Session Report, in which I have bad luck in Cities and Knights of Catan

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Quest Adventure Cards, Santiago, Cities and Knights of Catan.

We try out Quest Adventure Cards (full review coming to Purple Pawn soon), discover that Santiago doesn't work as well with three players, and I have astoundingly bad luck with the dice in Cities and Knights.

I have now packed away most of my games in preparation for moving.

Session Report, in which we teach a visiting player Homesteaders

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: San Juan, Odin's Ravens, Homesteaders, Tribune, Tichu.

We entertain a visitor to Israel, an experienced gamer from Germany.

Actually, the session report is pretty boring. So anyway:

Israeli Tournament: Dragonicon

There will be a game convention at Bar Ilan University on Thursday August 18th, from 8:30 am until 9:30 pm (or so). Games will be RPG, mini, board and card games. Entrance is 60 (or maybe 65) NIS for the day. More info (in Hebrew).

Anyone Else Want to Produce My Game?

Reiver Games aka Jackson Pope has finally sold off the remaining stock of the second edition of my game It's Alive! and released the rights back to me.

So, any other publishers interested in producing it? It's still a game that I enjoy playing, and I'm a pretty fierce critic of games, you know. I'm especially interested in retrying it with a religious theme (Menorah, Santa, etc) which would immediately make it one of the few decent religious games on the market.

I still have a few copies of the second edition, as well as a few of the prototypes from the original Menorah version.

Board Game Blog World Roundup

Time for another roundup of board game related blogs that are new to me since my last roundup. These are blogs that update with some regularity and that cover general board game topics. As usual, I also dropped a number of blogs that haven't updated in the last several months.

A note about this blog: this blog has been pretty slow for the past two years, since I've been concentrating on Purple Pawn. Traffic has slowed to around 150 visits per day. My advertisers have all bolted. C'est la vie. This is likely to continue for the foreseeable future: a weekly session report, the occasional snippet about my life or something humorous, an occasional philosophical musing on gaming, and my travel adventures (look for daily trip reports and pictures in November).

2d6 - Kevin, Marco, Bob, George, Eric, Landon. Written and video reviews.

Cartrunk Entertainment - John Moller, Wyoming, DE. On games and gaming events.

Castelli Board Game Reviews - Harry max Ryan, Sydney, Australia. Podcast and reviews.

Debbie's Board Gaming Book - Debbie Ohi, Toronto, CA. Board game cartoons and stuff.

Deck Building Games - Jeremy Mueller, Portland, OR (I think). All about the title.

Dice Food Lodging - Tim Rodriguez, NY. Podcast on games.

Drunken Goblin - Mike Devonald, Bristol, UK.

FANTASARD - Tony, Faye, and Mark, New Zealand. Fantasy meets war gaming.

Game People - Ed Stephens, somewhere in the UK. The board game section of a gaming site.

North of Reality - Sean Johnson, Avon, IN. A pastor on board games.

Perpetual Geek Machine - Kevin Alexander, Dan Zuccarelli, Ryan Hewson. Game reviews and stuff.

Tabletop Hell - Branko, Serbia. Sessions, thoughts, etc. Also runs TCG Hell.

The Card Gamer - David, Cleveland, OH. Reviews and video reviews.

The Dump Stat - Gregory Schuster, Japan. RPGs and other games.

The Game Traveler - Daniel M. Perez, Miami, FL. Highmoon Games hosted podcast.

The Noble Gamer - Ian Noble, El Dorado Hills, CA.

Session Report, in which I grimace through an entire game of A Touch of Evil

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: A Touch of Evil, Vegas Showdown.

First play for all of us for A Touch of Evil.

Real Estate Agents Think I'm an Idiot

"Here's the bathroom. That's the shower. There are tiles on the floor. And over here is a kitchen. See that six foot tall, three foot wide large box like object with two handles with the word 'Amana' written on in? That's the refrigerator. It's a big refrigerator. You can put food in it for shabbat. Or if you're having a party, you can also put food in it. Here is a sink. You could put a table here. Or you could put it here."

Shut. Up.

I've seen a lot of acceptable, some nice, and some very nice apartments in Raanana. I nearly took one that was stunning, but I would have ended up paying more than I wanted to pay, and he appeared to be taking less than he wanted to accept, and we were still haggling over terms (not the price). I decided to pass, after all.

The agent who showed me today's apartments takes a month rent from BOTH seller and buyer, which is simply ridiculous; I thought agents only took from one or the other. He didn't provide much in the way of service, other than to show up late, get in my way, make promises I know he won't keep ("I'll tell the owner to put in central a/c for you!"), and annoy me.

Which is a pity, because the first apt he showed me I would take at the listed price, but after paying his fee, the price bumps up to 10% more (a month plus VAT divided over a year's rental), and that's above my price range. There are so many apts listed for rent, with dozens as nice and equivalent in price to the ones he showed me, that I can afford to be picky.

More days of uncertainty. Wish I didn't have to move at all.

Session Report, in which we are uninspired by Canal Mania

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Canal Mania, El Grande.

Our group was not inspired by Canal Mania, but they only played a third of a game. A pity.