Games in Transit

My game collection is fluid.

I have previously bought and sold several games: Bang!, Settlers of Catan Card Game, Bohnanza, Citadels. I have traded others.

I just sold Acquire, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, and Harry Potter Quiddich Card Game to my brother for $30 total - to be used to buy a new game.

Currently sitting on my shelves are games that are not mine: Amun-Re, Dvonn, Taj Mahal, Evo, Strange Synergy, Chez Geek 1 and 2, Oasis, and Attika, all from Yaron's Tel Aviv group, and Web of Power and Hansa from Gilad's collection. In the meantime, Yaron has our San Juan (one copy), Die Macher (which is really David K's), Goa, and Through the Desert, while Gilad has our Torres.

Some of the other games I have were bought by me, some were bought by the group. New ones are on the way: Lord of the Rings the Confrontation which I traded for, Puerto Rico expansion.

If you look at the games we play each week in my session reports, some games come in, peak and leave. Others get played regularly, others get played consistently but infrequently. Same with players: they come, they go, some come regularly, some come consistently but infrequently.

Every week is a new week, and a new experience. Something that is almost entirely not like the bridge clubs I know: same game, same people - but different hands, fascinating and interesting every week. Theirs is the depth first/gain mastery experience. Ours in the breadth/wide and new experience.

Does this say something about me as a person?

I like going to the bridge club. Really, I do. But I don't go. I suppose that if I didn't have my own game group, I would be playing bridge each week. But I wasn't, really. I was playing Magic and D&D. If there had been a central Magic/D&D club with a lot of people I probably would have gone every week.

Actually, there is a Magic tourney every week in the mall, but it requires buying new cards every week, or collecting and buying expensive cards to compete. The playing is more mercenary, less friendly, and the players are pre-army teenagers with disposable income from allowances or jobs.

I wish I had just one more night a week to play. You know. Once in my own club, and once out at a bridge club. That way I could get both experiences. When my children are more grown up, I guess I will have that luxury.

I buy new games in the hope that the next game will be the next great one that enters heavy rotation in the playlist. I get rid of ones that don't get played any more. That's the way it goes.

"Just a box of rain - wind and water - Believe it if you need it, if you don't just pass it on" - GD

Yehuda