More gaming with nearby friends.
Back to the boardgame café.
2024 non-fiction. How can theme be effectively built into the design of a board game, rather than pasted on at the end?
More gamers at home as the night drew in and a week of anticyclonic gloom (not to mention the real-world sort) broke in just a few places.
The Oxford Meeples had another quarterly games day, and I had a great time again.
More gaming with nearby friends, after some breaks for illness.
Radlands is a post-apocalyptic two-player duelling game from 2021. It's designed by Daniel Piechnik, who has no other BGG credits.
More gaming with some nearby friends.
Back to ACWest–now moved out of the Ramada and into the Telford International Centre down the road. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Back to the boardgame café after only two weeks (with Essen in between).
I still go to Essen SPIEL. I still love Essen SPIEL.
I've been adminisitering a hidden-movement game over at the tekeli.li forums, and it occurred to me that this was a potentially enjoyable programming challenge.
Back to one of my favourite conventions, now in a new and much larger venue.
Hexicon is a small church-hall convention held quite close to me.
More gaming with some nearby friends, and this time it was cool enough to think.
I went to Airecon Northwest again, this time in August rather than December but still in the convention centre in central Manchester. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
More gaming with some nearby friends, on another horribly hot evening.
More gaming with some nearby friends, on a horribly hot evening.
Back to the Masonic Hall for a warm and soggy weekend.
My second in-pandemic trip to UK Games Expo. With images; cc-by-sa-nc on everything.
Hexicon is a small church-hall convention held quite close to me. I missed the last one but made it along this time.
My seventh Airecon, this time without snow. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I've been playing a bit with (by local standards) near neighbours.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. This was the eighth get-together for the UK contingent.
With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Back to the boardgame café after a bit of a break over Christmas.
Off to a resort hotel for the first of a planned series of holiday-conventions.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues at the Marlow Donkey.
Back again, playing with three and four. No photos this time; I was too involved!
Back to the Masonic Hall on a cold, but dry, weekend of boardgaming.
Boxing Day Boardgames had to be cancelled after an extremely tiring incident a few days earlier, but I was able to get out for boardgames at a friend's place on New Year's Day.
In 2023 my boardgaming life was more at conventions than in local groups.
I went to Airecon Northwest – the second spin-off venture for the Airecon team, in the convention centre in central Manchester. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Gridcon is the convention run by Paul Grogan of Gaming Rules—patrons of that channel get first chance at the tickets, and as a result the remainder sell out very quickly. Still, I was able to get in this year.
Another Mansions of Madness session, this one with a last-moment scenario change.
I went to ACWest – the first spin-off venture for the Airecon team. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Over to a friend's place to deliver some games I'd driven back from Essen.
It's still the highlight of the boardgaming year, and I'm still going.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues.
ZatuCon is a small boardgaming event run by Zatu Games for whom I write occasional blog posts. It's open to the public as well as to Zatu bloggers.
Back to one of my favourite conventions, though only for an abbreviated visit this time.
More gamers at home, on a warmer afternoon than last time.
Got some games (and gamers) together on a wet afternoon.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues, this evening at my place.
Back to the Masonic Hall on a hot weekend.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues…
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues… this evening with a couple of new members.
My first in-pandemic trip to UK Games Expo. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Back in the Usual Pub.
This Meetup-based boardgames group skipped a meeting due to absences so some of us got together locally.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet in the Britannia.
Back in the Usual Pub, about eleven of us on a bank holiday.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet in the Britannia, but this time several people couldn't make it so we stayed closer to home.
Back again, playing with three and four.
I went to this year's Airecon – my sixth visit to the show. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. This was the seventh get-together for the UK contingent, back together in person.
I ran another mini-convention for the community from discussion.tekeli.li, as well as local gamers.
Back to Stabcon! Stockport barely managed to rain on me at all this time.
For the seventh year (having skipped 2020), a bunch of us without family commitments got together for boardgames.
In 2022 I managed to play significant numbers of games across an actual table again.
Boardgames at a friend's place again, on a frosty night.
Another gathering for Xia: Legends of a Drift System.
The Oxford Meeples had another quarterly games day (I've missed a few thanks to clashing events).
Boardgames at a friend's place again.
Back in the Usual Pub with ten of us playing various games.
I went over to a friend's place for boardgames.
A small game session to celebrate the end of a painful house-move.
Back to the boardgame café. Yup, last time we went was in December 2019.
Been a while, as life got in the way…
At the start of October I went back to Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, or "Essen" as it's generally known in the boardgaming world.
Another gaming weekend at home! Must have more of these!
Back in the Usual Pub with nine of us playing various games. A little less crowded than usual, and a very relaxed atmosphere.
I had originally planned to travel to Tabletop Scotland in 2020, but. This year I braved the 440-mile drive (home to Essen is only about 400) and gave it a try.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet in the Britannia. (We've been going there for three months now, and it hasn't yet been cold enough for us to want to move inside.)
