Final Post!
Well after 13ish days of my games and community class, We have finally come to the end of it. I've played all sorts of games with a variety of people, and I think I've learned a bit of how I play games.
First off, I feel like I need a good heads up as to how long a game will actually take. I do not mind sitting down and playing a game for 2, 2 1/2, 3 hours, but I need a "hey btw, this game is going to go really long" sort of thing. I can remember playing Stone Age at one of the game nights, and I was looking at the box and thought, "Okay 60 to 75 minutes, sounds great!" But after 150 minutes, (2 1/2 hours), I was just done playing. Kind of lost my interest in the game and was just ready to leave.
I also Discovered that I love games with a bit more depth to them, besides just a basic strategy you can pick up on your first try. While I like playing Blokus, or even Settlers can be guilty of this, I don't really think I've ever discovered a "Oh, what If i played the game like this instead!" "Oh, wow I hadn't even seen that strategy before, man that seems great." So a game where I can learn new strategies and ways to play the more I play them is something I can really get into, instead of just trying to build the most roads or finding a new way to "blok" off my opponents from getting in my zone.
Finally, I also learned I love games where I feel like something was accomplish! When playing Mystery of the Abbey, we had to figure out who the murderer was, and the game wasn't over until the Murderer was discovered. Not, "well whoever can eliminate 10 suspects off the list wins first wins." I was annoyed playing, "Shadow's Over Camelot," because despite the fact that we had Catapults at our front gate, Excalibur was almost lost to the enemy, and a dragon was rampaging around, we had technically won the game, because we had won 2 battles and we retrieved the holy grail. It didn't leave a feeling of, "Oh yea, we did awesome! It was a "Man we screwed up really bad, glad we just barely won."
So that is what I have learned about myself in this class. I really did enjoy getting to play a variety of games, and I am hoping to maybe work a bit more on my game. Who knows, maybe I'll go pick up a couple of these games we played.
~Brandon
Friday, January 31, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Day #12 - A Skype call and Mob Rules!
Day #12 - Meeting the Maker of Fleet and Playing Werewolf
Games Played: Werewolf
Well we are onto some of the final couple of days for this class! And for today we had the pleasure of getting a Skype call with one of the creators of "Fleet"
While I did enjoy our conversation with this guy, he seemed to say a lot of similar things to the other game design we already talked with. "It's not something you do for the money." "Games go through many phases and revisions."etc etc. He did field some questions as well, which at this point in the class I think people were a lot better prepared to ask them.
After that, we took a 5 minute break and got ready for "werewolf." For those who don't know, Werewolf is a lot like Mafia, just with a few added roles. A fortune teller who can (once per game) can help or hurt people, a torturer who gets the mob rallied up to kill 2 people every round, as well as some others. I enjoyed playing the game, brought me back to old youth group games or going to camp as a kid. What I didn't care for was that it seemed to feel like the old witch trials.
"Tom's A Werewolf! Look at him? How can he not be a werewolf!!."
"Tom's defense: "I'm not a werewolf!"
Town's People: "DIE WEREWOLF"
Card is revealed, Tom's not a werewolf......
Town's People: "Oh well, lets just keep accusing people of being a werewolf, there is always next round"
While I'm exagerating a bit, that was how most of the game went for sometime. Not that there is a really good way to play the game, but there is definatly more strategy than just "HE"S A WEREWOLF, I"M LIKE 5% SURE HE'S A WEREWOLF." So that got on my nerves pretty quick.
Anywho, Next time will be my final day post! (Since class was canceled on monday) GET PSYCHED!!!!
~Brandon
Games Played: Werewolf
Well we are onto some of the final couple of days for this class! And for today we had the pleasure of getting a Skype call with one of the creators of "Fleet"
While I did enjoy our conversation with this guy, he seemed to say a lot of similar things to the other game design we already talked with. "It's not something you do for the money." "Games go through many phases and revisions."etc etc. He did field some questions as well, which at this point in the class I think people were a lot better prepared to ask them.
