Gaming in Dayton

Dayton's game group generally only meets on shabbat, which would preclude me from attending. Perhaps in response to my request for an alternative day for gaming while I was in the area, or simply by coincidence, one of the gamers - Bruce - held a day of gaming in his house this past Sunday.



Bruce. Note the three shelves stacked with games behind him.

Although Bruce's house appears on Google Maps if you know where to look, searching for the street, or the cross-street, or any other street nearby only yields locations in other parts of Dayton. I managed to find his street on GM only by visually tracing the directions he gave out on the Dayton gamers mailing list (directions which were not otherwise helpful to me, as they assumed an origin from the north) until I located his street. Then I clicked the street and asked for "directions to here". At which point GM grudgingly admitted that the street existed, and spit out the directions.



Upstairs, from sometime before I arrived at 2, until sometime after I left at 7, four or five people played one of the Axis And Allies games.

Football games were shown continually and in succession on large screen TVs upstairs, and smaller screens downstairs.



Downstairs a group was playing Chaos in the Old World when I arrived.



When I left, some of these same people, and some additional ones, were playing Battlestar Galactica.

I saw a copy of Dominion Intrigue, and although I already have a copy waiting for me in Toronto, I wanted to get in a play. It also played quickly and for two to four people, which would make it convenient while I waited for others. We played four players: myself, Jim, Bruce, and David. I think. I may have the names or people wrong.

Our kingdom set contained none of the new hybrid kingdoms, which made things a little less confusing. There were a number of cards that looked quite good but that I didn't get to play: such as the card that gave you two of +2 coins, actions, or cards, depending on the top two cards in the deck of the player on your left.

I played Upgrades and a lot of trashing. After a dozen turns, I still had around 12 to 15 cards, just none of them were Estates or Coppers. I also trashed curses as they came in. I also played another card that we misplayed: I read it as giving you +4 coins if you trash an Estate, but you actually have to discard the Estate, not trash it. Oops. Luckily I'm not the only one who played it incorrectly.

I began drawing Provinces well ahead of everyone else. I won, but a little closer than i would have liked. I had 36, David 29, Bruce 22 or so, and Jim, who had played the original much less and seemed to have some trouble grasping the game gestalt, finished with 3 (13 less 10 curses).



After that we briefly considered a few games that could accommodate 6 players (or splitting up into two groups, or not letting Bruce play) and settled on History of the World.

I'd played once, and wasn't too impressed, it being a dice-based combat game, and a fairly long one at that. However, I was willing to play nearly any game, so long as it wasn't Fluxx.

My opinion of the game went up a notch; ok, it's more enjoyable than Risk. And the game experience was certainly fun, since the group of players was good company. However, the game is still inordinately luck based. You don't lose too much when you lose as defender, like you do in Risk, but failing to win combat as the aggressor is just as painful as it is in Risk. Furthermore, so much depends on the kingdoms you draw in each of the seven rounds, and there is far too little control about that.

Whatever, we had a good 3.5 hours rolling the dice and moving our counters on and off the board. I rolled fairly well most of the time. Bruce rolled fairly poorly most of the time, and he still equaled my score. Jim and David both shined. We only made it to the end of the fifth turn. It was running late, and one of the players had to go. Our points ranged from 115 to 95, with me tied with Bruce for fourth and fifth place at 100 points even.

The players were nice, and the day was enjoyable. It was good to meet them. Unfortunately, I didn't get to show off It's Alive. And I didn't get a chance to see anything else in Dayton.

Hueston Woods State Park

Some 20 minutes north of Miami University, Hueston Woods State Park is a small lake surrounded by short hikes and picnic grounds, riding, boating, a small nature center and a small beach. The park is entirely tame, the hikes are very simple. Yet it's a very beautiful spot.



Alien brain pods scattered around the park.




















We spent the morning walking some of the trails. Rachel likes to get us lost on purpose during a hike. She was happy. We were never lost for very long, though the trails are not well marked.

Silvoor Biological Sanctuary

Friday I walked around the Silvoor Biological Sanctuary ...







