board games

August Blog Challenge: Board Games

Trains

Trains

I haven’t written nearly enough this year (unless you count my news column at iSlaytheDragon.com), so I’m kickstarting my blog with my Blog Every Day in August Challenge. 

Every day this month I’ll share thoughts and photos of board games and if I’m feeling particularly cheeky or inspired, I’ll write about other topics.

But it’s all about my favorite hobby this month.

Trains

My wife and I recently became HUGE fans of Trains; we’ve played it almost a dozen times since I bought it on Memorial Day weekend. I scored a like-new copy for only $10 thanks to a Facebook gaming group and I love the fact that it’s now cost less than a dollar per play.

Trains is a basically Dominion meets Ticket to Ride. It’s a deck builder with a map, so there’s some route laying mixed in with the card-playing. I was introduced to the game by one of my weekly gaming groups and after I’d played it the first time, I thought my wife would dig it. We’d enjoyed playing Dominion and Ticket to Ride together and after we played Trains for the first time, I knew we had a new favorite.

Pictured above is the Saitama map, which was a promo given out at Gen Con 2014 (and in turn given to us by a friend). I thought it was appropriate we played this one today in honor of our country’s biggest gaming convention happening later this week.

 

100 Games

Screen Shot 2016-07-02 at 7.19.27 PM

Last week I completed my 10×10 Challenge for the year, with six months to spare. Over at boardgamegeek.com, people have been doing these challenges for years, but this was the first time I’ve tried it.

I chose to do the Normal Challenge where you pick 10 games that you’ll play 10 times each during 2016. You can swap out games if necessary to accomplish your goal, which I did several times. In the Hardcore Challenge, you’re bound to your original list and can’t change games.

After my wife bought me Dead of Winter for Christmas, I solo-played it a bunch of times at the beginning of the year, then took on the 10×10 Normal Challenge. According to the original post:

As a counterpoint to the Cult of the New, this challenge encourages people to play each game several times to explore and experience them in depth. There is no rush to find the optimum strategy on your first play, or read all of the cards beforehand. Instead, each play reveals something more and something different, you get to try various strategies, and everyone’s strategies evolve with their understanding and learning of the game. If you are tired of constantly learning new rules when running after the latest hotness, never really learning various strategies to any game, and needing to relearn the rules of old games because it’s been too long since they were played, this is the challenge for you.

At my weekly gaming groups there is always something new (or new-to-me) to play. I love trying out all of the different games and figuring out which ones would go over well with my wife and family. However, not many games get played multiple times except for fillers like No Thanks! or For Sale.

So, my list was completed thanks to all of the gaming I did with my wife and family. I’ll never tire of our game nights, especially the good-natured trash-talk that my wife and I dole out to each other. Nothing like gloating over our imaginary championship belt for whatever game we’ve most recently won.

After completing my goal I learned that I’d played 106 different games so far this year. I’m happy to say that I’ve played heavy fare like Mage Knight along with fillers like Zany Penguins. Besides the bonding time with my family, the best part about my board gaming experience this year has been making new friends at the tabletop. This alone has made the challenge worthwhile.

And I’ve got six more months to go.

Orccon 2016

Open Gaming at Orccon 2016.

Open Gaming at Orccon 2016.

I wrote about my Orccon 2016 experience  at  iSlaytheDragon.com and I wanted to add a few things here.

It’d been awhile since I was at any kind of gaming/comic/pop culture convention and Orccon was awesome. It was all about the gaming and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested in the hobby. Not only did it satisfy the hardcore gamers, but it also had plenty for the newbies.

Here are a few photos that didn’t make it in the original article.

The International Ballroom was where all of the big events and demos took place.

The Game Library had hundreds and hundreds of games to borrow.

The taco truck down the street from the convention was much better than eating at Denny’s or Carl’s Jr. The tacos de birria was delicioso!

So smart: these water dispensers were everywhere, keeping everybody well hydrated. Came in handy when my mouth was EN FUEGO after devouring a handful of spicy tacos.

My 2016 Gaming Goal

La Isla

La Isla

I’m on pace to reach my reading and writing goals for the year, so I’ve decided to add another goal: I’m going to do the 10×10 Challenge, which is to play 10 different board games 10 times each in 2016.

Last year was my re-birth as a gamer, which I wrote about it here, but it basically goes like this: after years of thinking game night meant poker, pizza, and beer, I purchased Ticket to Ride and Pandemic and I was hooked. I pored over boardgamegeek.com, devouring board game industry news and information, learning about games and the mechanics that made them go, and salivating at all of the games I wanted to PLAY RIGHT NOW.

I bought a few kid-friendly games like Zombie Dice and Castle Panic that I could play when my nieces and nephew were visiting and I was pleasantly surprised when they preferred Settlers of Catan and Dominion. My youngest niece isn’t interested in too many games yet, but she’s always up for a game of Sushi Go!, which we all happily play. My wife and stepdaughter got swept up in my obsession, too, and we had a few Gaviola Game Nights in 2015 (kudos to my wife for making a cool life-sized Instagram frame for our get-togethers).

When I wasn’t playing games with my family, I was reporting board game news for iSlaytheDragon.com and tweeting about my new hobby. I also started playing every week with a local gaming group and they introduced me to new games or we’d play classics that I’d missed. It’s been a godsend playing with these guys (and the occasional gal); I’ve learned a lot and played more games than I would’ve been able to had I just continued to buy games online, trying to learn them, and hoping that my family took to them as well.

Can I reach my goal of 10 different board games played 10 times each this year? I think so. If I don’t, though, then I know I haven’t had as much fun as I could have.

