FanExpo in Toronto...

This weekend I will be working at FanExpo at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in downtown Toronto. It is an enormous sci-fi, fantasy, horror, comic, and video gaming convention. Total geekfest. My partner is a graphic artist so we will be selling shirts and prints in the Festival of Fear section. If you're curious, you can check out his blog here and artwork here.

Why am I writing this in my "gaming" blog? Well, there is a HUGE board gaming section! Lots of game retailers everywhere to find obsure copies of things and an open game section run by the Toronto Gamers, I think, where you can play to your heart's content. I'm hoping I can sneak away from the booth for a game or two....

If you're at the convention, stop by and say hello!

Dominion: Seaside preview....

New details on the Rio Grande website about Dominion: Seaside. Turns out the new mechanic introduced involves setting up following turns with cards from the current turn:

Its central theme is your next turn; there are cards that do something this turn and next, cards that set up your next turn, and other ways to step outside of the bounds of a normal turn.

Interesting...

Happy 60th, Candy Land....

This was brought to my attention from one of my favourite gay bloggers, Joe My God...
The enormous Candy Land game was set up on Lombard Street, a twisty street in San Francisco. So cool! More photos and info can be seen here.

Mississippi confusion...

Just had a game of Mississippi Queen, the Game of the Year from 1997. In the game, turn order is determined by the player "furthest ahead". In most cases this is easy enough to determine. However, there are moments where the river snakes in a semi-circle and then it is really hard to determine. One player can be farther back by a number of spaces but still be ahead according to the rules and vice-versa. The rules translation doesn't help much at all. Anyone have the same problem? Any suggestions?

The Ticket to Ride family of games...

I spent the last couple weeks with my family playing endless games of many different versions of Ticket to Ride. It is a combination of graph connection, racing, and good old-fashioned rummy and, in my opinion, it is the best game that has been released in the last two decades. It has tons of strategy, endless suspense, and a big old hefty dose of luck. It is very nearly perfect, in my mind. It also has 9 different editions available so I thought I'd give a little opinion on the 7 that I have played in honour of the Europa 1912 edition arriving later this year....

Ticket To Ride (Original USA edition)

The first TTR is also the simplest and best introduction for people new to the game. In short, you collect sets of coloured cards which you use to claim coloured routes between different cities. What makes the game interesting are the tickets you take which you must try and fulfill. Each ticket has a point value and gives two cities which you must try and connect with an unbroken chain of trains. Here's the thing: if you don't make the ticket, you LOSE the number of points you could have made. And this is what makes the game so deliciously fun. Should I try to take more tickets? What if I don't get one that I can make.

This version is enormously enjoyable and I still play it, although I have practically memorized the tickets. But that's where the next expansion comes in....

USA 1910 Expansion

So once you get tired of the original USA map or feel like you've memorized all the tickets, this is your solution. This is a whole new set of tickets (and another set of train cards in case yours are worn out). Two more variants can be played, Big Cities, which has tickets each of which connects to one of only 6 cities on the board. Fiercely competitive and a bit much for me. The Mega Game combines all the old and new tickets to breathe new life into the original. And it works. Although, the map is the same the routes feel totally different. I love this one and play it online all the time.

Ticket to Ride: The Mystery Train Expansion

An afterthought, really. Some new tickets and some special cards but not worth the investment. Adds some more randomness to the game but doesn't really change much. Meh.

Ticket to Ride: Europe

I must admit my first impression of this wasn't very good. It felt a little too different from the original for my tastes. I now own it and play it regularly. The major changes introduced here are the tunnels which add an element of uncertainty as to whether you actually can claim a route at all and the stations which let you borrow other people's routes to complete your own tickets. This is a great one if you're a fan of the series and wanna try something a little different.

Ticket to Ride: Marklin Edition

My absolute favourite in the series and also the most derided by many of the fans. The map is in Germany and the gameplay is pretty similar to the original except for one thing: passengers. Each player has three passengers which can one trip around the board on that player and sometimes other player's routes. At each city, the passenger picks up point tokens of strictly decreasing value. This adds much more to the decision-making and a delightfully agonizing element of timing. It also adds to the play-time but I could care less since this version feels like a true gamer's game that I can still play with Mom. Great, great, great.