I've been wanting to rent the Bourne End library room again since I ran the second 1 Player Guild get-together back in 2018. So I invited along the community from discussion.tekeli.li, the forum that had a large influx of exiles from Shut Up and Sit Down when their own forum was closed, as well as local gamers.
After time off for holidays and excessive heat, this Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet in the new pub.
Well, the convention restarted a while ago, but this time I actually felt reasonably happy about going.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet twice a month. (But the pub has started to have a quiz every Monday night, so we're moving to a new venue nearby.)
We went out scouting for a pub for the local Meetup group, and found one: and it's a McMullen house, which means the AK mild is a regular thing.
Some friends live nearby, and I visited them for gaming.
Back in the Usual Pub with nine of us playing various games.
UK Games Expo is happening on the first weekend of June. I'd hoped to go, but having thought it over, I shan't be there.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet twice a month.
This small one-day boardgaming event has been carrying on, mostly without me. I think it was about 30 people this time, with the organisers and the people I was playing with the only mask-wearers.
A trip to Silverstone for a small games day with a couple of friends and fellow-podcasters.
Missed the March meeting because I was at Airecon…
I went to this year's Airecon – my fifth visit to the show. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Back together (cautiously, tested and well-ventilated as usual) for a day of games at home.
I avoided the crowded pub over Christmas, but went back to this group for their next meeting.
I drove to a village hall near Oxford, where the Oxford Meeples were restarting their periodic larger gatherings. All masked, hurrah.
A friend I don't see very often was able to visit, so in between the chat we played some games.
2021 seemed to involve more talking about boardgames than actually playing boardgames.
For the sixth year (having skipped 2020 for obvious reasons), a bunch of us without family commitments got together for boardgames.
More boardgames played from home. The numbers are definitely dropping now that I'm getting occasional in-person gaming.
More boardgames played from home.
Second of what I hope will be an ongoing revived series of face-to-face games.
All right, not actually in the garden now that it's a bit nippy, but in a well-ventilated room with masks…
More boardgames played from home (and one face to face).
I accidentally found out about this group when doing admin on Meetup for the Marlow one, and since I know one of the people involved…
This Meetup-based boardgames group has returned to the Marlow Donkey.
So we were just getting started with Star Trek Ascendancy when the pandemic hit… but it finally seemed reasonable to have some people over to play it again.
More boardgames played from home. Yeah, this is definitely falling off now that actual face-to-face gaming is becoming a possible thing again.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. This was the sixth "proper" get-together for the UK contingent (some virtual meetings helped span the gap), and we were back in the upstairs room of the pub in Silverstone, a year and a half after the last one.
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment, though we may try the pub next time depending on numbers. For now we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BGA, as usual.
More boardgames played from home. (There was a plan for barbecue, beer and boardgames for some of the local gamers, but it turned out to be the first two and not the last one.)
Essen SPIEL are doing a better job than UK Games Expo did, but I've very reluctantly decided that I'm not going anyway.
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BGA.
More boardgames played from home, and on a small expedition that didn't get a blog post of its own.
More boardgames played from home. Now that I'm getting occasional face-to-face gaming again I'm doing rather less of this…
On an unexpectedly wet day, I visited a tekeli.li forumite in London for outdoor gaming again.
On what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year so far, several friends came over for games.
UK Games Expo is happening on the first weekend of August. I'm really glad I'm not committed to going.
I did some analysis of card draws in Leaving Earth to try to work out the odds in a particular situation.
I went to visit one of the tekeli.li forumites and we played games in someone else's outdoor space for a change.
On a warm Bank Holiday afternoon (can there be any stronger evidence that English weather is out of joint?) I got together with several friends for boardgaming, including one I hadn't seen in person for over a year (barring very brief handings-over of shopping etc.).
More boardgames played from home. I'm definitely cutting back on these now that the real thing can happen again.
For the first time since last September, I've played boardgames face to face (or at least mask to mask) with other human beings.
More boardgames played from home. I think I'm getting more irked with remote play now that the possibility of the real thing exists again.
I quite enjoy Concept but the official teamwork rules are tedious. So this is a variant invented by Oliver of the Marlow gaming group, which works rather better.
There are three space sandbox games (i.e. with multiple things you can try to do in order to win) that I've tried. Which is best?
More boardgames played from home. Fewer games, but a bit more diversity, or at least that's the way it feels.
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games online.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. We're, or at least I am, counting all the on-line get-togethers as the "6th", so this was 6b.
With images; cc-by-sa on everything (insofar as I'm even allowed to assert that given that they're screenshots).
I have written and released software for running games of Flamme Rouge by forum.
Shopping continues to be a bit strange.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. Not counting the on-line birthday party last year with many of the same people, this was the sixth get-together for the UK contingent – on-line, alas but necessarily.
Letter Tycoon, by Brad Brooks, was published in 2015 and is now quite hard to find. But I was recently introduced to it on BoardGameArena, and it turns out I'm quite good at it.
