellent, it is Good!  I’ve also recently started giving a time adjustment to games that run longer than 90 minutes.  This helps prevent all the shorter filler games from soaking up the top positions in the rankings.

BGG:  And perhaps the biggest non-gaming activity tied to this hobby is simply cruising BGG.  I update the club lists most every week, and I track changes to the collection, and even try to log my plays in their tracking system.  Of course reading articles and lists from other game fans is some of the best fun.  I have even started to learn about RSS feeds and notifications to help me track the content most likely to be of interest.

I’d guess only 20% of my hobby time is actually spent playing games.  The bulk of the time is devoted to the activities I’ve just described.

Tomorrow night about 3 dozen gamers and associated families will gather for our “Juegos Rancheros”, a micro game con we throw for close friends.  We throw another event over Labor Day weekend called “The Game Fandango”.  The Fandango is slightly bigger with attendance running between 40 – 44 people.  Usually about 1/3 of the group is youngsters, and of the adults there are always a few who are not the hardcore gamers – happy to come and play a few games – but also happy to kick back, take a hike, or take part in a bardic circle.

But for me, and about another dozen or so, this is the high-water mark for gaming.  A few of us spend far too much time listing what games to bring in a database, and somehow convincing ourselves we will play all the games we bring.  Of course we never do – we play perhaps 20% of the games we bring.  So for fun, I will share my packing list:

Tante Tarantel/Igel Ärgern - A duo of children’s games that I recently imported.  I will bring two copies and leave with none.  Gifts to Kyle (belated Xmas gift) and my co-host Rob (just ‘cuz).  Of course I will still have one more copy back at home!

Little Amadeus Maestro - Another light game, and one I used to own in an earlier edition.  I’m hoping it will offer some fun.

An den Ufern des Nils - (On the Banks of the Nile) – An older game that Rob once showed me.  It had niggled at me, and so I decided I needed to get a copy for deeper inspection.  Not really a heavy game, but a bit more substantial than some.

Zapp Zerapp – Silly shaker fun.  I played this once in 2000, and agin recently.  I had more fun this last time than I did the first go.  I’m hoping to play this with some of the children.

Cosa Nostra - This is Parcheesi with drive by shootings.  I also hope to play this with some of the kids.

Golfprofi – Our traditional golf game.  I have gotten a lot of pleasure out of this game over the years, and it is great to see it requested by the other “golfers”.

El Grande – A favorite, and requested by Chris.  So it comes too.

Agricola - Another favorite, and also requested.  I don’t have the expansion, so I suspect my copy will be redundant and we will play another copy with their expansion.

Time’s Up – Requested by Peggy, so it’s gotta come!

Unspeakable Words - Another word game that the wordsmiths may not have yet discovered…  I had to buy it for the Cthulhu Mythos tie in.

Journey to the Center of the Earth – I’m actually bringing this to give back to its owner.  I would be happy to play it, but the reading of the rules was not overly inspiring.

à la carte – the beautiful new edition!  I’m excited to give it a try.  My old edition is now retired.

Strand Cup – 2 packs, actually.  Beach Volleyball in February in the mountains of New Mexico.  Why not?

Vom Kap bis Kairo – A nice little train race game that needs playing again.

Mu - I’m not too keen on Tichu, so I thought I’d pack the other card game people seem to like.

Dia de los Muertos - Being so close to Mexico, we have adopted the artwork style used in this game for our own motif.  Regardless this is an interesting game, and one I would like to play more of.

Giro Italia: The Cardgame – Leader 1 as a cad game.  I need to play this.

These last few are games I tossed in since I had some small room left.  There are a couple other games I am considering bringing:

Box of Golf - I was considering bring ing this until someone requested Golfprofi.  I may skip it.

Neue Heimat - Expected delivery tomorrow!  So if it is here when we leave, I will likely toss it in.  A Klaus Zoch game that is too complicated for his main game company…  But still a Zoch game, so surely it isn’t TOO complicated.  I have printed out the English rules, and will be ready to roll with it…

So I’m bringing 17-19 games.  Quite silly, as I have already talked about playing several other games that others are bringing:

Minos - A game I am curious about.  A Ravensburger game with nice graphic quality standards, and an appealing theme.  From the author of Shark (good) and Sindbab (eh).

Pond Hockey - Rob’s attempt to lead me away from StreetSoccer.  I bet I will like it.  I also bet I will stick with StreetSoccer.

Toledo – A Martin Wallace game I would enjoy trying.

Shipyard – Another game that Alex and I have bought at about the same time.  I will play on his copy and leave my new edition here at home.

Generally I play a lot of heavy games, and recently I have craved lighter games.  So I am not really looking for an 18xx this time around.  But we’ll see what happens.  I also want to play a few silly games with the non-hardcore gamers and children.

As fun as the event will be, the anticipation is also quite good!

As I have previously mentioned, I auctioned off 8 of my games on BGG, with the commitment that I would give any money received to charity, for the relief of Haiti’s earthquake victims.  I just wrote a check for $554 to my charity of choice.

So the following games have left my collection:

Automobile – a game I somewhat like, but not enough to continue owning.  Martin Wallace’s limited edition games are generally coveted by collectors, and I am pleased that this one sold for $150.

Tempus – Another Martin Wallace game that I sort of like, but won’t miss having in the collection.  Tempus sold for $50.

Eastfront – I was surprised by how little I enjoyed this game.  Tim and I tried it a couple times, but it never got a good flow going for us.  I remain a fan of Napoleon, and own and wish to play two other block games, Crusader Rex and Hammer of the Scots.  Eastfront sold for $60.

House of Whack – The designer of this game, André, played with our Game Bistro group for a year or so before moving away from Albuquerque.  When André published this game, I automatically purchased one.  Sadly it isn’t my sort of game, so auctioning it off for charity seemed a thoughtful way of having it leave my collection.  House of Whack sold for $27.

18EZ – Alex became very interested in this game while it was still in prototype.  He and I played a couple times, hopefully helping it become a better product.  When Drew finally published it, I was pleased to purchase a copy in support of any company releasing new 18xx type games.  But honestly, I will always prefer to play a few other 18xx games before this one, so auctioning it off for charity was a good plan for this game.  18EZ sold for $100.

History of the World – I have a lot of great memories from playing this game.  But the designers recently released a shortened version called A Brief History of the World, and I cannot see me going back to the older version.  If I do, I will be happy to play on someone else’s copy.  HotW sold for $37.

Troisdorf – This is a special limited edition of the game Alhambra.  Jay Tummelson gave it to me years ago, and we never did get around to playing it.  I was pleased to turn Jay’s gift into a $100 for Haitian relief.

Cleopatra - This is a game that I liked well enough, but no one ever requested to play it.  So it was destined to leave the collection.  Cleopatra sold for $30.

In the process of auctioning my 8 games, I had several other BGG members ask to, and then list, several other games to auction for charity.  The site admins agreed to give an incentive to the bidders, and posted the auction at the top of the news section for a few days.  When the dust had cleared, the entire auction list had raised $1,622.50.  Pretty cool!  In addition some of the donors mentioned they would be giving to charity programs where their employer would match their gift!

So this little effort probably resulted in $2000 of aid given to various Haitian relief charities.

All the games are en route to their new owners, and I am also awaiting a game I purchased from one of the other donors.  Box of Golf will be arriving sometime in the future.  I will write about it in a future post.