Idiots

Idiots. Idiots. Idiots. Friggin' dense morons. Willfully obtuse. Forget about. I can't be bothered.

Big Box o' Games

Our order from Superhero Gameland arrived today. I love the name of that store - Superhero Gameland, it sounds like geek Six Flags. Al and Z were all "Oooh and Ahhh," over Under the Shadow of the Dragon. It looks very cool. The artwork on the new tiles is beautiful. Z went crazy over the new Hobbit character and the unicorn. My job is to read the rules and teach them, how to play.

I've started putting index cards with notes into our games, since I'm the one who has to remember all the set-up rules, and all the little niggly rules. I'll have to make one for Return of the Heroes, since the expansion adds a few easily forgotten rules.

In other dragon related news, my mom went to the library to pick up a book she had reserved. When she got there, she discovered that it was the wrong book. She came home with a book that contains the first three books of the Dragonriders of Pern series. She is most of the way through the first book. She likes it, but finds it a bit confusing. I guess it would be confusing if you thought you were reading an historical romance.

She was saying, "I just don't understand what all this dread stuff is, and now they are going back in time, and there are dragons and golden eggs."

"It's not dread, mom. It's thread, " I told her.

I find this amusing. My mom is turning into a fantasy geek in her retirement. I told her that when she finishes the books she has to come over and play Dragonriders of Pern with me. She just rolled her eyes. She's one of those people that can never remember game rules, although she plays Rummy constantly.

Evo

I found a dusty, marked down copy of Evo hidden behind a copy of Descent at a comic & game store this weekend. When we went to pay for it, the clerk said, "I've been working here for years and have never seen this game." It's really easy to lose a game or two behind those coffin sized FFG games. The clerk was a really sweet guy. He even let me use the bathroom, although he wasn't supposed to. Nice beard too.

I think that I really like Evo. I usually don't like bidding games, but the bidding mechanic in Evo is more like playing chicken than like bidding. I'm pretty good at playing chicken. I also find most spawning games fascinating. Francie hated it. I think that was mostly because my three horned green dinos kept munching her soft, weak, one-horned pink dinos. I think that she also didn't quite grasp the climate change probability factor. Al crushed the both of us. I want to play again, but we need to find a third player. Maybe I'll bring it to game night on Thursday.

Tikal

We played Tikal for the first time this weekend. I didn't think it was as terrible as KingPut thought I would. It does have pretty colors and treasure. The language independant player aid amused me. "This turn, I'm going to shovel a circle and jump a tent." I crushed Al and Francie, by at least 20 points. Unfortunately, this is another one of those puzzle games that I'm good at, but which doesn't amuse me. It's about as much fun as writing the logic section of the GMAT exam. Where are the restless natives with poison darts and the snake pits?

Buying Games

Francie has been bugging me to place a game order because she wants Tikal and Colosseum. So, while biking on Saturday, we all finally agreed on what we wanted to order. After we finished biking, I stopped at Tuesday Mornings to pick up a vacuum cleaner. What do I see? Tikal for $15. So I picked it up for Francie. That threw off the game order because we didn't make the minimum for free shipping. I was going to bag the order until after WBC, but Al and Z really, really wanted Under the Shadow of the Dragon and Francie and S really, really wanted Colosseum. So, with Al's blessing, I returned the vacuum cleaner, and added the Arkham Horror - Dunwich Horror Expansion (Yay!) to our part of the order to make the free shipping. You gotta' love a man that says "Screw the carpet. Get the games."

Hell Rail

Finally taught Francie Hell Rail tonight, and she loved it. I knew that she would. It is a good little half hour, portable game for her. Although she did point out that, unfortunately she probably couldn't play it with her daughter, due to the fact that she really didn't want to have to explain what all the different sins were. I don't particularly care for Hell Rail. It is too much of a puzzle game for my taste. I just really enjoy introducing someone to a game I know that they will like.