I recently ran the vote for the Pearple's Choice Awards, which used to happen on the old Shut Up & Sit Down forum and now happen on discussion.tekeli.li.
I've been playing a lot of Letter Tycoon on BoardGameArena (it seems that losing at Scrabble to my wife is good training for this). I wanted a practice opponent. So I wrote one.
2020 was another very boardgame-ful year, in patches.
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BoardGameArena. (I missed the mid-month meeting, but we had an intercalary one on the fifth Monday.)
Nominations are now open for the Pearple's Choice Awards for 2019-2020.
I have noticed a paradox in the design of competitive games.
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BoardGameArena.
More boardgames played from home. (No, you didn't miss an October part 1; I played very little in the first half of the month, mostly because of a secret RPG-writing project taking up my time.)
Last year I bought a copy of Thunderbolt Apache Leader. This year I played it.
Ninth in this series of one-day conventions, which this year of course happened on-line.
More boardgames in the garden, warmer than last time in a minor heat wave.
More boardgames in the garden, almost in traditional British bank holiday weather (a little chilly, but not actually raining).
I've been playing quite a lot of Rallyman GT lately, and I've been thinking about how racing games should be scored.
More boardgames played from home, though the rate seems to have gone down a bit.
More boardgames in the garden, on a painfully hot evening (still with masks).
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BoardGameArena.
I got together with some local friends for boardgames in the garden (open air, though under cover in the gazebo, with masks).
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved finding peak elements and more mucking about with linked lists.
You can't buy this game any more. So why on Earth would I play it?
More boardgames played from home, though the pace has slackened a bit.
This Meetup-based boardgames group has moved on-line for the moment; we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BoardGameArena.
This was not a One Player Guild meeting, but it involved several of the same people, getting together virtually for a birthday celebration with boardgames rather than in the pub in Silverstone.
A War of Whispers, by Jeremy Stoltzfus, got some attention when it came out last year but sold out quickly, and as I write there's a Kickstarter for the second edition. Should you jump in? I've now played it twice…
More solo and on-line boardgames.
I've been continuing to play solo and on-line boardgames.
I've been running a small Discourse forum for role-playing and boardgaming for a while now, ever since UKRolePlayers shut down. It's suddenly got much bigger.
Since face-to-face boardgaming meetings aren't happening at the moment, I've been playing more solo and on-line games.
I went back to this year's Airecon – my fourth visit to the show. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This Meetup-based boardgames group had what turned out to be its last meeting for the moment at the Marlow Donkey.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues, in normal times, to meet at the Marlow Donkey.
Star Trek Ascendancy is a huge game which I don't get to the table very often, but I managed it on a blustery February weekend.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. This was the fifth get-together for the UK contingent, and we were back in the upstairs room of a pub in Silverstone.
My copy of Rallyman GT has arrived; I backed the Kickstarter in 2018, it was originally expected last November, and it finally made it to me on 30 January.
This boardgame convention was still at the larger venue in Maidenhead, but with more people booked in and much more of a crush, especially on Saturday.
This long-running games convention had another instance at the start of January. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
On New Year's Day I went to the Jack of Both Sides in Reading (now renamed the Hope and Bear, but it has a different name each time I go there – all right, I only go there once every few years – and the locals still call it the Jack) for boardgames with the Reading Boardgames Social.
For the fifth year in a row, a bunch of us without family commitments got together for boardgames.
I went over to a friend's place on Christmas Eve for some short games
2019 was another very boardgame-ful year.
2019 high school story, 4-koma manga adaptation in 12 episodes: AniDB. Miki is terminally shy, but learns to make friends through an interest in boardgames. vt After School Dice Club.
Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I invited some friends over for a day of V-Commandos, a cooperative boardgame of WWII special operations. (I'd planned for six but two couldn't make it.)
The Kickstarter for Car Wars 6th edition started yesterday and runs until 6 January. I'm not going to be joining it. Why not?
Another Mansions of Madness session, this one with a published scenario (Ill-Fated Exhibit).
I went to Midcon, a long-running boardgame convention in Derby.
Aeon’s End is a cooperative deck-building game by Kevin Riley, in which players work together to fight a monster (the “nemesis”) and save their home.
At the end of October I went back to Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, or "Essen" as it's generally known in the boardgaming world.
This post is about what I brought back from Essen – as well as some things I'd been thinking about but ended up not buying.
I'm now a regular game demonstrator at Essen SPIEL shows. Here's my advice in case you're contemplating it.
Eighth in this series of one-day conventions in bustling metropolitan Baildon (suburban Bradford).
