Nibelungenlost
I’m reading The Nibelungenlied, because it’s a classic, and classics are good, so I’m reading them. It’s a tough classic, though. It’s the original saga on which Wagner’s Ring saga is based, not that that probably tells you much. Even if you’ve managed to see Wagner’s epic, it only tells a small chunk of the original tale. Apparently, Wanger left out a lot of clothes and riding from […]
How Then Shall We Eat?
Been thinking a lot recently about food. I eat poorly. But what’s the standard? The USDA food pyramid–once the nutritional standard–has come under fire. Research increasingly shows that foods once thought bad are actually important in certain amounts and ratios, and overall we’re finding that food is a matter of relationships. So, to begin with, I must admit that there are no simple rules. One can’t simply […]
50 Games in 50 Weeks: The Play’s The Thing
If you can imagine a Shakespearean role-playing game that’s riotously fun even for those not steeped in Shakespeare, you’d be imagining The Play’s The Thing. The players take on the roles of small-time Shakespearean actors in a play that changes underneath their feet. That, indeed, is the fun: not only can the director interrupt and tell you to do the rest of the scene in Japanese accents, but all the other players can bid to have […]
The Core Productivity Life-Changers
A few habits boosted my productivity dramatically in the last few years. They are presented here in the hopes you find them useful. 1. Schedule half hour chunks of time each day. When you get to work in the morning, or if you have a large chunk of empty time, break that down into half-hour or hour pieces and determine what you’ll do. Combine this with your priorities. You probably […]
50 Games in 50 Weeks: Munchkin
The Munchkin card game models dungeon crawlers who are only interested in killing things and taking their stuff. The game has two decks; the Door Deck contains monsters to fight, while the Treasure Deck contains stuff: a race (elf, dwarf, etc.), a class (cleric, fighter, wizard, etc.), a weapon, or an event. You start the game with a few Treasure cards. On your turn, you draw a Door card. If you […]
50 Games in 50 Weeks: A Game of Thrones: The Card Game
This is a tough review, because I simply didn’t like the Game of Thrones card game. It’s not my kind of game. However, I’d like to play it again at least once, because it has interesting strategy implications. And that is both the positive and negative of the Game of Thrones card game. Imagine Magic: The Gathering with 50% more rules. It’s deep and complex. This can be good or bad, depending […]
50 Games in 50 Weeks: Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride is one of the classic Eurogames. This intimidated me; Eurogames are known for their relative complexity. I’ve only played Ticket to Ride once, and I learned it quickly and had fun. The game is played on a board showing major American cities (there are other versions for other countries, naturally), and colored potential train lines running between them. At any given time, four colored train cards […]
50 Games in 50 Weeks: Dominion
Dominion came out of nowhere a few years ago to become a hugely popular game. Folks just adore this game. I decided to just straight out buy it, based on all the praise I’d heard for it. When I opened the game box, I was taken aback. The base game includes hundreds of cards, and they all seem different. In play, the game makes sense. There are only a few main card types: […]
Seed Suggestions
Some thoughts on planting seeds: where to buy them, how to care for them (including the 3 most important elements of plant care), and a tip on how to keep track of which seeds to plant when. [iframe_loader src=”http://blip.tv/play/AYLvqggA.html? p=1″ frameborder=”0″ width=”500″ height=”300″]
50 Games in 50 Weeks: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is a new tabletop role-playing game that’s garnered a lot of interest lately, partly due to its impressive roster of designers and developers: Cam Banks (Smallville and Leverage RPGs), Rob Donoghue (Spirit of the Century, Dresden Files RPG), Matt Forbeck (Lord of the Rings RPG, Deadlands RPG), Will Hindmarch, and Philippe-Antoine Menard (The Chatty DM). MHR takes an interesting mechanical approach: to perform an action, build a set of dice (a “dice pool”) from elements […]