d20-3 Delightful Lunch Boxes Full of Games

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So as you may or may not know, work has been less than satisfying, to say the least. Thus I am going to engage the Delightful Thing Every Day emergency program until at least my transfer date. I’ll try to blog every day about it. Lots of d20 rolling, in other words.

So, delightful thing of the day: a Star Trek lunchbox full of card games. And meaty card games at that. Well, a tendency towards meaty. Let me count the ways! Or at least, the card games.

Bohnanza. A card game fueled by trading. Super interactive and simple to learn, and supporting 2 to something like 7 players, it’s perfect to bring to game nights for something a little bit meaty.

Citadels. A classic, also supports 2 to 7 players. It’s role selection with hidden information. You use the abilities of your role to build districts, get money for those districts (which will yield points at the end of the game), and also interact with other players.

Flash Duel. This is an upgrade of Knizia’s original En Garde, and I know there’s plenty of controversy surrounding it for that reason. But it’s a good game nonetheless, with special powers and additional team play options as well as 4 versus 1. Supports 1 to 5 players.

Innovation. In addition, its two expansions, separated rather than mixed together. With rather unique mechanics, this is one of the few civilization building games that completes itself in 30 minutes. Supports 2 to 4 players.

Race for the Galaxy. In addition, its three expansions minus any cards that refer to prestige or player fighting. So it’s the base game plus more variation; no need for the extra complications of those two rulesets. Simultaneous role selection, in spaaaaaaaace.

Glory to Rome. I haven’t yet played this, but despite its cartoony artwork, it’s supposed to be a pretty awesome game. Role selection as well using a follow-the-trick mechanic, with cards that serve multiple purposes. Probably the most complex game of the lot.

Currently I’m contemplating adding San Juan, which is role selection as drafting combined with buildings with special abilities. It’s a toned-down version of Race for the Galaxy. It would replace the current odd-ball Coloretto, which is very much a filler.

d20-7 Looking for Lunch Boxes to Store Games In

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Two days ago I received my Double Decktet from The Game Crafter. The quality was quite satisfactory, without any die-cut errors. The stickers for the suit chips were alright, not as misaligned as some I’ve seen on BoardGameGeek. I am really very happy with this set, although I wish the suit chips were smaller, they do fit into the My Little Pony lunchbox neatly.

I also found the cards compact enough to fit in a copy of the Vanessa Tarot to play Gnostica and Zarcana with. There’s little room in the box for rules, but I figure that I can use my Kindle Paperwhite for bought books (like the revised and expanded Decktet Book) and my iPad for the various game system wikis (such as the Decktet Wiki, Icehouse Games wiki, and the Piecepack wiki).

I can actually fit in a few more things, so I’ve been thinking about what to fit. I need some Ice Dice (I have the die face images to make my own with), the World War 5 map, player shields (for RAMbots and possibly other games), and so on. As well as a score track bandana of some sort; not sure where to get one, exactly, but it’s necessary for one of the Decktet games.

I went looking for the Doctor Who metal lunchbox, but it wasn’t available from my local game store (which had them in stock two weeks ago; I guess I should have picked it up then). I wanted to put non-game-system card games in there, like Bohnanza, No Mercy, Fairy Tale, etc. Extra points if I can fit in both Race for the Galaxy plus expansions and Smash Up plus expansions.

Instead I picked up a Star Trek (Classic) lunch box, which is likely to be roomier than the Doctor Who box by just a little bit. I plan to stock it full of card games temporarily, but then move the card games to the Doctor Who lunchbox and store tile-based games in the Star Trek box. I’m thinking Dragons of Kir (along with my second chessboard bandana), flat chess pieces (for me to craft somehow, probably using wooden circles bought from Michael’s or something) along with Knightmare Chess, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers along with another score track bandana or some such, and so on.

I love this idea of packing as many games as possible into a small space. I’m aware that carrying three lunch boxes is a bit of a drag, but still.

So excited. This will be awesome. I’ll see about posting pictures, glorious pictures, when I’m done packing the Star Trek box.