After that, we took a 5 minute break and got ready for "werewolf." For those who don't know, Werewolf is a lot like Mafia, just with a few added roles. A fortune teller who can (once per game) can help or hurt people, a torturer who gets the mob rallied up to kill 2 people every round, as well as some others. I enjoyed playing the game, brought me back to old youth group games or going to camp as a kid. What I didn't care for was that it seemed to feel like the old witch trials.
"Tom's A Werewolf! Look at him? How can he not be a werewolf!!."
"Tom's defense: "I'm not a werewolf!"
Town's People: "DIE WEREWOLF"
Card is revealed, Tom's not a werewolf......
Town's People: "Oh well, lets just keep accusing people of being a werewolf, there is always next round"
While I'm exagerating a bit, that was how most of the game went for sometime. Not that there is a really good way to play the game, but there is definatly more strategy than just "HE"S A WEREWOLF, I"M LIKE 5% SURE HE'S A WEREWOLF." So that got on my nerves pretty quick.
Anywho, Next time will be my final day post! (Since class was canceled on monday) GET PSYCHED!!!!
~Brandon
Day #11 - I'm taught one more game!
Day #11 - Running for Relics!!
Games Played: Relic Runner
So on our finally teaching day Mr Josh taught us how to play Relic Runners!
Relic Runners is a "exploration" game, where you take an adventurer and explore different ruins to collect victory points and relics! Every action you take costs food, so you'll need to constantly go back to base camp to restock. You also are able to set up and move pathways which allow you to "run" across the board. In our game of 4 players we had to collect nine relics as a whole in order to finish the game.
As for coming up with a strategy for playing the game, it seems somewhat based on what sort of "tiles" you get from your ruins. For instance, I got one that gave me extra points every time i "discovered" victory points. So while, I only collected 2 low scoring relics, I almost won because I had gotten so many victory points from exploration. What I can say is once you have a "set" strategy you need to stick with it. If you are focused on just moving your paths around, then keep doing that. If you are focused on having a ton of food, then keep doing that. But don't try to keep moving paths and have a ton of food, or you won't be able to do much in the game.
After class, Sarah and I talked over a couple points on "Tactician." We made and printed off cards, as well as have a basic board to play on. So it's really starting to come together. I can't wait to demo it off next week!
Until Next Time
~Brandon
Games Played: Relic Runner
So on our finally teaching day Mr Josh taught us how to play Relic Runners!
Relic Runners is a "exploration" game, where you take an adventurer and explore different ruins to collect victory points and relics! Every action you take costs food, so you'll need to constantly go back to base camp to restock. You also are able to set up and move pathways which allow you to "run" across the board. In our game of 4 players we had to collect nine relics as a whole in order to finish the game.
As for coming up with a strategy for playing the game, it seems somewhat based on what sort of "tiles" you get from your ruins. For instance, I got one that gave me extra points every time i "discovered" victory points. So while, I only collected 2 low scoring relics, I almost won because I had gotten so many victory points from exploration. What I can say is once you have a "set" strategy you need to stick with it. If you are focused on just moving your paths around, then keep doing that. If you are focused on having a ton of food, then keep doing that. But don't try to keep moving paths and have a ton of food, or you won't be able to do much in the game.
After class, Sarah and I talked over a couple points on "Tactician." We made and printed off cards, as well as have a basic board to play on. So it's really starting to come together. I can't wait to demo it off next week!
Until Next Time
~Brandon
Day #10 - I'm being taught games again!?!
Day #10 - Learning some new games
Games Played: Mystery of the Abby & Amazonas
So today in C&G, I was taught a pair of games from my classmates.
First, Mr. Abe taught use how to play Mystery of the Abby. It's a game that sounds a lot like "Clue," with elements of "Guess Who" thrown in there. However, after playing for a little bit, the game seemed to take on it's own personality. Between having to move around the board to get different "event" cards, questions other "priests" as we passed on the board, or getting called back to the chapel for mass (Which a little Bell was provided for), It felt like a very unique experience. I really enjoyed that one.
