Note of the Living Deb

I'm curating (decluttering) my board game collection and you and yours gets dibs! (The rest go to Half Price.)

In case you might be interested in games you've never heard of, I have a description of each game and, where possible, a link to Board Game Geek's entry on the game. I included the date because board games from my childhood are mostly pretty terrible, unless maybe you're a little kid who loves the theme or you're creative enough to make up way better rules or a whole different kind of creation. The games are listed alphabetically, but that's not particularly helpful, so you might also try searching for any of these tags that I've added:
* cooperative
* deck building
* deduction
* kids
* resource management
* semi-cooperative (one against everyone else)
* simulation
* strategy

Car Wars (Deluxe Edition, revised)
(1985, Steve Jackson Games)

Some kind of demolition derby meets D&D game. It looks complicated.


Dominion
(2008, 2-4 players, 30 minutes, age 13+)
* deck building

Perhaps the original deck building game, you start with some minorly useful cards in your hand. For each game ten of the many available specialty decks are chosen and you can buy those cards to enhance your hand. The number of combinations makes the game quite re-playable. In theory.

Unfortunately for me, this is one of those games where it's fun to get all these cards that let you do stuff, but you only win the game by collecting cards that are useless. In other words, there are fun cards and victory point cards, and winning mostly involves switching over from collecting the first kind of card to the second kind of card at just the right time.


Empires in Arms
(1983, Avalon Hill, 2-7 players, 2-200 hours, age 14+)
* simulation

Experience the Napoleanic Wars first hand by actually immersing yourself in the situation and making decisions. Ideally you play this with 7 players over multiple weeks like D&D. Each person plays a country, and each country has different strengths and weaknesses. There is both combat and diplomacy.

I loved simulation games in school, and I got this because I heard good things about Avalon Hill games, but I seem to never get around to playing it.


Forbidden Island
(2010, 2-4 players, 30 minutes, age 10+)
* cooperative

We've been shipwrecked. You need to collect the four treasures, get everyone to the helicopter pad and take a helicopter to safety before the island sinks. Each player has different useful skills.

This is one of my favorite cooperative games. It's a lot like Forbidden Desert, but I decided it was more fun for some reason. But like most cooperative games, I find it a bit stressful.


Get Lucky
(2014, Cheapass Games, 2-6 players, 20 minutes, age 12+)

Dr. Lucky has enemies, and he has inadvertently invited a bunch of them to his mansion. So the bad news is they all want to kill him. The good news is they all want to kill him first, so they will try to prevent other people's murders.

You play a couple of the characters. On each turn you can draw a card, play a card to add or perfect a motive, a weapon, or an opportunity for one of your characters to strengthen them, or to attempt murder. If you attempt murder, other players must discard cards until your power is surpassed or your attempt succeeds and you win. If you are the first player to block the murder, you are tempted to not worry about it and let the other players deal with it. So it has a press-your-luck vibe that I don't really like.

I love the character portraits and the humor on the flavor text.


Investigators: A Cooperative Detective Game
(1989, Family Pastimes, ages 8+, no entry in Board Game Geek)
* cooperative
* kids

This is like a cooperative version of Clue, and it's set up so you don't have to have a good memory or take notes. Just go around the board picking up clues and red herrings and stumbling across and eliminating (or ignoring) road blocks.

My favorite part is you have to explain how your M.O's can be used to eliminate the obstacles. For example, my "tool kit" can be used to deal with this "locked safe" because I have lock picks in there.

This is only one step up from board games of the 1960s, where you go around the board hoping you get good dice rolls. It can get real old when you can't figure out how to escape, say, a drugged drink with a disguise and it takes the other player(s) forever to get to a go-anywhere space so they can rescue you. (Once they do, you can thank them with some of the cash you weren't spending by not having turns.) Also, like many cooperative games, it's not super easy to win, but it's not as depressing as most. Like most games, it is improved with storytelling along the way rather just rolling and going. Like most games for ages 8+, it's not fun enough for my tastes.

I found this in a cute shop in Seattle ages ago, and it's from a Canadian Company that's so nice! They make only cooperative games made of non-toxic and recycled materials. And they are still in business! So I love them, but I just don't love this game.


Masterpiece
(1970, 3-6 players, 1 hour, age 10+)

Each player is a snooty art investor, buying and selling fabulous paintings at auction. The actual value of the painting is clipped to the back of the painting--only the owner can see the true value (including whether it is a forgery of no value at all). When all the paintings are sold, whoever's paintings are worth the most in total is the winner.

The cool part is that the paintings are all nice reproductions of real paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago.


Mysterium
(2015, 2-7 players, 40 minutes, age 10+)

One player is the ghost of a murder victim; the others are mediums who try to figure out what happened based on pictoral clues. I think the more, the merrier with this game. I like it okay when someone else is hosting (the ghost), but it feels too much like mind reading is required, which is not my thing.