Ticket to Ride: Switzerland Expansion

Probably my least favourite game of the series but still fun. It requires the original set as it is only a map and tickets. This one is only for 2-3 players and includes ferries, tunnels, and countries to connect to. Less interaction, though, but since you only play with 40 trains it is a bit quicker.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries

If it didn't just play for 2-3 players, this complete game would easily be my favourite in the series. With ferries, tunnels, and special rules for the locomotives, this map is challenging. Add to this the nasty interaction between the players produced in this one, and you have a great, very tense game. And the artwork and colour choices are easily the best in the series which is an added bonus!

Ticket to Ride: The Card Game

I have yet to pick this one up, although I imagine it is fun (I trust Alan Moon). Part of the reason is that it seems similar to two games I already have and don't play enough of: Mamma Mia and Union Pacific. The memory element seems similar to Mamma Mia and the rules for the laying down of cards is reflective of some older Moon games like Get The Goods or Union Pacific. I'm sure I'll own this eventually but with my game budget, there are higher priorities right now. Any opinions?

Ticket to Ride: The Dice Expansion

Blasphemy, some might say. Take any complete TTR game and remove all the train cards. From here on in, route colours don't matter. Instead you roll special train dice Yahtzee-style to try and claim routes, tunnels, and ferries. I have not tried this as the idea makes me kinda nervous. The appeal of TTR for my family is the rummy-style card gathering. Not sure if this would go over very well but some of the reviews are positive. Not on my wish-list yet...

Family gaming across the country...

So I've been playing Ticket To Ride Online for a few months now. Since I've been back visiting Mom, we 've probably played 10-12 real live games. I expect at least two more live games before I leave tomorrow. My sister actually decided to install the game on her computer and that prompted me to install it on my mother's, as well. Two nights ago they played against each other in different towns and my family was hooked.

Next step: get my brother to download it in Victoria so the four of us can play against each other. I imagine some late nights as I'll be three hours ahead but it'll be worth it just for us to play TTR again in four different cities in two different provinces. Very cool.

The ones left behind....

When I moved from BC to Ontario three years ago, I had to say goodbye to a LOT of games. I gave some away that I never played and stored the rest at a dear friend's place where they have stayed. So every visit home is a bit of a gaming pilgrimage. I bring one big suitcase with me and leave with two. This trip I grabbed a few favourites like Mississippi Queen, Union Pacific, San Marco, Through the Desert, and the fantastic Tonga Bonga.

However, this barely made a dent in what is left. I still had to leave such great games as Star Wars: Queen's Gambit (which is worth a ton now!), Tyranno Ex, New England, Medieval Merchant, and the great Civilization. I'll just have to leave these ones till next time....

Gaming memorial....

This past weekend my extended family on my mother's side got together for my grandmother's funeral. My mother has had a rough two years as my grandfather passed away last year as well at the ripe old age of 82. He was an ornery, stubborn old bastard who died the way he lived: on his own without the help of others.

One great memory I have of grandpa are evenings playing Rummoli at the table in is his lttle home in Riondel, B.C. If you haven't played Rummoli yet, don't. It is a bland, entirely luck-based mix of poker and rummy. It fails to excite and it lacks all control, HOWEVER it can be played with money. And this is why I remember it so fondly as a kid. The different pay pots would fill with cash and when you played the right card you would gather all the cash. When we played, grandpa would seed these pots with real money instead of just pennies. Loonies, toonies, and sometimes these disgusting licorice all-sorts that we'd trade with our mother for cash (she was the only one who liked them).

This past Saturday night, my sister organized a memorial game of Rummoli with us and the relatives. We didn't really get to say goodbye to grandpa so this worked just fine. She bought the licorice and brought the pennies and just to celebrate the old man, she seeded the pay pots with shots of Crown Royal - his favourite. Everytime someone went out first or collected a big pot they had to share a grandpa story before they downed the shot. Strange but somehow it seemed appropriate. It's funny how these classic games seem to tie families together, whether it be Yahtzee or Rummoli or even Ticket To Ride. The point, I suppose, is that despite him being gone, we still play on and the memories remain in the cards.

Then the next day we buried our grandmother beside her parents. Lovely woman who I remember having a fondness for jewellry and little plastic horse. May they both rest in peace.

That's all for now, I'm gonna go spend some quality time with my mother who is happy to have family around right now. We're gonna play Ticket to Ride, her favourite....