Traveling From The “7 Wonders” To “Tongiaki” And Finishing In The “Winner’s Circle”

My journey to Mar Vista today was unexpectedly pleasant (fewer bus stops, fewer people). There was a petty annoyance upon my arrival; I discovered that I had neglected to bring my usual instruments of writing with me and only a quick stop in a nearby 98 cents store put me back in good humor. When I reached St Bede’s, Brian was still in the process of setting things up for the final Games Day of 2010. After signing in and name tagging, I gave Brian gifts for his and Jen’s soon-to-be transferring from womb-to-world daughter (found out later that the bright shiny red shoes were the biggest hit!). Now onto my game travels of the day.

The first stop was to the ancient world and a visit to the “7 Wonders”. Brian was the tour guide for the group which, along with me, included, Andrew, John, Marc, Mary T., and Matthew. – seven wonders, seven visitors. – perfect! As this was a new experience for all of us (made its debut yesterday according to Brian), explanations on how to procedure were quite necessary. It was somewhat complicated as were staying around for three ages and in addition to gathering various resources and building towards the future, we all had to contend with the military buildup around us. Each of us had our own specific “wonder” and mine was the Statue of Zeus at Olympia with its own unique requirements for going forward. The “7 Wonders” journey is conducted like this - In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player...Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways…Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age. After three ages, the game ends. – boardgamegeek.com. I really didn’t know what I was doing for most of the trip – somehow I managed to build what I needed to in the First Age, but I think I missed an opportunity in the Second Age, and I was very happy when the trip finally ended in the Third Age. At the recap of the trip, John was declared the winner and I tied with Matthew for fourth place (at least we were not last!). Hadn’t realized until the tallying up of points, that there were seven categories in which to accumulate them and I only had points in five categories; though in one of those categories I had more points than anyone else and tied for first in another one with Andrew and Brian – minor consolations. There’s much going on with this trip and I think it is too much – the only person to have points in each category was our guide, Brian (of course!). Some of the distributed materials had information for multiple possibilities from which to choose and graphically the images were not always easy to decipher. Plus not enough coins for earning or paying. As this was my first trip to the “7 Wonders”, I was surely overwhelmed with all the activities involved in the visit. Before the next time I venture here, I will have to read up on how best to approach the “7 Wonders”.

Moving forward in time, it was off to sailing around in a “Tongiaki” and I was joined by five other sailors – Eliot, Lucy, Robert, Sari and Todd. And our reason for sailing from one Pacific Island to another - 300 AD: The Polynesians embarked on daring sailing trips and explored thousands of Pacific Islands. Driven by overpopulation and a desire for adventure, they set forth into the unknown on simple catamarans called Tongiakis. – boardgamegeek.com. This was a much simpler and straight forward visit than my first journey of the day. We just had to populate deserted islands with sailing over the open waters being the dangerous part of the adventure. Having the most presence on the islands was the ultimate objective of our journey. The winner of the most presence was Robert and for this trip I ended up in second place – a vast improvement over the results earlier in the day. Although it was a more relaxing visit than “7 Wonders” and I have figured out a strategy, I probably won’t make a return trip to “Tongiaki” – doesn’t hold my interest.

Before heading off to a contemporary time and the “Winner’s Circle”, I encountered “The Bucket King” and “Category 5”. Think “The Bucket King” should be renamed as half of us indulging in this diversion were women and this was another second place finish for me. A good ending for my first time meeting TBK and feeding the animals. Would be willing to see TBK again. Fourth place was my result in “Category 5” and I had been acquainted with this specific entity at an earlier time. It’s fun and a degree of luck is needed in the interaction.