V-Commandos: Résistance is the supplement to V-Commandos that I wasn't able to buy at Essen last year.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. This was the fourth get-together for the UK contingent; not enough people made it to justify renting the library again, so we met at my place. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This was my "set up a solo game and then people come along to play it" day. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Saturday was a day mostly for fewer longer games. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Still at the larger venue in Maidenhead, and it felt about the same size as last time rather than overflowing its space. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
The Leighton Buzzard Boardgames group put on their second convention, and having seen a flyer for it at the last Tringcon I went. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This long-running games convention had another instance at the start of July, on a sweaty weekend but not as hot as the last few have been. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I used to go to the Reading Boardgames Social quite a bit, but they went silent. I recently learned that they'd moved to Facebook and now Meetup, and went along to a Sunday afternoon meeting at the Greyfriar in Reading.
Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, designed by Isaac Vega and published in 2015, is a competitive game of wizard battles for 2-4 players.
Another of the occasional Cambridge boardgaming evenings.
Things were a lot quieter today… to the point that some demo people were leaping out at passers-by to try to get in one more game and potential sale.
This was the most hectic day, with the halls heaving at times; even Friday had felt like previous years' Saturdays.
Friday was the first "proper" day of UK Games Expo.
I've been to UK Games Expo again. And as before, I took Thursday off to help put up the show.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey. (Pictures from new shinyphone in "HDR" mode.)
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey. (Pictures from new shinyphone.)
This small one-day boardgaming event has been resurrected with new organisers, but still at the same village hall in Deepest Buckinghamshire. Up to about 30-ish people this time. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I went back to this year's Airecon, still growing fast in Harrogate (it's now apparently the second-largest boardgame event in the UK). With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I often heard about this RPG convention when it was running some years ago, but it stopped before I got round to attending. The organisers have started it again, so I went along to find out more.
Human Punishment is a social deduction game designed by Stefan Godot.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. This was the third get-together for the UK contingent, and we were in the upstairs room of a pub in Silverstone.
Still at the larger venue in Maidenhead, but squeezing a lot more people into the space, this local boardgaming convention continues to grow.
This long-running games convention had another instance at the start of January, on a slightly chilly but not cold weekend. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Late on New Year's Day, we got together for eight-player games, and ended up on the unexpected theme of "games you can't buy right now".
2018 was another very boardgame-ful year: more playing, less buying.
This really is a tradition now – for the fourth year in a row, a bunch of us without family commitments got together for boardgames.
Fantasy Flight Games has recently released Keyforge, a Unique Deck Game in which every deck one buys is different from every other. It's been getting mostly positive reviews. Why am I so comprehensively uninterested?
A boardgaming evening at home; too long since I did one of these.
Back to Dragonmeet, since it was happening (and I was being paid). All images are cc-by-sa.
After some strong hints, I joined Steam and bought Tabletop Simulator.
I spent another Saturday playing solo games. St Theoktiste of Lesbos, whose feast day is 10 November, supposedly spent 35 years in solitude, so seems an appropriate person to commemorate in this way. (Not to mention there aren't that many Lesbian saints.)
Still a bit weary after Essen, I spent a Saturday playing solo games. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. After the first UK meet back in January, I organised a second one at a library near home.
Whartstock is the best gaming convention that you aren't invited to; it's the annual-ish gathering of the Whartson Hall Æthernauts.
Seventh in this series of one-day conventions in bustling metropolitan Baildon (suburban Bradford).
I bought Ascendancy (and the three currently-available expansions) at UK Games Expo, and I've just got it to the table.
Star Realms Frontiers is the new expanded version of Star Realms, by Darwin Kastle.
Who Goes There? is a new heavyweight social deduction game for 3-6 players, by Anthony Coffey and Jesse Labbe.
Human Era is a new social deduction game by Zach and Jake Given.
I felt like having a lazy and anti-social bank holiday Monday, so I played a bunch of solo games (something of a tradition for BoardGameGeek's 1 Player Guild). With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I started going to these conventions because they were local (a few miles away on the far side of High Wycombe). They've now moved to Maidenhead in order to get a slightly larger venue. Ah well.
The day after the excessively hot weather broke, I went back to this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This long-running games convention had another instance at the start of July, on a very very hot weekend. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
It's been a while since the last boardgaming day, and we felt like doing it again.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey; up to eight at this meeting.
Sunday was mostly a demonstration day as the show wound down; it was much less crowded than Saturday.
On Saturday I was mostly out in the show rather than at the table, because there was a team of extra demonstrators coming in just for that day.
Friday at UK Games Expo was a half-day of demos, followed by meeting friends.
UK Games Expo expanded again this year, and either it sorted out most of its organisational problems or I managed to shift to doing the things which it's good at.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey. This time four of us turned up (I think we're getting into the spring illness season).
I borrowed a copy of Inka and Markus Brand's Exit: The Abandoned Cabin, one of the many recent escape-room-in-a-box games. (I will not reveal anything that's not immediately available when you start playing.)
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey. This time five of us turned up at the end of a long bank holiday.
Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything. This time the theme accidentally ended up being "games that are quite like other games".
Back, on a wet Saturday, to this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey. I missed the last meeting through having been too tired after driving back from the Eastercon.