Hm. Just had another thought. What if I used a lunchbox to pack in as many exclusively two-player games as possible? Like the Kosmos 2-player line? SO EXCITE.

d20-3 Update on the Box of Game Systems

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Partially exploded from my metal lunchbox: 6 full icehouse stashes, 5×5 Volcano grid, 4 Martian Coasters, JCD color piecepack from Blue Panther, Crown Royal bag, chessboard bandana, various dice, decktet.

Soon to be added: professionally printed double decktet and 60 decktet suit coins.

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Everything packed up inside. I think there’s enough room for the coming new stuff.

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All closed up and ready to go. Rules are on my Kindle Paperwhite.

d20-18 I can’t write and I’m not worth anything

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Maybe I should get rid of this category on the d20. I haven’t been able to “write write”, that is, write fiction. I lost a friend through my own fault (what does it matter if I blame myself? It still happened, it was still my fault, and I learned nothing, and I’m a base creature who learns nothing from her experiences, so why should I be alive? And so on), and so far it’s tanked my desire to do anything of the nature I had been doing up until that loss.

On the other hand, I can blog. Kinda. That’s been coming back gradually, though I doubt I’m ever going to do change logs again. It just hurts too damn much. In fact, I think I’m going to cry for a while after this entry.

If blogging comes back gradually, then maybe the writing of fiction can too. If it does, it’s going to come back irrevocably changed; there’s no way I can write a jaunty little romance tinged with sadness. I’m going to open a vein all the way, instead, and spill it on the paper. Or the screen. You know what I mean.

It’s a shame. I have an iPad I enjoy writing on (at least, the writing I can do right now) and I wish I could fill its days with something.

Of course, I have a tendency to do the exact opposite of what I say I can’t do. It’s a quirk of mine that I guess people don’t understand. I don’t really understand it myself.

How did I ever get away from my parents?

d20-17 Life on a Boat

By Posted in Spontaneous Tagged , 2 Comments

Mother’s Day has come and gone, and I spent the weekend conscious and at a friend’s place. We watched Tipping the Velvet and Doctor Who “Crimson Horror” and “Nightmare in Silver”. I talked a bit about my parents; it was the usual horror show.

We ate a lot of sheep cheese and goat cheese. There was no halloumi so I suggested (thank you, Mark Spoils) slicing up a normal goat cheese log, dipping it in egg and then rolling it in ground-up walnuts, and pan-frying it. With a honey goat cheese log, this experiment resulted in absolute deliciousness. As for the sheep cheese, I brought along some very solid sheep cheeses from Town & Country. All of these paired well with the Blue Diamond artisan gluten-free vegan nut crackers.

I felt safe with two other people in the place. I didn’t take any Xanax even! (I actually left the bottle at home because I didn’t want to be tempted.)

We were going to play games, but all we managed to play with me in such a state was Settlers of Catan, using the two-player variant (along with the Catan event cards) in Traders & Barbarians. I’m so happy that the two-player worked out! I worried that it might not; but the trade tokens were the perfect addition, as well as the dummy players that took up good spaces on the board.

I’ve just showered and feel pretty good, except for the part where I forgot to pack another morning’s worth of meds, which may mean I go home early today. Or not; I have been able to survive single days with late meds, so hopefully that’s also today. I honestly look forwards more to going home than to anything else at this point… save the new job position. Which unfortunately won’t be for several more weeks.

All in all, life is pretty good. I’m going to work shortly. Thank gods there isn’t a long extended ferry ride (but on the other hand, there isn’t a long extended ferry ride).

Rewatch: Puella Magi Madoka Magica 1×01: I First Met Her in a Dream… or Something

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Spoilers abound. I recommend this series highly; you can watch it online for free, officially and all that, at Crunchyroll. There are only 12 episodes, and it’s quite an experience.

These rewatch posts will spoil everything in PMMM front, sideways, backways, and seventeen ways from Sunday. I highly recommend watching the series in full, first.

You have been warned!

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