M, J, A, and I haven't had the chance to game with each other for a month. We finally got together to play Mutagen. I came in last because I made a poor strategic decision at the beginning of the game, pursuing victory points in a different way than the other players. By the time I understood…
The year 2026 marks the quintricennial anniversary of my first participation in the world of Wicca. For those whose Latin is rusty (certainly I'm now more versed in Klingon) that means I've been part of the Craft for 35 years. If you believe the marketing of the jewelry companies, that makes it either my coral or my…
While Baldur's Gate 3 is still the video game that currently commands most of my attention, there's another game I've played occasionally since 2016: No Man's Sky. I've spent about 650 hours in NMS over the past decade. It comes in third in terms of the amount of time I've spent in a single video game, behind…
M, J, A, and I had a relatively short game night. That's because we played two relatively short games relatively quickly (at least for us). The first game was Take A Seat. Instead of being a "roll and write" game, this is a "share and write" game. It involves writing on dry-erase boards. Unfortunately, I completely forgot…
If a picture has a blue border, it's a link. You can click on it to learn (maybe) the context of the image. If you've kept track (and there's no reason why you should), you may be puzzled by the mention of an 18th playthrough when I haven't written about playthroughs 15, 16, or 17. I'll save…
Last night, I played Gnome Hollow with A, J, and M. I enjoyed Gnome Hollow. However, it's not without its issues. I already mentioned the need for table space, not unlike Leaf. The game is subject to quite a bit of "analysis paralysis"; the box cover says "45 minutes" and we took three hours. That's an expansion…
As I've played and discussed Baldur's Gate 3 with both Real Angela and Actual Sabrina, the subject of "dice checks" often comes up. Their interest comes from different places. Actual Sabrina is new to gaming, and is learning how die-rolling works. Real Angela is an experienced gamer, and wants to understand how a flat bonus compares with…
M and A had received a special edition of the classic board game Puerto Rico. We looked at this edition, with beautiful new artwork, board design, minis with separate sculpts based on player count, and so on. However, J pointed out that none of us really knew the rules. The suggested time on the side of the…
Last night was the first time that M, A, J, and I were able to play as a group since just before Thanksgiving. It was good to get back into the groove again. Speaking of "back into the groove": Last night was also one of failed references on my part. Would you believe that the others are…
I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 with Actual Sabrina for a few weeks now. I've labeled this "playthrough 1/16": Her first playthrough, and my sixteenth. She's new to video games, and to the "Gygaxian" rules systems associated with both BG3 and D&D. To help her out, I pointed her to the "rules tangents" I included in some…