Once Upon a Time (2nd edition)
(1995, 2-6 players, 30 minutes, age 8+)

Start with a hand of a few cards. Some cards have a story element such as a character, a location, or an event. Some can be used to "interrupt" those elements. You also have one story ending card. The first player starts telling a story, trying to include the story elements they have and to steer toward the ending they have. Meanwhile, if they mention a story element someone else has, that person can play their card and take over the story telling (and then the first person would have to draw an additional card). You can also take over the story by using an interrupt card with the same element (such as "king") or the same type of element (such as "character") as a card the storyteller has just played. The first player to get rid of all their cards, ending with the ending card, is the winner. Ideally everyone's the winner because it's a fun story.

I'm not a good storyteller. And I'm not good with negotiating whether someone's card is an important enough element of their story to be able to count or whatever. I have enjoyed round-robin stories, though, so if you wanted to play this with me, I would do it. I just warn you that my part of the story would probably be kind of boring.


Primoridal Soup (aka Ursuppe)
(1997, 3-4 players, 90 minutes, age 12+)
* simulation

Play an amoeboid species as members of its population are born, move, feed, adapt to changes in the environment, and die. With life experience, you can acquire new members or new genes that can improve your control, efficiency, defense, etc.

I found this game interesting and fun the first few times, but there's a learning curve figuring out what all the possible genes do and which combinations are best, and getting serious about that made this game less fun for me.


Scotland Yard
(1983, 2-6 players, 45 minutes, age 10+)
* deduction
* semi-cooperative

One player controls Mr. X, on the run from the other player(s), who control the five detectives. All use fare tickets to move by taxi, bus, etc. The detectives can generally see which transportation type Mr. X is using and occasionally, at known times, his location. Mr. X can always see where all the detectives are and can hear them talking.

I'm not sure I've ever played this game. I would happily play with you if you wanted, but I don't think it's really my thing anymore.

I have the older edition. Its map has the cartoonish buildings, the fare tickets are quite plain, and the player tokens are clear, so you can sort of see the transportation stations through them (picture here).


Secrets of the Tombs
(2003, 35 players, 30 minutes, age 8+)
* kids

Seek paths through an Egyptian pyramid (collect and place path tiles), follow them (rolling dice to move yourself and or the Egyptian god Ammut) to artifact chambers (pre-laid tiles) where you can pick up 1 - 3 artifacts (cards). Discover 5 chambers or collect 12 artifacts and escape the pyramid first to win! Meanwhile Ammut has been awakened, makes his way to the pyramid and then looks for people to fight. And some path tiles trigger events (draw an event card).

This game is beautiful. And each artifact card has a wonderful illustration of a real artifact and a long description. All of which you ignore in the game because all you care about is whether there are symbols in the corners that mean that Ammut moves or you lose a life point. And the events all involve gaining or losing a life point, so they get boring quickly.

I think I would have loved this game as a kid because of the theme but now, not so much.


Shadows in Kyoto
(2017, 2 players, 15-30 minutes, age 10+)
* deduction
* strategy

Play a government group or a spy group, trying to gather intelligence from your opponent while keeping your intelligence safe. Win by capturing 2 enemy agents who possess real intelligence, letting your opponent capture 3 of your agents who possess fake intelligence, or by having one of your agents escape with real intelligence.

This game is beautiful, small, and set in Japan.

This is too much of an abstract strategy game for my tastes.


Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases
(1982, 1-8 players, 60-120 minutes, age 13+)
Also, these supplements:
* The Queen's Park Affair (1984)
* Adventures by Gas Light (1986)
* deduction

Not technically a board game, somehow you go through a list of clues, a map, a newspaper, and a directory, making notes and wracking your brain to deduce what's going on. The main game has ten cases. I've never played. Maybe sort of like those Infocom games?


Splendor
(2014, 2-4 players, 30 minutes, age 10+)
* kids
* resource management

A beautiful game now considered a classic. Collect gem cards. Each one lets you reduce your cost by one gem of the type shown. So why not buy just the cheap ones? Because they don't give you any prestige points, which is what you actually need to win.

I would happily play this game with you if you bought it. It's just not a favorite. Except for how pretty it is.


Spooks
(2003, Steve Jackson Games, 3-6 players, 10 minutes, age 12+)

This is a trick-taking game with cool pictures. I mean, the suits are spiders, ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and bats. Each suit has a special rule and the top card in each suit has a special power.

I haven't played it. It sounds sort of like Uno but with bit more strategizing.


Spy Alley
(1992, 2-6 players, 45 minutes, age 8+)
* deduction

Each player is a different nationality; each nationality needs to collect different things to win. But if someone guesses your nationality first, they win, so you have to get stuff you don't need, too, to fool your opponents.