This was a second pass at the player-written Mansions of Madness scenario we tried last November (but were stymied by software bugs).
My copy of the new (second) printing of Black Orchestra has arrived.
Back to the boardgame café after a couple of months away. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This small one-day boardgaming event has been resurrected with new organisers, but still at the same village hall in Deepest Buckinghamshire. At 20-odd people it was quite a bit smaller than the 70 or so who filled the hall on previous occasions, and I'm not sure why. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I went back to this year's Airecon, still growing fast in Harrogate (1593 people through the door this time). With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, organised on BoardGameGeek. I do this occasionally, and when the inaugural real-world meeting was suggested in the UK, I went along. What could work better than a bunch of solo gamers getting together in one place? Actually, it was an excellent day - in a village hall in the middle of nowhere, bring your own food and drink (but much in the way of snack makings provided by the organiser), eleven people.
I missed the second instance of this because it clashed with the Worldcon in Helsinki, but made it to number 3. Given how far I travel for other games conventions, one that's just on the other side of High Wycombe is a pleasant change.
I recently played Peter Blenkharn's game Statecraft, and I wasn't terribly impressed. Here are some ideas that I think might improve it.
With a role-playing session cancelled because of non-availability, the people who would have been doing that got together to play some boardgames.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey. We planned for a long day of gaming.
2017 was another very boardgame-ful year.
Since some people were free, we got together on actual Boxing Day as well as "Boxing Day" on the 16th.
I picked up Magic Maze and its expansion Maximum Security (as well as some promo tiles) at Essen. But how best to store them, preferably all in one box? To the 3D printer!
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey. This time it was a fairly small session; people seem to be in a pre-Christmas sort of mode.
On "Boxing Day" because it's a tradition now (i.e. we did it for the last two years), a bunch of us without family commitments got together for boardgames. (Actually we did it a week earlier on St Eusebius of Vercelli's day, because some of couldn't make it on Boxing Day, and then they had colds anyway. Oh well.)
Cities of Splendor is an expansion for Splendor, designed by Marc André.
The new Secrets & Lies expansion for Mysterium is designed by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko.
Back to Dragonmeet, since it was happening. All images are cc-by-sa.
Burgle Bros., by Tim Fowers, is a cooperative heist game for 1-4 players.
I played the new edition of Mansions of Madness last year, and wasn't hugely impressed. But there's now an editor to allow people to write their own scenarios.
This is what I brought back from Essen. (Things for other people are not included.)
2016, 21 episodes: Wil Wheaton and other minor celebrities play boardgames.
Alien Frontiers, designed by Tory Niemann, is a dice-placement game for 2-4 players.
This small one-day boardgaming event happened twice a year in a village hall in Deepest Buckinghamshire. This was my sixth visit; I wasn't expecting to get to it, but YSDC Games Day was moved.
Back to the boardgame café, after a skipped month because of holidays and such like. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Here's another boardgame kickstarter that may be of interest, based on a television series I quite enjoyed.
Mysterium, designed by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko, is a co-operative game of deduction for 2-7 players.
Colony, designed by Ted Alspach, Toryo Hojo and Yoshihisa Nakatsu, is a dice-based resource-building game of post-apocalyptic survival for 2-4 players.
My Colt Express set has attracted some envious looks. Here's what's gone into it.
Here are three current boardgame kickstarters which interested me. Maybe they'll interest you. All offer shipping from within the EU.
Back to this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey
…not just for Christmas. Or I think it should be.
This long-running games convention had another instance at the start of July. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey, on an evening that was slightly cooler but still fairly sweaty.
On a Wednesday night in Cambridge, with the usual GM unable to run the game we'd planned, four of us got together to play Princes of the Renaissance, a Martin Wallace design from 2003 not currently in print.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey, this time on an excessively hot day.
UK Games Expo continues to expand; the trade hall was still in NEC Hall 1, but all the tournaments which had shared space with it were pushed into one of the other halls at the back. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey – and, unusually, I was available on a Wednesday for the mid-month meeting.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey – this time in the absence of our Glorious Leader.
A second evening Firefly session, again with a time limit though we didn't need it.
I tried a quick Flash Point solo run to try out a new variant I'm working on. With images (cc-by-sa).
This small one-day boardgaming event happens twice a year in a village hall in Deepest Buckinghamshire, and has been going for quite a few years. This was my fifth visit.
With some of the weekend-games regulars not wanting to play more Firefly, we got together on a weekday evening, again with a time limit.
After the Yog-Sothoth.com crew mentioned this fast-growing convention on Cthulhu Breakfast Club, I thought I'd give it a go even though it was in North. (Harrogate, to be precise.) With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Today I'll introduce Splendor. Anything in square brackets is to be thought about rather than read aloud.
Back to the boardgame café, which was calming down a bit after Christmas. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey (now twice a month, though I can't make the Wednesdays). On a wet night the pub was fairly full, though it cleared out quite quickly once we'd arrived. Funny, that.