One of several plaques



















Rickety bridge

I also stopped at the University Coop bookstore, which was a waste of time for anyone not interested in either U of M branded memorabilia or textbooks.

Sat afternoon Rachel and I started a Scrabble game, but she quit about halfway in, when it was clear she was losing. She was also playing with the most liberal two-letter word list I've ever seen (included CE, VE, VI, and others that are not generally accepted).

A Trip, But Not a Vacation

At least, not yet.

Every other time I've traveled, I went out every day, camera and curious eye ready to see and report on something new. This trip, I've just been holed up in the house, working, just as if I was in Israel. One town is really like another with your head down over your laptop, brother.

Even shabbat is going to be here, in Oxford.

I can't let next week pass this way. As soon as the important work is done, I have to get out on the town.

Yehuda

Session Report, in which they play Fluxx while I'm away, thank God

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Fluxx, Amun-Re, Tichu.

First of four sessions at Nadine's house, while I'm away.

When Did Lectures Become Entertainment?

I guess I always saw "lectures" listed next to movies, dance, theater, and so on, but somehow I never connected them to entertainment.

I must be an adult.

Seeing how Rachel prepares for her "performances", having prepared my own, having gone to a lecture about Darwin's influence on American culture last night, and recalling all the TED presentations I've now seen, I am now connected to the fact that lectures are entertainment. One man/woman plays.

Even more: lectures are verbal blogging. A post in a series of posts and responses in the continuous global forum.

Oxford Pictures

First pictures of Oxford. I haven't gotten out much, yet.



Just outside of Oxford is a small lake. We stopped at the lake to tovel some dishes and silverware.



Rachel



Rachel tovelling



Off the side of the street on which Rachel is living, Silvoor Lane, Oxford



View down Silvoor Lane, towards Chestnut Street



Reverse view down Silvoor Lane



At the beginning of Silvoor Lane, there are steps down to the Silvoor Biological Sanctuary; I haven't explored it, yet



Fall colors on the Miami University campus



A Halloween banner on Dodds Hall



Leaves on grass



Xylophone players; in the background, hundreds of students practiced some kind of half-time show for a sporting event



A percussionist



The Ohio license plate reads "Birthplace of Aviation"



A Game of Thrones players at the Miami University Strategy Gaming Club



Pathfinder players at the MUSGC



Magic players at the MUSGC

Miami Magic and the Missing Mana

Student life is vibrant at Miami University. Buildings and houses are still adorned with Halloween decorations. Banners call passersby to dances and performances. Students outside are engaged in discussion, music, and performance.

I met up with the Miami University Strategy Gaming Club, which meets Sunday and Tuesday evenings. The group started with wargaming and RPGs back in the mid-seventies, and was revived again by, among others, Dave Chalker in the late nineties/early aughts. Unfortunately, I didn't keep notes and so don't recall anyone's name (they were all nice people, however).

Five or six people played Pathfinder. The GM used his computer and an overhead projector to display the battlefield, and he positioned the virtual PCs in their locations, including such enhancements as line-of-sight, and so on. They all seemed to be having fun.

Three people played board games, from a stack which included the long and complex - Game of Thrones, Twilight Imperium III - and the very chaotic - Fluxx, Munchkin, Junta, etc, with nothing in between. There were no middle of the road strategy games like Settlers or Puerto Rico. I opted out of playing any of these. Later in the evening I convinced them to try It's Alive, I have no idea how it went over, except that they didn't play it a second time.

Around twelve people, including myself, played Magic: the Gathering. Eight of us played a tournament. We "booster" drafted from a collection of excellent cards from the past five years or so. Many rares and powerful cards in the lot, as well as some key commons such as Incinerate and Terror.

The remaining players played a Magic variant where you can play with any cards you want, but with only one of each card in the deck and a minimum deck size of 100 cards. Kind of bizarre.