I have not played this. It seems ancient and sounds like not my kind of game with the bluffing and player elimination.


Star Munchkin
(2002, Steve Jackson Games, 3-6 players, 90 minutes, age 10+)
Also the expansion:
* Star Munchkin 2 (2004)

This is a space-themed Munchkin card game with very silly characters and drawings. You fight monsters for treasure. This is one of those games where you need other people's help and also you need to stab them in the back, so it's not really my thing.


Stock Market Guru
(1997, Avalon Hill, 1-10 players, 2 hours, age 10+)
* simulation

Buy and sell stocks in the game's ten companies over the course of ten turns (years) in an attempt to acquire the most money at the end of the game.

I got this because I liked simulation games in school and heard good things about Avalon Hill games. I tried the base game a couple of times. (They also have historical scenarios you can use.) The game play is pretty satisfying but the disconnect from reality is disconcerting. Some of the things this game showed me:
* As with all stock market games, choosing the best stock and holding it works best, but you can't know what the best stock is. So diversifying works better than guessing wrong. [In real life, it can be pretty obvious that specific companies will probably do well and others are doomed, at least in the long term. But when you are clueless, maximizing diversity does work best (index funds have higher returns than a huge percentage of managed funds).]
* When buying and selling only once a year, the fees you pay don't matter. (In real life, that's probably true for one-time fees, but not for annual fees.)
* You can't just buy one stock or bond; you have to buy in groups of ten. (This sort of limitation is not as true as it once was, but any fees are usually a much bigger percentage of your purchase if you buy a small amount.)
* Any stock tips you get do not matter compared whether the market is a bull or a bear and compared to all the other random factors you aren't getting tips about. (In real life, acting on information the public doesn't know is illegal, and acting on information you get from paid advisors is risky. For example, brokers are incentivized to recommend stocks that give them a higher income and companies that have any S&P 500 index funds are incentivized to tell their other clients bad things about any new stocks that make it into this index (and that they are going to have to buy a lot of).
* Buying low and selling high doesn't work because the low-cost things will usually continue going down and vice versa. Well, that's what happened in the two games I played. (I'm sure this is true sometimes, but there are also cycles.)
* You can have a bull market or bear market for the entire ten years. (Rare.)
* When interest rates go up, bond values go down. (True.)
* Even in a bear market, most stock prices go up, just not as much. (Is that true? Maybe it is if you look at a whole year at a time.)
* When a stock splits, each stock keeps paying the same dividend amount (nope, the dividend would be split, too--but I can't imagine how they'd do it right and still have the game work)
* When a company goes bankrupt, you lose all the stocks you have in it without compensation. And then the company sells new stocks at a new price. (That's basically true.)


Total Depth
(1984, 2-5 players, 2 hours, age 12+)
* simulation

I do not have the instructions and cannot find them online. So I'm only listing this game on the very off chance that someone has or remembers the rules and is missing other parts or something.

Prospect for oil, hoping to strike it rich--first millionaire is the winner, but you may go bankrupt first. I think a lot of luck is involved, like in real life.


Whosit
(1976, Parker Brothers, 2-6, 45 minutes, age ~7+)
* deduction
* kids

This is a game from my childhood that I used to like. You each choose one character, play question cards to ask yes/no questions about the other characters until you figure out who they are. One character always lies, one always says no, one can answer however he wants. When you guess, the other players sneak their chip into the right or wrong side of a box. If all are in the right side, you win!

Unfortunately one of the traits you're guessing about is race and one is gender and it just feels squicky now. Probably I should just destroy it.

FYI, this game has been "reimplemented" as Dinosaur Tea Party with no race issues at all.

Often when I pay for things I want to get the maximum use out of them. But this time I decided to relax instead of trying to participate in as many hours of Board Game Bash as possible. I went home at a reasonable hour the night before, slept as long as I wanted, and got a few things done around the house before returning.

The goodie bag I got on the way out had lots of delicious junk food. I brought the so-called granola bar (some type of candy with peanuts on top) with me. As I approached the hotel, I was suddenly starving, so I ate that bar on my way there before entering.

First I played Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards which was an extremely ugly game, but quite fun. It's a card game, and you build a spell out of up to three cards. Then our hosts explained that they have a rule that when you cast your spell, you have to do it in a wizard voice. I didn't know what they meant, but melodramatic went over well.

All spells have three parts, and if you don't have a card for each part, you have to make up your own name for that part. These names were pretty amusing, such as Professor Presto's Two-Faced Cone of Acid or Ben Voodoo's Boulder-Iffic Bedazzlement.

Then each card tells you stuff that happens, some of which involves getting to use additional cards. There's definitely some strategizing, but there are also a lot of things you just can't know so it also feels random. Mostly it's just silly fun.