My copy of the Crime and Punishment expansion for Firefly arrived on Thursday.
I don't usually get to the Bucks Boardgame Group because I'm normally busy of a Tuesday evening, but this time the other thing fell through, and I got in an unusual game of Firefly. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Today I'll introduce Grifters. Anything in square brackets is to be thought about rather than read aloud.
A seven-, then five-player games session with some larger games that don't come out often enough. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Today I'll introduce Coup: Rebellion G54. Anything in square brackets is to be thought about rather than read aloud.
This new convention happened just on the other side of High Wycombe from me, at a hotel that has some conference space. (Why would you choose to have a conference there? I suppose if you applied some sort of travel-time-minimising algorithm and worked out that you got the least total driving that way…)
I've had a certain amount of practice teaching board games, so I'm going to post some of my introductions to them here. These are all put together from multiple sessions, generally at Essen. As a general principle, I have components lying on the table, and point to them and/or pick them up as they are mentioned.
Today I'll introduce One Night Revolution. Anything in square brackets is to be thought about rather than necessarily read aloud.
Another run of Flash Point, on the two-door map from the base game. This time I decided to go with six firefighters, to give me some leeway for using the non-firefighting roles, in Veteran mode as usual. Photos are taken at the end of each round, six turns.
Back to the boardgame café on a mildly snowy night. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This group usually meets on Tuesday evenings, so although they're fairly nearby I hadn't had a chance to join them before. But over the Christmas holiday they met on a Friday afternoon as well.
On Boxing Day because it's a tradition now (i.e. we did it last year), a bunch of us without family commitments got together for boardgames. Like the last session here, we stayed together as one big group.
Third time at the Marlow Donkey and the sixth monthly meeting of this Meetup-based boardgames group.
With role-playing cancelled due to illness, I played some boardgames in Cambridge instead.
2016 was a very boardgame-ful year. I didn't plan it that way, but I'm not objecting.
I continue to design boardgame accessories for 3D printing; these two are for Splendor and Cosmic Encounter. Images are cc-by-sa by RogerBW unless otherwise specified.
2016 short romantic comedy, dir. Travis Hedges Williams, Kacie Barnes, Tyler Grezaffi: IMDb
When Quinn meets David, she has to decide whether he is a worthy suitor: she knows the rules, just as she knows the rules of her favourite games. But he doesn't seem to be following them.
Flash Point is another game I don't get to the table often enough for my taste, so I gave it a solo play one evening. Lots of images (cc-by-sa).
I know, I know. I got my copy of Leaving Earth: Outer Planets back in July, and I haven't had it to the table until now. I was hoping to get some suckers to play it with me, but instead I ran a solo game on a grey Sunday afternoon. (I haven't played any version of Leaving Earth solo before.)
Images were taken on the Powershot A1300 in "custom white balance" mode, under halogen incandescents; I thought it did quite a decent job. As usual, click on images to get the bigger version; cc-by-sa on everything.
A seven-player games session where we actually stuck with a single group of seven all the way through. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Second time at the Marlow Donkey and the fifth monthly meeting of this Meetup-based boardgames group.
Leaving Earth, designed by Joe Fatula, is a game of the exploration of the solar system for 1-5 players.
Steampunk Rally, designed by Orin Bishop, is a game of racing bizarre inventions… or a card-drafting, engine-building game that uses a racetrack merely as a way of keeping score.
Grifters, designed by Jake Tlapek and David Fulton, is a hand-building game of crime syndicates for 2-4 players.
In mid-October I went once more to Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, or "Essen" as it's generally known in the boardgaming world.
Fifth in this series of one-day conventions in bustling metropolitan Baildon (suburban Bradford). All images are cc-by-sa.
Back to the boardgame café again, on my birthday. There may have been beer beforehand. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Having been evicted from the Two Brewers for not drinking enough, we gathered at the Marlow Donkey for the fourth meeting of this Meetup-based boardgames group.
As part of a sparsely-attended ThamesValley.pm meet, I got some boardgaming done in my local.
Back to the boardgame café again, on a sweaty evening when we didn't feel like anything terribly complicated. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Back to the Two Brewers on a muggy night, for the third meeting of this Meetup-based boardgames group.
Some friends of mine have got the new edition of Mansions of Madness, and I went along to try it out. Spoilers for the "Escape from Innsmouth" scenario.
Back to the boardgame café again. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
The various markers in Flash Point Fire Rescue work pretty well, but they're a bit dull and cardboard. Well, they can't help it, poor things. Here's a replacement.
This Meetup group was trying out a new venue, the upstairs room of the Two Brewers in Marlow – which was blessedly free of fashionable lighting.
Back to this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford, the first one I've got to for a while as it's usually announced at fairly short notice. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
I wanted to improve the experience of playing Surburbia, so I designed some organisational aids.