Second, Mr. Sam taught me Amazonas. It's a resource game, where you need to build a site at 4 different cities as well as collect victory points while avoiding the "dangers" of the jungle. Sound kind of exciting yea? Sadly the game was really disappoint it. Every turn and "Event Card" was flipped up from the deck which usually was a money bonus for having a particular type of animal, as well as 8 cards (in the deck of 18) that actually had bad effects. However the bad effects could be countered by playing your "Indian guide" card. Every turn you played a card from your hand to get additional money and decide turn order. Overall, if you paid remotely any attention to what event cards had already been used, and picked the shortest routes between cities it seemed like it was easy to do well in the game.
Anywho, so that was my joy of being taught games today, and it was fun to an extent!
~Brandon
Games Played: Mystery of the Abby & Amazonas
So today in C&G, I was taught a pair of games from my classmates.
First, Mr. Abe taught use how to play Mystery of the Abby. It's a game that sounds a lot like "Clue," with elements of "Guess Who" thrown in there. However, after playing for a little bit, the game seemed to take on it's own personality. Between having to move around the board to get different "event" cards, questions other "priests" as we passed on the board, or getting called back to the chapel for mass (Which a little Bell was provided for), It felt like a very unique experience. I really enjoyed that one.
Second, Mr. Sam taught me Amazonas. It's a resource game, where you need to build a site at 4 different cities as well as collect victory points while avoiding the "dangers" of the jungle. Sound kind of exciting yea? Sadly the game was really disappoint it. Every turn and "Event Card" was flipped up from the deck which usually was a money bonus for having a particular type of animal, as well as 8 cards (in the deck of 18) that actually had bad effects. However the bad effects could be countered by playing your "Indian guide" card. Every turn you played a card from your hand to get additional money and decide turn order. Overall, if you paid remotely any attention to what event cards had already been used, and picked the shortest routes between cities it seemed like it was easy to do well in the game.
Anywho, so that was my joy of being taught games today, and it was fun to an extent!
~Brandon
Day #9 - The Day I tried to Teach again
Day #9 - Teaching San Jaun
Games Played: San Jaun
Well On this last Tuesday I was asked to teach a game that I learned in this class, or had never played before. So out of the games I had played so far, I was really looking forward to replaying and reteaching that game.
As far as teaching the game, it was kind of odd. I couldn't decide on the first couple of turns if everybody was really getting how the game worked. No one was out right complaining, but no one seemed to really be "planning" they were just playing. So i tried jazzing it up a little bit, by joking with the guys I was playing with, and that worked to an extent but not amazingly. After say 15 minutes of playing, I was starting to see a bit of strategy emerge from everybody, so it seemed like everybody got the hang of the game. At the end everyone seemed to say they enjoyed it, but no one really gave me any "real" advice on playing, so that was disappointing.
Anywho, I'm done teaching games now, so tomorrow I get to go back to being the learner. Hooray!!
~Brandon
Games Played: San Jaun
Well On this last Tuesday I was asked to teach a game that I learned in this class, or had never played before. So out of the games I had played so far, I was really looking forward to replaying and reteaching that game.
As far as teaching the game, it was kind of odd. I couldn't decide on the first couple of turns if everybody was really getting how the game worked. No one was out right complaining, but no one seemed to really be "planning" they were just playing. So i tried jazzing it up a little bit, by joking with the guys I was playing with, and that worked to an extent but not amazingly. After say 15 minutes of playing, I was starting to see a bit of strategy emerge from everybody, so it seemed like everybody got the hang of the game. At the end everyone seemed to say they enjoyed it, but no one really gave me any "real" advice on playing, so that was disappointing.
Anywho, I'm done teaching games now, so tomorrow I get to go back to being the learner. Hooray!!
~Brandon
Day #8 - The Day I tried to Co-op
Day #8 - Co-op Games!
Games Played: Shadows Over Camelot
Welcome back to our excited (and occasionally updated) G&C blog, Hooray! As it's the start of a new class week, our class will be playing Cooperative games today.
My group ended up playing "Shadows Over Camelot" where you take the role of one of the knights of the round table and attempt to keep various Evil forces at bay, while completed quests to earn, "The Holy Grail," "Excaliber" and other items! However it's not quite so simple, because half the time, one of the knights is a traitor! (Ohhh ahhh gahh Scary!!!)