The final destination of the day was a return to the current age and horse racing in the “Winner’s Circle”. Joining me on this jaunt to the race track were Eliot, Mike, Robert, Steve, and Todd. This was my second time here and still my one complaint is the difficulty in distinguishing five of the seven horses running. Jockey colors on the horses would be helpful. Anyway, the activities surrounding “Winner’s Circle” - A lively game of horse racing where players bet on several of seven horses to try to gain the most money by the end of the game…Players roll the die and choose which horse you want to move from those not taken their turn yet. The seven horses vary in strength, but even the weakest horses have some amazing bursts of speed. Players bet on the horses before each race and so either co-operate or compete to get their horses over the line. – boardgamegeek.com. The day began with Three Ages and ends with three races. Betting on the horses is good (if only I could remember which horse had the zero bet!), but obviously my skill in horse racing is lacking as I finished in fifth place – my worst position in the trips taken today. The win, place, and show people were Steve, Eliot, and Mike. An experience to be had again, if only with distinctive horses of any color.

Such were my game journeys today – a couple of new places and an old one. Fun was surely had. At some point in the late afternoon Jen and Finn arrived and I broke away from one of the travel groups and talked to Jen for a few minutes. Won’t see Jen again until after her daughter has made her world debut (any day now). My arrival was by bus, but my departure was by car, thanks to fellow games traveler Robert. Having pleasant comings and goings is always a treat. And until the next day of games – keep playing those boards!


Images:
Left: Box cover of “7 Wonders” from the website boardgamegeek.com
Center: Box cover of “Tongiaki” from the website boardgamegeek.com
Right: Box cover of “Winner’s Circle” from the website boardgamegeek.com

A Day With “Scotland Yard” Searching For The “Word On The Street” And Discovering “Match-Ability”

Unfortunately my Saturday adventure with “Scotland Yard” did not take place with the real organization, but with a representation of its detective work via the board game of the same name. It was the first game I played at the September session of the monthly European Board Games Marathon. Joining me as I played this game for the first time were fellow detectives Ben, Mary T., and Steve, while playing Mr. X was Tim. In this seeking game, Mr. X’s “…job is to move from point to point around the map of London taking taxis, buses or subways. The detectives…acting in concert, move around similarly in an effort to move into the same space as Mr. X.”. – boardgamegeek.com. Acting as Lead Detective, Ben (who has previously played the game), primarily provided the strategy of movement that the rest of us detectives followed. When Mr. X had to reveal where he was for the first time in the game, amazingly it was in the same area of London that most of the detectives were located. Despite a good run at avoiding the pursuing detectives, Mr. X was finally caught by yours truly on the board spot number 45 – which corresponds to Marylebone Bone Road/Marylebone Station. Thanks for the great strategy Ben and a big hip, hip, hooray for all the detectives!

After the well-deserved celebration, I ascended to “Cloud Nine” for a rest from the successful chase, but eventually came down to take the “Metro” to the ever elusive “Word On The Street”. Upon arrival I was met by Ben, Mark, Stacy, and Terry. Together we sought to control the street against Crosby, Lisa, Patrick, Ray, and Tim. Another new game for me and it works like this: “On each turn, one team flips over a category card. Team members frantically brainstorm words that fit the category while the opposition tries to sidetrack them. The team must agree on a word and pull each letter of that word one lane closer to their side of the street, all before time runs out.” – boardgamegeek.com. The struggle between the two teams was full of shouting of words, quick decisions, and fast lane changes. I was the keeper of the letter tiles that made their way to my team’s side of the street and gradually the pile grew. Though the road to victory was intense and with some setbacks, my team won to become the only “Word On The Street”. Now if I could only remember what that word is…

Next it was time for refreshments and a whole group of us enjoyed some “Apples To Apples” and I refortified myself for the endgame. The last game of the day for me was “Match-Ability”, which is a “group game where people write their quick reactions to words as they hear them and try to match other players.” – boardgamegeek.com. In addition to me, three other people, Lisa, Terry, and Tim were trying to make perfect matches. As would be expected, the categories had different degrees of success for the players – my worst category was “Casablanca” (no matches) and my best was “clothing” (nine out of ten matches). Guess I have a take on “Casablanca” that’s different from others (or just three specific people). Oh well, just reinforces my uniqueness. It took eleven different categories before Terry emerged as the winner. Just have to keep on striving to make matches. But that will have to wait for another day of games. Keep boarding!


