Well, the good times continue at the Gathering of Friends....

Last night my friends Al Leduc (designer of Frankendie), Jay Cormier (co-designer of Belfort + Train of Thought), and I (designer of no games published) were looking to play a game in the late hours and noticed a person sitting solo. So we decided to ask him to join us in a 4-player game of Hanabi. Its a great game with a completely unique game experience. It uses an interesting interpretation of making a co-operative game impossible to be dominated by a single player. I personally love the game. I had tried Hanabi one time before, at a cottage with a bunch of board game designer friends (Game Artisans of Canada invite-only event, "Cardstockawa"). The game is all about giving each other clues, however collectively the players have very limited clues to give. The main way to win the game, is when the clues you are giving say more in what you dont say. However, you have to trust others will interpret what you dont say, the same way as you intend. Brilliant game with a simple ruleset.

Vlaada & Jay thinking about Hanabi

I guess I left out one awesome details from my story above. Who was the 4th player?! None other than Vlaada Chvatil (designer of: Through the Ages, Space Alert, Galaxy Trucker, Dungeon Lords, Dungeon Pets, & Mage Knight, but to mention a few). To put that in perspective: he has designed 2 of the top 9 all-time designed boards games on the planet right now (according to boardgamegeek.com)

Jay, Chris, Matt, Vlaada, & my belly (Daryl)

And I guess we didnt play too poorly because Vlaada decided to play another game with us today. This time Vlaada Chvatil joined us in a game of Cinque Terre designed by Chris Handy. He also decided to join us and play the game too. I got to hang out with Chris a couple days ago and do dinner with him & Jay, so it was great to finally get to try his game out. Cinque Terre is a game I know not only will my wife love, but so will Eric (main writer here on deathofmonopoly). It was super fun and simple to understand, but difficult to master. A game all about efficiency. Ofcourse Vlaada beat us all. However, Matt Tolman (game designer of 2014 - news still coming) made a massive comeback and only lost by 5 points (I lost by 35 points). Here is one last picture of the colourful board of Cinque Terre. Doesnt the score track around the border just make you want to smile?!

read more about the game at: http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/18733/designer-diary-cinque-terre-or-finally-fruition