Anywho, our game was a little scatterbrained......We started off trying to do everything we possibly could, Our fearless leader attempted to get excailaber, our Lord Tom attempted to get the holy grail back, and I was busy fighting off a random Saxon invasion. However, after we all almost got killed, we decided it may be best to rethink our strategy, as we were all losing pretty badly... So after regrouping, we all went out, after one quest, beat it pretty easily, and then won the game because of it. Hooray!
As a note on the game itself, even thou we had won the game, It felt unsatisfying as a win because there was so much left we had too do. I mean we beat the Saxons and the Picts, twice, but then we lost to the black knight as well as almost losing Excalibur and we just barely won by getting the Holy Grail. What annoyed me was that doing all the quests wasn't necessary at all to winning the game, so it didn't feel like we really accomplished anything when we won.
Anywho, that's my basic rundown of Shaodws over Camelot!
~Brandon
Games Played: Shadows Over Camelot
Welcome back to our excited (and occasionally updated) G&C blog, Hooray! As it's the start of a new class week, our class will be playing Cooperative games today.
My group ended up playing "Shadows Over Camelot" where you take the role of one of the knights of the round table and attempt to keep various Evil forces at bay, while completed quests to earn, "The Holy Grail," "Excaliber" and other items! However it's not quite so simple, because half the time, one of the knights is a traitor! (Ohhh ahhh gahh Scary!!!)
Anywho, our game was a little scatterbrained......We started off trying to do everything we possibly could, Our fearless leader attempted to get excailaber, our Lord Tom attempted to get the holy grail back, and I was busy fighting off a random Saxon invasion. However, after we all almost got killed, we decided it may be best to rethink our strategy, as we were all losing pretty badly... So after regrouping, we all went out, after one quest, beat it pretty easily, and then won the game because of it. Hooray!
As a note on the game itself, even thou we had won the game, It felt unsatisfying as a win because there was so much left we had too do. I mean we beat the Saxons and the Picts, twice, but then we lost to the black knight as well as almost losing Excalibur and we just barely won by getting the Holy Grail. What annoyed me was that doing all the quests wasn't necessary at all to winning the game, so it didn't feel like we really accomplished anything when we won.
Anywho, that's my basic rundown of Shaodws over Camelot!
~Brandon
Friday, January 24, 2014
Day #7 - Let's Have a Tournament!
Day #7 - Cuarenta Tournament
Games Played - Cuarenta
So today, We played a Cuarenta Tournament as well as had a guest speaker come talk to us.
The Cuarenta tourney went as well as you'd think it would. After losing to Sarah and Amy again, me and Abe were finally taught the actual rules to Cuarenta, in the losers bracket....better late than never I guess....but it's still pretty bad.....
Anywho, after that we had a guest speaker come on in and talk about, yup, you guessed it BOARD GAMES!!!! Crazy, eh?
Anywho, he showed off some pieces he's made for games, which is pretty cool, as well as told us about some of his favorite games. However, I don't really remember much of what he said, besides that He bashed Trading Card Games. Having an opinion is one thing, but don't bash on something somewhat unrelated when you are talking about boardgames, cuz all it's going to do is annoy the few fans in your audience. It also didn't help that his facts were off. "It costs about $2000 to build a magic deck!" Ha thats a joke...I built mine for less than $200, and it's fairly competetive. Ya sure, You can spend $2000+ on a magic deck, but that's either for a Legacy format (meaning buying cards that were printed 20 years ago), or Building a foiled out version of one of the mo.st expensive modern decks. Either way, it's a very extreme example, so it torqued me.
Anywho, enough of that for now. Turn in next week to read about more game playing and teaching. HORRAY!!!
~Brandon
Games Played - Cuarenta
So today, We played a Cuarenta Tournament as well as had a guest speaker come talk to us.
The Cuarenta tourney went as well as you'd think it would. After losing to Sarah and Amy again, me and Abe were finally taught the actual rules to Cuarenta, in the losers bracket....better late than never I guess....but it's still pretty bad.....
Anywho, after that we had a guest speaker come on in and talk about, yup, you guessed it BOARD GAMES!!!! Crazy, eh?