Images:
Left: Box cover of “Scotland Yard” from the website boardgamegeek.com
Center: Box cover of “Word on the Street” from the website boardgamegeek.com
Right: Box cover of “Match-Ability” from the website boardgamegeek.com

European Board Games Marathon

On my way to the new bus stop (with new route number), I and others near the Third Street Promenade were given Bloomingdale’s shopping bags in promotion for the reopening of the renovated Santa Monica Place on Friday 6 August 2010. The beige canvass bag with orange lettering was my first freebie on a day in which I would be playing games. Yes, another trip to Mar Vista and another day of board games (actually most of the games I played didn’t have boards). It was a day of old games, new games, and variations on games – just the typical games afternoon.

After arriving at St. Bede’s and signing in with Brian, I began an afternoon of game playing – “Dixit” (old), “Bubble Talk” (new/variation), “Perudo” (new), “Ticket To Ride” (new), “Diamant” (old), and “Liar’s Dice” (new/variation). I’ll be kind and I won’t go into detail on all the games, just three of the new ones I played – “Bubble Talk”, “Perudo”, and “Ticket To Ride”. For the record, six of us played “Dixit” and I came in third; out of the six players of “Diamant”, I tied with one other person for second; and in “Liar’s Dice” I came in fourth out of five players. No last place for me today!

The first new game of the day was “Bubble Talk” and Brian enthusiastically introduced it. Six of us played “Bubble Talk” – including me, there was Brian, Michael, Mike, Patrick, and Stacey. “Bubble Talk” is a “…game in which players match silly quotations to photographs. One player per round judges which one is the best or funniest. The game comes with a variety of photographs and cards with quotation "bubbles." . - boardgamegeek.com. It is similar to “Apples To Apples” only visual in nature instead of definitional. The pictures are amusing, but the many quotations (e.g. “Oh don’t pretend you don’t like it”, “You will feel my wrath”, or “The things I’ll do just for some chocolate”) become really funny when paired with the wacky photos. In this game the winner was Mike, with Brian a close second and Patrick coming in third. The rest of us tied for fourth place. Although I like “Apples To Apples”, if there is a choice between playing it and “Bubble Talk”, for the time being I will choose “Bubble Talk”. The combination of visuals and words hits the right chord with my brain.

Of the six games I played today, “Perudo” had the largest number of participants. There were eight of us - Aaron, Brian, Gilly, Michael, Michael P., Mike, Stacey, and of course me. “Perudo” is a game of dice and “The object of perudo is to be the last player with a die or more.” - boardgamegeek.com. “Perudo” is a variation of “Liar’s Dice” and though I actually won this game - it came down to a duel (diel? dicel?) between me and Aaron – I don’t think I’ll be seeking to play it often. Does become somewhat tedious quickly, but I liked the color coordinated cups and dice. Glad to learn a new game, but I guess the dice game that I prefer is “Yahtzee”, though I haven’t played it in a long time.

A real board game finally came my way – “Ticket To Ride” – and the others joining in were Aaron, John, Michael, and Sky. And what happens with a “Ticket To Ride”? “Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route." - boardgamegeek.com. Have only played a couple of other train games and unfortunately I can’t remember their names – I think the object in one was to build railroad tracks. In this game I completed two destinations, tied with Michael for the longest route (though neither of us received any points), and placed third overall. And I accomplished all this while playing the board upside down! Would definitely play this game again.

During the last game of the day for me (“Liar’s Dice”), Brian made his usual 5:00 p.m. announcements regarding future game days and the naming of today’s four game prize winners. And he had a giveaway of packets of the “Racer Knights Of Falconus” card game for everyone in attendance – my second freebie of the day. The best announcement Brian made was that he and Jen are expecting their second child in January! Congrats to them! As “Liar’s Dice” was ending and the group role-playing game “Werewolf” was beginning, Jen, Finn, and Lynn arrived. Visited with Jen and Finn for a bit before taking Lynn up on her offer of a ride home. Had a pleasant ride with Lynn and she graciously dropped me off near the Whole Foods Market in my part of town, before doubling back to the one in hers. Bought food for dinner and happily walked home after another fun day of game playing and learning.