A five-player games session on a hot afternoon at home. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Welcome to the Dungeon is an enjoyable short game that's hard to store effectively. I decided to improve this.
This new group is organised via Meetup, and I went along to the initial meeting in the Churchill Tap.
This long-running games convention started off as a Diplomacy gathering. These days it's a blend of board-gaming and roleplaying. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
As will have become apparent, I'm a big fan of Joe Fatula's boardgame Leaving Earth. The thing that's most fiddly, though, is money: you reset your funds to a standard level at the start of each turn, which means lots of passing paper banknotes back and forth.
UK Games Expo continues to expand, and this year moved the trade hall into the NEC for the first time. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Having missed a couple of months thanks to busy-ness, we returned to the boardgame café (which appeared to have undergone a complete staff turnover, though some of them are now just working on different days). With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
This small one-day boardgaming event happens twice a year in a village hall in Deepest Buckinghamshire, and has been going for quite a few years. This was my fourth visit.
We didn't make it to Thirsty Meeples in March but did manage to get together for a couple of longer games at my place. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Mini-TringCons are all-day house gaming events run by the organiser of TringCon, in Deepest Buckinghamshire. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Back again to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
As the snow rolled in towards Wycombe, we had another session at home. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
ExoPlanets, designed by Przemysław Świerczyński, is a tile-placement game of developing life on alien planets for 2-4 players.
After a break thanks to Christmas scheduling clashes, back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Star Realms: Colony Wars, designed (like the original) by Darwin Kastle, is the first "big" expansion for Star Realms. On its own, it's for 2 players.
Melee, by Rikki Tahta, is the third of the games I was showing off at Essen 2015; it's an area-control wargame for 2-4 players.
On Boxing Day because we felt like it, one long game and two shorter ones. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
No Christmas party this year, but a good session in the back room of the Castle Tap. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
On a chilly December morning I went to Dragonmeet again. All images are cc-by-sa.
St Albans is a bit far away for me to visit regularly, but their boardgames club was having a big Saturday event so I went along. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Because there is no such thing as "enough dice". (And some other stuff.)
To the Castle Tap for more games. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
One Night Revolution, by Ted Alspach after Akihisa Okui, is a game of hidden identities, deduction and deception for 3-10 players.
For Halloween properly this time, Eldritch Horror again. All images are cc-by-sa.
Great Expectations again, for a series of short games. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Coup: Rebellion G54, by Rikka Tahta, is a game of hidden identities, deduction and bluffing for 3-6 players.
I'm just back from my third trip to Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, or "Essen" as it's generally known in the boardgaming world. With photos; all are cc-by-sa.
My copy of the Kalidasa expansion to Firefly arrived yesterday. What's inside?
Fourth in this series of one-day conventions in bustling metropolitan Baildon (suburban Bradford). All images are cc-by-sa.
Back at the Great Expectations. Food's not bad, but pricy; beer is much better. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Suburbia Five Star (or 5★ if you follow the cover style) is the second expansion to Suburbia.
Mini-TringCons are all-day house gaming events run by the organiser of TringCon, in Deepest Buckinghamshire.
2014-2015, 21 episodes: Wil Wheaton and other minor celebrities play boardgames.
With the Great Expectations booked by another group, we made one last (?) visit to the Wild Lime. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Back to this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford.
On a somewhat muggy day in August, five of us played two big games.
Back to the boardgame café, just two of us this time. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Back to Reading, at the Great Expectations (post refurbishment, though the beer quality is still a tad below par).
My copies of the Jetwash and Esmeralda ship boosters for Firefly arrived on Friday. What's inside?
The Wednesday meetings are the main ones, but usually I'm occupied elsewhere. This time I wasn't, and ended up playing a series of small games. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Two current kickstarter projects hold a distinct appeal, so I thought I'd mention them here.
What is off-table state, and why do I complain about it?
There's a certain mentality in games (particularly wargames, but others too) which seems to be associated with tournament play.
This weekend I was at UK Games Expo, for the third year at the Hilton Metropole near the NEC – though next year it's mostly going to be in the NEC itself. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything, and click the image for the full-size version.
Back to this this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford.
Seven of us this time, at the Wild Lime in the drunken quarter of Reading.
With my Men in Black hat on, I conspired with the boardgame café in Oxford to run a Revolution! tournament. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Yesterday was the third International Tabletop Day, and the first time I've got involved in events for it.
This small one-day boardgaming event happens twice a year in a village hall in Deepest Buckinghamshire, and has been going for quite a few years. This was my third visit.
About eleven people, at the Abbot Cook (formerly Jack of Both Sides) in Reading.
Back to this this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford, and I kept up my pattern of not winning any game I play.
Nine players this time, though a couple had to leave early.
The Pirates and Bounty Hunters expansion to the Firefly board game brought in two new ships, which are quite different from the standard Firefly. How should they be played?
I haven't had time to go along to Wycombe Warband since last month, but I was there last night playing Zombicide.