Anywho, he showed off some pieces he's made for games, which is pretty cool, as well as told us about some of his favorite games. However, I don't really remember much of what he said, besides that He bashed Trading Card Games. Having an opinion is one thing, but don't bash on something somewhat unrelated when you are talking about boardgames, cuz all it's going to do is annoy the few fans in your audience. It also didn't help that his facts were off. "It costs about $2000 to build a magic deck!" Ha thats a joke...I built mine for less than $200, and it's fairly competetive. Ya sure, You can spend $2000+ on a magic deck, but that's either for a Legacy format (meaning buying cards that were printed 20 years ago), or Building a foiled out version of one of the mo.st expensive modern decks. Either way, it's a very extreme example, so it torqued me.
Anywho, enough of that for now. Turn in next week to read about more game playing and teaching. HORRAY!!!
~Brandon
Day #6 - I'm being taught games again?
Day #6 - Final day of teaching "familiar games"
Games Played - Bohnanza, Cuarenta
Alright, so On a final day of "What game do I kind of know how to teach" Mr Bryan taught me how to play a game called Bohnanza!
Bohnanza is a game where you have to "plant bean" cards, and then once you have enough of them you may harvest them for points. You may only have 2 fields and you may only play the top card in your hand. It was fun, especially after I stopped shuffling the cards in my hand, the game had a nice amount of restrictiveness but not so much where I wasn't able to enjoy playing. Plus it allows for copious amounts of table talk, and I always love that.
We also "learned" a card game called Cuarenta. I say "learned" because my group ended up playing to completely wrong the entire day. For some reason, our table thought that whenever you took a match, you'd get 2 points, not just when you immediately matched. So that lead to much confusion, and ended up being sort of annoying as we attempted to play the game.
Anywho, that was day #6, not a ton happened, but It was still fun. Tune in next time for our "Cuarenta" Tournament!!!
~Brandon
Games Played - Bohnanza, Cuarenta
Alright, so On a final day of "What game do I kind of know how to teach" Mr Bryan taught me how to play a game called Bohnanza!
Bohnanza is a game where you have to "plant bean" cards, and then once you have enough of them you may harvest them for points. You may only have 2 fields and you may only play the top card in your hand. It was fun, especially after I stopped shuffling the cards in my hand, the game had a nice amount of restrictiveness but not so much where I wasn't able to enjoy playing. Plus it allows for copious amounts of table talk, and I always love that.
We also "learned" a card game called Cuarenta. I say "learned" because my group ended up playing to completely wrong the entire day. For some reason, our table thought that whenever you took a match, you'd get 2 points, not just when you immediately matched. So that lead to much confusion, and ended up being sort of annoying as we attempted to play the game.
Anywho, that was day #6, not a ton happened, but It was still fun. Tune in next time for our "Cuarenta" Tournament!!!
~Brandon
Friday, January 17, 2014
Day #4-5 - Time to Learn Some Games!
Day #4-5 - The Great student to student teaching session
Games Played: San Juan, Carcassonne & Rook
After teaching an interesting round of killer bunnies, to some classmates, I got to sit back and enjoy learning a couple of new games.
First, I played a game called San Juan. It's a Victory point game, where you build building with your cards that give you different abilities and points. It was a little confusing at first, but after a couple of turns of the game I got the hang of it.
Second, I played Carcassonne, which is a "map building" game, where ever turn a player would flip a tile and add it too the already formed board. For each road, castle, or monastery you completed, you would receive points, and the one who had the most points when we ran out of tiles, wins. I didn't mind this game, thou it was a pain attempting to play, since we did not know what any of the tiles looked like in advance, or forming strategies was a bit tricky.
Third was rook, a trick taking card game that reminded me of hearts. That games was alright, but after a couple of rounds I was pretty bored with it.
Anywho, that was what I played today! Tune in next time to hear more about tactician!
~Brandon
Games Played: San Juan, Carcassonne & Rook
After teaching an interesting round of killer bunnies, to some classmates, I got to sit back and enjoy learning a couple of new games.
First, I played a game called San Juan. It's a Victory point game, where you build building with your cards that give you different abilities and points. It was a little confusing at first, but after a couple of turns of the game I got the hang of it.