Images:
Left: Box cover of “Bubble Talk” from the website boardgamegeek.com
Center: Box cover of “Perudo” from the website boardgamegeek.com

Right: Box cover of “Ticket To Ride” from the website boardgamegeek.com

Party Games Day

This afternoon I traveled to Mar Vista to join a group of liked-minded people who enjoy playing board games. Locations of the bus stops from my origination point have changed, so even getting to the venue was an adventure game of seek-and-find. Although the social group to which I belong, My People Connection, has no religious affiliation, the Party Games Day venue was at St. Bede’s Church which is a convenient location for the Event Coordinators, Brian and Jen.

As this event was cross-posted on a couple of other social sites, there were six tables of people already playing games when I arrived a half hour later than planned. Before I started playing games, I watched a game of "Moods" in which Jen was playing. I’ve played “Moods” at a previous Games Day and it definitely puts your acting skills to the test. When “Moods” was finished, I joined in a game of “Wits & Wagers” which combined the people from Jen’s table and another group who had finished playing “Ca$h ‘n Gun$”. Because of the number of people playing, we were put into seven teams. I was teamed with a woman named Pam, who I had not previously met. “Wits & Wagers is a trivia game that lets you bet on anyone’s answer. So you can win by making educated guesses, by playing the odds, or by knowing the interests of your friends. It can be taught in 2 minutes, played in 25 minutes, and accommodates up to 20 people in teams.” – boardgamegeek.com. I had played “Wits & Wagers” once before and as I like trivia/knowledge games, I was happy to be playing it again. Usually one round consists of seven questions to be answered and wagered, however, we ended up answering and wagering on eight questions. Do you know the answers? Here are the questions (answers below):

A. How many elevators are there in the Empire State Building?

B. In what year did John Smith settle Jamestown, the first British permanent in the New World?

C. How old was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he wrote his first opera?

D. In what year was it discovered that humans have different blood types?

E. How many feet tall are the letters in the Hollywood sign?

F. As of 2005, how many horses have won the Triple Crown?

G. In what year was the Republican Party founded?

H. How many Starbucks locations worldwide were there in 1995?

Unfortunately, there was only one question to which Pam and I had the right answer – the Mozart one – and we ended the game in last place and with no chips. But I have added to my collection of trivia facts and that’s always a good outcome.

The second game I played was “Catch Phrase”. This was the first time I played this game. There were ten of us and we were divided into two team of five. I was on a team with Barbara, Rhonda, Stacy, and Terry. The other team consisted of David, Mary T, Melissa, Pam, and Steve. The game moved quickly (once everyone understood about the buttons) and movement was important - “'Cause if the buzzer goes off while you're holding the disk, the other guys get the point in CATCH PHRASE... the fast-passing, fast-talking game.” – boardgamegeek.com. The easiest on screen word I had was “Thanksgiving” to which I gave the clue “holiday in November”. The hardest word I had was “Machiavellian” and I had totally forgotten that Machiavelli had written The Prince, so I was stumped and I fumbled as to the clues to give the team. Needless to say on that word the buzzer went off and the team lost that round. And I won’t even tell you about “Drugstore Cowboy”. Ugh! Even though the team I was on wasn’t victorious, there was lots of laughter during the game and everyone seemed to enjoy playing. I definitely would play “Catch Phrase” again.