I think this is the point at which I joined T&S and we played Glory To Rome. This is another building/resource management game, but each card has several uses and you have to choose just one. The goal is to construct buildings and collect resources, but it feels like just collecting points.

The particular game we played had too many insta-win cards that came up early in the game, so it didn't last as long as we all decided it should have. And I didn't pay attention to the other players' strategies as well as I should have (which is common for me, especially the first time I played a game), but it was good fun while it lasted.

Next we played Gravwell, a beautiful game with hilarious laws of physics involving gravity and black holes. It plays out like a short, oddly random Robo Rally type game--you decide ahead of time whether you're trying to move closer to or further from the nearest gravity source or pull all sources closer to you, but this can result in quite different actions depending on where those gravity sources end up by the time it's time for your action to take place (since the other players are gravity sources). And the last register is always locked! But there's also a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Then we played Salmon Run, a quite frustrating game where we salmon had to deal with strong currents, waterfalls, bears, fish hooks, and exhaustion just trying to get back home. I do feel sorry for salmon, but that game was a little too frustrating to be maximally fun.

Then S was having a craft night so she could see some more of her Austin friends and we went to that. I was very pleased with myself that I was able to fit my snacks for that (brownies plus some cheese cubes and something else I no longer remember) plus my craft (a scarf I'm knitting) into the knapsack I brought with me to the Board Game Bash. (Yes, once again I illicitly brought outside food in, in spite of eating the granola bar before entering.)

It was fun to see all the people. Also, supposedly I learned what kind of milk I want to be buying once I'm bringing home a little more money, but now I've forgotten. "Something Farms" brand. [A different] S recommended it and J has actually been to those farms. Oh well, I can ask again next time I see one of them, probably at the next craft party in two weeks.

In other news, I got to eat at my favorite Tex-Mex place for brunch today. Fortunately my favorite thing to order is soft and soggy and appropriate (the #3 combo plate with a small burrito, beef enchilada, and beans and rice). Still, the rest of the day I've been having liquids (chocolate milk and tomato soup) because it's so much less stressful. I don't feel like I'm risking hurting anything.

And supposedly I can do aerobic activity again starting today, but in reality I am easily tired. I do feel like I'm getting enough food now that that's not the problem. Just healing my little bit of damaged gums appears to be taking a lot of energy. I still got some good productivity in.

There's a version of solitaire I like. I don't know what it's called, but it's one of those games with simple rules but interesting strategies.

Set up: Lay out the cards in groups of three so that you can see each card in the pile. At the end, you will have one card--just set that one down in a one-card pile. If any aces are at the top of any of the piles, move them off the piles to form a new pile of their own.

Yes, you need a lot of space for this, and you may need to stretch a bit.

Play: You may now move only the top card in each stack, and you may move it in only one of two ways. a) Move it on top of the card with the next higher number in the same suit. b) Move it to the ace pile, on top of the card with the next lower number in the same suit.

You win the usual way: organize the cards into four piles, one for each suit, starting with the ace on the bottom and ending with the king on top, following the rules. You probabaly won't be able to do it, so...

That's round one.

For round two, gather up all the cards that are not on the ace piles, shuffle them well, set them out in new three-card piles, and continue play as before. You still probably won't be able to win, so...

Round three, the final round, is like round two, only you get one "cheat." Specifically, you may pull any card out of any pile (from any position) and use it to create a new one-card pile.

**

I really like this game and have enjoyed creating various strategies. However, I have two problems with the game: 1) That's a lot of shuffling for one game. 2) Sometimes when I deal out the cards for round three, it's obvious right away that I would need at least two "cheats" to win. So then you move right back to the shuffling again.

So I decided to try to see if I could make it into a one-round game.

Plan A: Set it up like usual, and when you're done, pull any remaining aces and twos out of their stacks and put them into the ace piles. Plus you get your one (additional) "cheat." This turns out to be way too easy (for me, anyway).

Plan B: Like Plan A, only just pull out the aces. I still win almost every single time. It's eerie just how much of a difference this small change makes over the usual rules.

(Then I started writing this post and decided to do a tiny bit more research.)

Plan C: Like Plan B, but pull the aces out before setting up your groups of three. This way you have two fewer piles and they all have a full three cards in them. I played this version four times and lost miserably each time, twice before even laying out all the cards.

Plan D: Pull out three aces. Then set out the cards in threes and go from there, using one "cheat." Or, equivalently, pull out all four aces, start with a pile of one, then lay out piles of three, and the last stack will be a pile of two. I played this version twice and won both times, but barely.

Journal entry of the day - Green Home Resources on No Debt Plan. I haven't really dived into that page yet, but there's a picture of a small building made from some giant containers and glass and wood and concrete pillars that is strangely beautiful.