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Monthly Archives January 2006

Best Gamer’s Game 2005

Richard Breese’s Reef Encounter wins my personal accolade for the Best Game of 2005. The game is very “Kramer-esque” in its depth of tactical options. On any turn I’m considering
* whether, in light of inherent risks and timing, I have reached the best expected scoring potential for one of my corals.
[...]

Posted 31 January 2006 § boardgames ‡ Comments Off °

Best Family Game 2005

By a landslide 10 Days in the USA was played more than any other game in 2005. The game is elegant and simple and bridges the gap between casual gamers and devoted gamers. Notably, it is a game of yesteryear as I can’t always be timely in affording games their due playtime. Nevertheless, 10 Days [...]

Posted 31 January 2006 § boardgames ‡ Comments Off °

Power Grid: Rules, Second Draft

Several weeks ago I complained about poorly-written rules and offered an alternative approach to cleaning them up. I demonstrated this approach on Power Grid’s rules. I received mostly commendation for the rewrite, but there was still room for improvement.
Here are the changes I made:
Added subheadings
To add even more clarity I added a few extra divisions [...]

Posted 26 January 2006 § boardgames § usability ‡ Comments Off °

The Need to Expand

On a recent visit to a number of online game stores I noticed something that really got me thinking about the gaming industry and my own personal buying habits. I noticed the glut of new expansions for Runebound and I wondered, why so many all at once? In fact, why so many at all? I [...]

Posted 23 January 2006 § boardgames § guest authors ‡ Comments Off °

That Sinking Feeling

We’re all becoming gaming curmudgeons.
The gaming hobby has reached a golden age where titles, it seems, explode onto the shelves. Avid gamers like myself have a love affair with experientialism and seek out new games at every opportunity. I mean, I’ve hardly opened the shrink, popped the chits, and played a game before I’m on [...]

Posted 19 January 2006 § boardgames ‡ Comments Off °

Finding “The” Game

So you already have a few favorite games, right? Of course you do, even average Joe Monopoly has a favorite game. Now you want find another game, something in line with your tastes that will knock your socks off! But how do you go about that? How can your current favorites lead you to find [...]

Posted 16 January 2006 § boardgames § guest authors ‡ Comments Off °

Power Grid: Bullet-structured Rules

Having covered poorly-written rules, I decided to take a crack at rewriting and improving a set of rules. To make the best example possible I knew I had to pick a game that was very popular but whose rules were not considered well written. Immediately I knew it had to be Power Grid.
I had played [...]

Posted 12 January 2006 § boardgames § usability ‡ Comments Off °

2005: The Best, The Worst, The Missed

The year 2005 has come and gone very quickly. Looking back there were an incredible number of games released, many were quite good, some disappointed me, yet I also realize with a heavy heart that I never had an opportunity to play many of them.
Anyway, here’s my Top 10 Games, Bottom 3 Overall, and the [...]

Posted 09 January 2006 § boardgames § guest authors ‡ Comments Off °

Finding Local Gamers and Gaming Groups

One of the more common questions that people ask me is how to find nearby gamers and to start up a gaming group or club. There’s no easy answer to this question, trust me. I’ve been gaming in one form or another all my life but I’d never heard of game clubs until about 4 [...]

Posted 06 January 2006 § boardgames ‡ Comments Off °

Welcome Jim

Well, Boardgamers’ Pastime has hardly gotten off of the ground as a blog and already we’re expanding. I’ve invited my fellow gaming friend Jim Carvin to come on board and contribute his thoughts. He, like myself, is an avid gamer who buys games almost as often as groceries. I’ve enjoyed numerous opportunities playing games with [...]

Posted 06 January 2006 § boardgames ‡ Comments Off °