Thursday, November 05, 2009

Mid semester update!

We've had a busy semester, playing lots of new games, and even having members bringing in their own to share with the group! The web site has not been updated much, as usual due to too much actual GAMING.

Our Ice Cream day last month was a HUGE success! We succeeded in eating something like 30 gallons of ice cream. There was a minor controversy and almost violence this year when chocolate was left out of the flavor selection. We managed to talk people down off their ledges, though, with chocolate syrup.

Don't forget about the Chonkeys Day! Info is available at the top left of the page under "Events".

We have played a bunch of games, as well! Here's a little mid-semester update of much of what we've played since the last update.

Some new favorites are: Kamisado, Shadow Hunters, and TPOC: The Politics of Cannibals. Kamisado is a two player game on a chess-like board. But your every move dictates the possibilities for your opponent. It's mind-bendingly wonderful.

Shadow Hunters is a hidden-identity game where each player is given a card describing them as a "Shadow", a "Hunter", or "Neutral". The Shadows are trying to kill the Hunters, and vice-versa, and the Neutrals have hidden agendas as well. Of course, (at least at the start) no one knows who is who. Only through deduction and luck can you find out.

The Politics of Cannibals is a political game, of sorts (a little bit like an expanded version of "King of the Beasts", a game-club classic). Each player is vying to be King of the Cannibals, and has to observe what topics the voters are interested in and adjust their platform (which are just sets of cards) accordingly. Of course, throughout the game the political landscape can change. People can get put into the big cauldron, and when the chef comes out, voters get eaten. (There is much cheering around the table whenever that happens!)

Girl Genius: The Works is also a new one to game club. It's a very clever steampunk-styled card game, where the cards make a giant machine in the middle of the table, and players try to manipulate it to their benefit. It has some of the best artwork of any game we play.

We've played a LOT of classic games to game club in the past few weeks, as well!!

10 Days in Asia and 10 Days in Europe: We've played quite of few of these classic route-building games by Moon & Weissblum. These games should be in every high school social studies classroom -- you can't HELP but learn the Asian and European maps. And they're fun. TransAmerica, a very different but also route-building game came out, of course too.


We've played some quick party games like ASAP, Cranium Zigity, Smart Mouth, and Thingamajig... they got pulled out fairly regularly.

There's always lots of abstract/puzzle/word games played. We got in some games of: Boggle, Coda, Continuo, Fire and Ice, Gobblet, Jumpin' Java, Quarto!, Quiddler, Rummikub, Blokus, Tsuro, and Traverse.

Around Halloween we appropriately were playing: Betrayal at House on the Hill, Cthulhu Rising, Frog Juice, Guillotine, Mall of Horror, and Poison.

We've actually been getting into a lot of trading/bidding/bartering games, as well lately (these are usually my favorites!!). Things like: Basari, Bohnanza, and Lascaux have all been in steady rotation.

Forbidden has become a new favorite card game. It has elements of Rummy and Mah Jong, with some fun new gameplay elements ("Did you remember to feed the monkey??"). We've also been playing: Cribbage, Gang of Four, Hornochsen, Rage, and Zeus on the Loose.

The role drafting games of Citadels and San Juan are always great, and we've introduced a whole new set of players to their tremendous glory.

We've spent time in Japan, playing both Samurai AND Honor of the Samurai.

We've played a bunch of the press-your-luck games of Incan Gold and Can't Stop the Turtles.

There was plenty of playing with the pirates of Cartagena, the penguins of Hey! That's My Fish!, the politics of Quo Vadis?, and the polynesian Tongiaki.

I'm sure I've missed a few, but this is quite enough for now!!