Back to the boardgame café for two new games and one old one. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
On a chilly January day, nine of us ended up boardgaming at my place. (With images; cc-by-sa on everything.)
Since the group is apparently now on Meetup, we got a much bigger meeting than we've sometimes had in the past, around twenty people altogether.
To a mate's place in London on New Year's Eve for beer, games and chat.
Quite a few people turned up for the Christmas Party (not actually all that party-like though the red bobble hats made an apparance).
In July I backed the Kickstarters for The Resistance - Hostile Intent & Hidden Agenda and Flash Point: Honor & Duty. My copies have now arrived.
On Saturday I spent the day at Dragonmeet, in its new venue at the Ilec Convention Centre round the back of Earl's Court. All images are cc-by-sa.
Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything. (From the grotty mobile phone camera rather than the usual one, sorry.)
We got up to five with another newcomer, and mostly played Avalon.
Daryl of the Reading Boardgames Social organised a day of boardgaming at the Siren Craft Brewery, on an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere south of Reading.
Revolution! Anarchy is the new 5-6 player expansion to Revolution!.
For Halloween, or at least All Saints', a friend hosted a session of Mansions of Madness, a game I'd heard about but never played. All images are cc-by-sa.
Four of us this time including two newcomers to the group, and we played a series of lightweight games.
After the Blue Sun expansion to Firefly arrived, the inlay (which had been overflowing a bit already) was clearly inadequate; I needed a new way of storing the bits.
Back to three players, and a reserved table, at the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
My copy of the Blue Sun expansion to Firefly arrived yesterday. What's inside?
This small one-day boardgaming event happens twice a year in a village hall in Deepest Buckinghamshire, and has been going for quite a few years. This was my second visit, and probably the last autumn one I'll get to for a while as it will clash in future with YSDC Games Day.
Quite a small meeting this time, just three of us. (The main meetings are on two Wednesdays a month, but I have role-playing commitments then.)
Third in this series of one-day conventions in bustling metropolitan Baildon (suburban Bradford), and a shift to a new time of year. All images are cc-by-sa.
Quite a lot of games have some sort of hidden identity component: for example, Lords of Waterdeep and Discworld: Ankh-Morpork both deal each player a random role which then gives them a secret way of winning the game; Battlestar Galactica and Shadows over Camelot, while nominally cooperative, may assign a traitor role to one or more players; and the UFO faction in Illuminati can even covertly choose which victory condition to aspire to. But some games are entirely about the hidden roles and working out who's got which, and I seem to have been playing a lot of them lately.
Yesterday was my first visit to this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford.
I've missed a few Reading sessions lately (with holidays and such). This time, with just three of us present, we played Dead of Winter.
First meeting I've got to for a while, inspired by the bank holiday.
My copy of Dead of Winter has finally arrived; I pre-ordered it in December of last year. With images; cc-by-sa on everything insofar as I'm able to assert it.
I've been to Thirsty Meeples in Oxford quite a bit. Now there's a boardgame café set to open in London.
No room at the boardgame café, so we ended up with some three-sided games at my place. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Star Wars X-Wing is clearly designed to be a gateway game, encouraging players to buy lots of expansions. As I'm probably going to do. But before then, how well does it do at being playable out of the box?
People who know me will be aware that I'm an enthusiastic player of several of the games published by Indie Boards and Cards. They currently have Kickstarter projects running for two of them.
Another two-player session last night, trying new games at the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Finally, a chance to play Firefly on a table that's big enough for the game! (With images; cc-by-sa on everything.)
This time we tried a variety of shortish two-player games at this boardgame café, playing each of them twice just to get the hang of the basics.
On Saturday I spent the day at UK Games Expo, still alas at the Hilton Metropole near the NEC.
Feels like a very long time since the last of these.
In the Firefly board game, the Artful Dodger is an optional add-on ship. Is it worth picking?
My hopes for the Pirates and Bounty Hunters expansion to Firefly were that it would increase interaction between players and make runaway victories more difficult. My copy arrived yesterday. At first glance, how does it do?
This boardgame café has recently opened in Oxford, and I went along with some friends to try it out.
This time it was just Firefly.
This small one-day boardgaming event happens twice a year in a village hall in Deepest Buckinghamshire, and has been going for quite a few years. This was my first visit.
A short session this time as I was a bit weary. New venue, just re-opened that day after an emergency closure which hadn't done the beer much good, and mildly tricky to get to with Reading Station being rebuilt nearby.
This group usually meets on Wednesday evenings, which I can't make, but has one Tuesday a month.
Since a planned session at home had to be called off, I went along to Uxbridge for an afternoon of games.
Thanks to Manuel, the group has survived the loss of its coffee-bar venue; we met at his home. I played six different games, and enjoyed them all in different ways.
Firefly is a 1-5 player boardgame of travelling through space, taking jobs, trying to make enough money to keep flying. I played it on the Sunday of Stabcon and bought a copy before the game was over. What's good about it?