Weekend Gaming

Fri night we went down to the neighbors and there were lots of kids. I remembered not to teach them Pit, and instead we played "I Doubt You" (you know, B******t).

We play by the rules that when someone is challenged, life continues as normal for the next player. In other words, if you played "9", then the next player still has to play "10" no matter what. This allows you to plan several turns in advance. I usually win with this method of playing, so I wonder if other people had experiences with different rules.

Sat afternoon I played St Petersburg, 3 player, my second game. Very nice game, but I am already seeing that the aristocrats are pretty strong, and the buildings much less so. I`ll have to play a few more times, but it might be good to simply give 3 points for each aristocrat, or cap it at 5 points each. The game is sort of halfway between San Juan and Puerto Rico in execution and strategy. Fun.

Meanwhile, I finished reading Dice Games by Knizia, and I'm starting Card Games by Sackson. You really learn about what Reiner considers fun in Dice Games. Half of the games are straight luck games with absolutely no decision making! A large number are casino games, and just a few are games like Yachtsee and Liar's Dice. Very funny.

Sackson, meanwhile, just lists the rules to a hundred card games he knows from around the world, and I have to say, some of these games look really good. As in 'might give bridge a run for its money' good, and I think bridge is so far and above any other card game I ever played that that is saying a lot.

The question remains: where the heck have these games been my whole life? While I was stuck playing Battleship and Hearts (which is actually 'Black Widow', according to Sackson), many of these games look as good as or better than hosts of Eurogames, but I never even heard of them. If I didn't have all of these neat new designer games to play, you can bet that I would be teaching people these games.

Yehuda