 

Day 365: We Did It!

I Blogged Every Day in 2015

I Blogged Every Day in 2015

In the words of Dora the Explorer, “We did it! We did it!”

Whew.

There were times when I didn’t think I’d finish My Quest to Blog Every Day in 2015.

I thought it would’ve been easier to blog every day. All I had to do was set an alarm to remind me to write and then I’d write. As I found out, though, that isn’t how it works. There are so many things that life throws at you every day that prevent you from writing. I even had to fudge a little on Day 49.

As I wrote yesterday, I wish I would’ve created more substantial posts. When I began this quest, I knew a few of my favorite topics would pop up now and then: fantasy sports, Star Wars, food, movies, golf, my love of the city of Los Angeles, etc. I’m proud, though, that I was able to write about a few more subjects outside of those.

My blog was never meant to be hard-hitting journalism, but it was meant to reflect what was going on in my life and in my head at the time. I’d like to think that I accomplished that.

I’ve never done anything like this before, but I learned two things:

  1. I want to post regularly in 2016, but not every day.
  2. 2015 was the year I rediscovered my love of board games.

The board game thing was a pleasant surprise. I wrote about getting back into the hobby earlier this year which led me to buying more and more board games, digging up games I’d never played yet somehow held on to through the years, and playing games once a week with a local gaming group. My wife and I hosted a few game nights for family and friends and we had a blast talking trash to each other during our occasional one-on-one sessions of Ticket to Ride. And I parlayed my passion into a gig with the fine folks at iSlaytheDragon.com, where I report board game news and bits.

Mainly through my interactions on Twitter about this blog, I’ve been able to have some great interactions with people I would never have met. I reconnected with some old friends and I even shared my blog with family members as well.

Of course, none of this would’ve been possible without the support of my wife. There were quite a few nights when she would doze off while I was typing away furiously, trying to get my thoughts down coherently before Mr. Sandman paid me a visit. Not only is Michelle my biggest supporter and the love of my life, but she’s my life partner and my favorite person to go on adventures with. I wrote about a few of those adventures here. Not surprisingly, it was one of my favorite posts of the year.

(To Michelle: thank you for your patience and understanding as I completed this silly little quest. I love you more than words can show.)

Finally, thank you, Dear Reader, for joining me for on my quest. I appreciate you taking the time to read my words and I hope you’ve enjoyed at least one of my posts this year. See you next year!

– Ruel

P.S. If you were entertained at all this year by My Quest to Blog Every Day in 2015 please consider doing one of two things:

  1. Donate to Visual Communications, “the first non-profit organization in the nation dedicated to the honest and accurate portrayals of the Asian Pacific American peoples, communities and heritage through the media arts.” I’m not affiliated with VC, but I do believe in their cause and donated to them on Giving Tuesday.
  2. Help me get my board game fix via my Amazon Wish List. I won’t tell anyone.

Day 364: Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

Eight more to go.

I’m not counting down the hours until the new year, but I’m counting down how many more Yelp reviews I need to write to meet one of my goals for 2015.

Last week I had less than 80 Yelp reviews written in 2015. I’m now at 92, with a little over 24 hours to go.

So, assuming I finish the reviews and write one more blog post tomorrow, here’s how I fared with my 2015 Goals:

  1. Write 100 reviews on Yelp.
  2. Read 26 books and review them on Goodreads.
  3. Break 100 on the golf course.
  4. Watch all of the AFI 100 Greatest American Films of All Time.
  5. Play 10 new board games.
  6. Blog Every Day in 2015.

Not too shabby. I didn’t break 100 on the golf course and I didn’t watch all of the AFI Greatest American Films of All time.

I hardly golfed at all this year, which was a bummer. But at least I was able to get out a few times with my brothers and my nephew. My last round was during Thanksgiving when the four of us played a little 9-hole par-3 course. These are the games that mean to most to me, as all of us Gaviola guys can bond for a few hours.

With all of the reading, writing, and board gaming I did this year, there wasn’t enough time left to watch all of the AFI films. I still want to watch every film on the list, just not in a single calendar year.

So, four out of my six goals will be finished by tomorrow. I’m going back to writing Yelp reviews now, but I’ll see you here tomorrow as I complete My Quest to Blog Every Day in 2016.

 

 

Day 350: Star Wars Eve

The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens

I had a great time with my gaming group tonight, playing Carcassonne, Kingsburg, Forbidden Desert, and Roll for the Galaxy. It took me a while to “get” Roll for the Galaxy, but after I did, it’s been a blast.

Naturally, the conversation turned to The Force Awakens since a few of us are going to an early showing tomorrow night. Although Christmas is still a week away, it feels like this is my version of Christmas Eve; call it the Night Before Episode VII.

I’ve got my blinders on right now, trying not to catch any Internet spoilers. My state of mind can be summed up in two words:

So. Excited.

Day 326: International Games Day @ Your Library

King of Tokyo.

King of Tokyo.

Yesterday was International Games Day @ Your Library, celebrated at libraries everywhere. Our local library’s event was from 2-4pm and my wife and I arrived about 15 minutes late, only to find things being packed up. Our host said nobody had shown up, so she was happy to get the games back out on the table to game with us.

The three of us started with King of Tokyo, which was an absolute blast. My wife and I had never played before, but it only took a few turns before we got the hang of it. A few minutes later, a lady and her 14-year-old son arrived and we added them to the mix. We enjoyed a lot of laughs as we each took turns attacking each other.

We ended the event with a few quick games of  Wits and Wagers (Party edition) and Timeline: Inventions. My only complaint about the event? We didn’t have enough time to play all of the other great games available.