The final game of the afternoon for me was “Dixit”. This was the second time I played this game. Joining me were Barbara, David, Mary T, Stacy, and Terry. The official game instructions state that the storyteller should use a sentence to describe the card that will be played. However, the last time I played, as well as this time, we just used one word to indicate the “story”. The game has sort of an “if…then” scoring system. “If nobody or everybody finds the correct picture, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer scores 3. Players score 1 point for every vote gotten by their own pic.” - boardgamegeek.com. I had two turns as the storyteller and my first story was “Complication” and that was a good turn as some people pick my card and some did not. The next time the storyteller turn came my way, I told the story of “Life”. Unfortunately, no one picked my interpretation of “Life”, so no points for me. At the end of the game, Stacy had won and I tied for last place with Terry. It is a challenging balance to give a word that describes a card that some people will get and others won’t, plus being dependent on the other cards played. If nothing else, I do like the “Dixit” card illustrations.

While we were playing “Dixit”, Jen came over and said that she was leaving to switch with Brian, who had returned home from an outing with their son Finn, and that Brian would come to the church to close out the day. Finally gave Jen the three DVD insert covers for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” that I got when the Blockbuster near me had a closing sale in late 2009. Saw Brian for a few minutes before I left to go home. Fortunately the bus stop locations hadn’t changed in Mar Vista, so no adventure on the return home portion of my trip. Only one last item, the “Wit & Wagers” answers!


A. 73, B. 1607, C. 12, D. 1901, E. 45, F. 11, G. 1854, H. 676


Images:
Left: Box cover of "Wits & Wagers" from the website boardgamegeek.com
Center: "Catch Phrase" disk from the website boardgamegeek.com

Right: Box cover of "Dixit" from the website boardgamegeek.com

Pursuit Of The Trivial (And Other Games) Ended Today For Chris Haney – Wednesday 9 August 1950 to Monday 31 May 2010

Question: Who contributed to my self-realization that I know a bunch of unrelated information about many things?
Answer: Chris Haney, Canadian Co-Creator of the board (never bored) game “Trivial Pursuit”.

Chris Haney died today at age fifty-nine, but he, along with “Trivial Pursuit” Co-Creator Scott Abbott, had provided gamers with many days (sometimes in a row!) of knowledge spouting and knowledge gaining over the years since “Trivial Pursuit” made its debut.

I was introduced to “Trivial Pursuit” in grad school. Up to then I had only played a few of the classic board games – “Checkers”, “Monopoly”, “Scrabble”, “Risk” – none of which required any demonstration of specific knowledge or facts. The first time I played was with a group of fellow students living on the third floor in our University-owned off-campus apartment building. We would play often and had many willing players. It was during one of these games that, because of the number of people wanting to play, we were teamed up and I was teamed with a guy named Chris. We won that game and it turned out that we had different areas of knowledge (Chris – Science and me – Arts) and together we were unbeatable! When Chris and I won a game, the other players would continue and our reward for coming in first was to read the questions and answers for the rest of the game. That was done many times, and happily so. After a number of times of playing “Trivial Pursuit” as a team and handily winning games, other players began requiring that Chris and I have other partners when team playing was needed. Ah, the price of being too victorious! No matter, playing “Trivial Pursuit” was always great fun whether played individually or in a team with Chris or someone else.

Later in grad school I would often play “Trivial Pursuit” with friend and fellow grad student Kate as part of an after seminar Thursday night ritual of grad students hanging together during Happy Hour in a local restaurant, playing the jukebox, dancing (although the place didn’t have a license for it), and just commiserating about grad life. After Happy Hour was over, we all dispersed and Kate and I would usually have “bad for you” stuff to eat and drink and play a game of “Trivial Pursuit”, which she was a good sport about since I usually won - all that earlier experience came in handy :). As I recall, our areas of knowledge were similar and the games were usually close ones. Makes for exciting competition! I enjoyed those grad times of “Trivial Pursuit” playing and I thank you, Chris Haney (and Scott Abbott) for providing me (and others) with a fun outlet where the trivial can play.


Images:
Left: Box cover of “Trivial Pursuit” from the website upload.wikimedia.org
Center: Chris Haney with “Trivial Pursuit” board from the website telegraph.co.uk

Right “Trivial Pursuit” playing piece and wedges from the website en.wikipedia.org