Second, I played Carcassonne, which is a "map building" game, where ever turn a player would flip a tile and add it too the already formed board. For each road, castle, or monastery you completed, you would receive points, and the one who had the most points when we ran out of tiles, wins. I didn't mind this game, thou it was a pain attempting to play, since we did not know what any of the tiles looked like in advance, or forming strategies was a bit tricky.
Third was rook, a trick taking card game that reminded me of hearts. That games was alright, but after a couple of rounds I was pretty bored with it.
Anywho, that was what I played today! Tune in next time to hear more about tactician!
~Brandon
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Day #3 - A Special Guest!
Class #3 -Guest Speakers!
Games Played: Blokus
Well it's already Day 3 for Games in Community, and we had two special guest speakers come on by and talk about some games they have made. Mr. Phil Chase and Greg Bush stopped on by to talk about the process of game making.
Listening to these two gentlemen talk about the process of game designing, it reminded me a lot of music writing. Occasionally you get some crazy good inspiration, but most of the time things get done by "putting your face to the grindstone." If you think you have something decent, show it to other people, and get some feedback. Honest feedback, not just, "Oh yea, it was good...."
Taking some of their ideas, I set out to start working on my project, code name: Tactician. More to come on that later!
Anywho, Time for a good night's sleep, and on to teaching how to play Killer Bunnies, woot!
~Brandon
Well it's already Day 3 for Games in Community, and we had two special guest speakers come on by and talk about some games they have made. Mr. Phil Chase and Greg Bush stopped on by to talk about the process of game making.
Listening to these two gentlemen talk about the process of game designing, it reminded me a lot of music writing. Occasionally you get some crazy good inspiration, but most of the time things get done by "putting your face to the grindstone." If you think you have something decent, show it to other people, and get some feedback. Honest feedback, not just, "Oh yea, it was good...."
Taking some of their ideas, I set out to start working on my project, code name: Tactician. More to come on that later!
Anywho, Time for a good night's sleep, and on to teaching how to play Killer Bunnies, woot!
~Brandon
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Day #2 - Settlers of Catan!
Class #2 - Settlers of Catan
Games Played: Settlers of Catan
I have a bit of a history with settlers, spending most of my time in Youth group (ages 15 to 18), and a lot of my freshman and sophomore years at Calvin (19 to 20), I had eventually learned to get very annoyed with the game. From getting locked on the board, losing half my cards to the robber when i needed them most, or a surprising come from behind win from another player just as I was about to take the game, I was pretty sure that I never wanted to play Settlers of Catan ever again.
Well flashing forward 3 years,and here I was about to once again Embark on an exciting adventure in Catan, and I can say, I enjoyed my return trip. My group played 2 games, 1 regular (as a "quick" refresher round) and one with teams. The teams round was a lot of fun, since It had a couple of custom rules we added in to change it up. Such as rolling a 7 = one free resource for all, and you could only trade blindly with your partner.
So despite all the potential for unpleasantness, I actually had a ton of fun (and won both games too boot). Hopefully next class can be just as enjoyable!
~Brandon
Monday, January 13, 2014
Day #1 - Meet your fellow gamers!
Class #1 - Intro
Games Played: Apples to Apples, Perudo & Pictures and
Propositions
It's our first day of class, and since it's a games class...what's better than a set of "get to know each other games" to help us break the ice.
We started off with Perudo, a dice game where you bluff to win! After a few go arounds, it was cool to see how each person started to "come out of their shell." Mr. David took over as the games leader, Jason turned out to be the "quiet type" who was in the lead for most of the game, and I seemed to take the role of group, "Antagonizer"
After that, we played a round of Apples to Apples where I learned about who is more, "serious" and "funny" showed through. We had a round where "Hillary Clinton," did not auto-win the category it was placed in.
Finally, we played Pictures and Propositions. It might have just
been because it was near the end of the class for my group, but I cannot say I cared much for the game. It was fun to joke around and see how the messages would be distorted along the way, but other than that it just seemed like a bunch of "sitting around" with little pay off at the end.
All in all thou, it was a fun first day. I'm very excited what sort of things I'll get to experience in this class. Until Next time
~Brandon
~Brandon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)