All the players are regular players, with up to date knowledge of all the cards and how to integrate current strategy and tactics. My last analysis of Magic was around 4th edition, though I've played with the commons and uncommons of many of the sets since. None from the last year or so, however. I expected a) to take a much longer time drafting and playing than any of the other players, and b) to lose badly. But it looked like a challenge.

It's tough drafting when you have no idea of the relative worth of the cards you're seeing. And when of the fifteen cards from which you have to pick, four or five of them are simply awesome. I drafted nearly entirely black/red, with nothing but direct damage, creature kill, mana diversity and boosters, and fliers. I played a little light on land, only 15, plus some mana boosters, but it was also only a two color deck, and it was hard already leaving out cards that killed multiple creatures. Back in my hometown, the deck was unbelievably strong. How would it hold up here?

Against my first opponent, the answer was "fantastic". In our two games, I took maybe four points of damage in game two. His problem was, his deck was a control deck that used my creatures against me, but I had very little in the way of creatures. So he sat empty while I killed what he played and burned him down. I was surprised at my easy victory, and got a little cocky. Needless to say I lost the next two matches.

Both of them were very close. I went 2 games to 1 against both opponents, and in one of each of the games that I lost against each opponent I had him down to 1 point.

In my second match, my opponent played white, blue, and green. I lost the first game because he got out a nifty combination of cards: one imprinted a creature from his hand, so that, every round, he could pay its mana cost and bring out a copy of that creature; and the creature he imprinted was a Clone.

This also depended on me playing creatures he could use, but not entirely; he could target his own creatures as well. I got stuck. I also misplayed, having a hard time wrapping my head around the combination, and ended up giving him my cards to copy at the wrong times. He managed to clone one of his own creatures that let him draw two cards whenever such a creature came into play. He was drawing so many cards, he had to toss.

I won the next game, but lost the third from not having enough mana in my deck. I considered adding more mana to my deck, but I was reluctant to toss anything.

In the third match, I won the first game; he played a black and white deck, with multicolor splash. He knocked me down to 10, but I killed everything he had and then burned him. In the second game, I was a little light in mana, and he got out better cards, too many for me to control. In the third, I simply didn't draw lands until it was far too late. So I should have thrown in another land or two, after all. Die and learn.

Still, four games won and four lost, is not bad.

Where the golden grain dwarf the lovely flowers

Cincinnati international airport is not, in fact, in Cincinnati. It's not even in Ohio. It's located in Boone County, Kentucky It's not owned or operated by Boone County, Kentucky. Kenton County, Kentucky, which owns and operates the airport, makes a boatload of money off of this strange arrangement.

It's a pretty country, and it reminds me in many ways of the outskirts of Ithaca, NY. Still, there is something depressing about rural America, and its homogenized stream of endless car dealerships, fast food restaurants, strip malls with cheap plastic and metal objects, supermarkets with 60 different types of processed everything, small farmyards, and churches.

This is just the outside. Inside, most everyone is polite and kind. Even the no-nonsense monotonous troopers at the BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) were polite. Thick-headed, but polite.

Rachel tried to get her photo taken for an American driver's license, but their policy is that everyone has to have uncovered hair for the photo. As a religious Jewish woman, naturally she objected to this. To which we were told that there is an exception for Muslim women, but not for Jewish women.

Way to turn respecting a religious difference into a case of religious discrimination, guys.

Any idiot could see that the same principle should apply here and get on with the photo, but the clerk had only heard of Jewish people putting head coverings on in synagogue, and so wasn't convinced that this was an actual religious problem. She still wasn't convinced after being shown both an Israeli driver's license and a Canadian passport, all with pictures of Rachel with her hair covered.

Four phone calls later to various supervisors, and she was given the go-ahead to let Rachel take the picture with her hat on.

Rachel's car insurance was willing to cover my driving the car under my Israeli driver's license (which I can do so legally for 1 year), but only if I got an Ohio driver's license as soon as possible. No problem. I scheduled the first available driving test at the BMV, which will be on December 2. I'm leaving Ohio November 18.

I'm hoping to hit the Miami University strategy game club this evening.