Writer Report: Don't Forget To Be Awesome

Writer Report: Don't Forget To Be Awesome — Blue Ink Alchemy

Rather than bore you with my usual drivel on how Cold Streets is moving forward at a pretty good pace for a glacier and making all sorts of excuses, here's John Green discussing the whys and wherefores of people reading in the first place. CrashCourse is a phenomenal series and if you're not watching it already, you should be.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Desert Bus, Act 6

Desert Bus, Act 6 — Blue Ink Alchemy

_{(With apologies to William Shakespeare)} To bus, or not to bus. That is the question — Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous tedium, Or to take arms against a sea of terrible games, And, by opposing, end them? To quit, to sleep— No more — and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand spattered bugs That game is heir to — 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished! To quit, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream — ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of quitting what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this Sega CD, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long a marathon. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' highway's length, the wheel's necess'ry justments, The pangs of despised hours, the end's delay, The insolence of comments, and the spurns That patient merit of th' others take, When he himself might his quietus make With a pulled plug? Who would travels bear, To grunt and sweat with a sweaty gamepad, But that the dread of never helping children, The undispensed charity from whose bosom No comfort issues, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those roads we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus the Moonbase does make donors of us all, And thus the loading bars of livestreams Give way unto the pale cast of the room, And an enterprise of great pith and moment With this regard makes ready our captive eyes, As once again, we run to Vegas. Or, you know, back to Tuscon. Depending on what hour it is. Loading Ready Run's Desert Bus begins tomorrow.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

FNM: You Can Dance If You Want To

FNM: You Can Dance If You Want To — Blue Ink Alchemy

Art by Slawomir Maniak To be blunt, I wouldn't have this deck idea without Magic the Gathering Online. There was a time when I scoffed at the idea of playing Magic on the Internet through a sanctioned client. I'm not talking about Duels of the Planeswalkers, the 2013 version of which I'll review once I play a Planechase game or two. No, I'm talking about the actual, Wizards-approved, "Here is the Magic experience as close as we can make it without making your computer print cards" client. Meaning one must use actual money to pay for virtual booster packs. As much as one might discount this idea as a money grab, the idea that one can practice drafting at any time rather than waiting for a weekend or a get-together with friends is an overwhelming one. Limited format Magic is a different kettle of chips from Constructed. It takes practice, a slightly different mindset from Constructed play, and a willingness to think outside of established parameters. As much as you might like a certain color combination, say black and green, if you get nothing but blue rares and no good cards outside of red, being stuck in the black/green mindset will mean you've lost long before your first game begins. I will discuss Limited play another time, but suffice it to say I drafted an interesting deck the last time I played. Its core card was [mtg_card]Sphere of Safety[/mtg_card]. My first copy was an early pick out of a pretty lackluster pack, and after seeing what it does I started picking up as many useful enchantments as possible: [mtg_card]Chronic Flooding[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Arrest[/mtg_card], and so on. While I only won one match during the event, I still had a blast playing the deck, and a couple of my opponents complimented me on my esoteric but powerful choice. So I returned to my beloved Standard with my Izzet Controlled Burn deck in hand, and checked out the scene at the King of Prussia mall. Alas, my first choice, Cyborg One in Doylestown, is now a bit of a hike to get to. The new place had a decent turn-out, and I did all right but fell in the first round to an aggressive Golgari deck that ended up winning the entire event. Aggression can be hard for control decks to deal with, and as disappointed as I was in a few mis-plays on my part, my mind kept coming back to the [mtg_card]Sphere of Safety[/mtg_card] idea. At first the thought was to cram as many enchantments as possible into the deck so that attacking me or my planeswalkers becomes ridiculously expensive as quickly as possible. However, relying on the appearance of [mtg_card]Azor's Elocutors[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Jace, Memory Adept[/mtg_card] could make for very long games. I love good old-fashioned mill decks as much as the last Revised veteran, and the idea of talking an opponent into submission is hilarious to me, but at least in the initial encounter, the potential to deal game-winning damage is never a bad option to have. [mtg_deck title="Standard Safety Dance"] // Creatures 4 Invisible Stalker 4 Geist of Saint Traft 1 Bruna, Light of Alabaster // Enchantments 4 Bonds of Faith 4 Detention Sphere 4 Sphere of Safety 3 Oblivion Ring 2 Curiosity 2 Martial Law // Instants 4 Azorius Charm 4 Dissipate // Planeswalkers 2 Jace, Memory Adept // Land 8 Island 10 Plains 4 Hallowed Fountain // Sideboard 4 Chronic Flooding 4 Soul Tithe 3 Negate 2 Azor's Elocutors 2 Knight of Glory [/mtg_deck] You'll notice that all of the creatures, save for [mtg_card]Bruna, Light of Alabaster[/mtg_card], have Hexproof. This means that, for the most part, an opponent's creature removal is useless. Provided this deck can win the first game of a match, it's likely they will sideboard out some of that removal for any enchantment hate they have. I, on the other hand, am free to board in [mtg_card]Negate[/mtg_card] which will deal with both those spells and any remaining removal, and [mtg_card]Azor's Elocutors[/mtg_card] for a filibustery second game. It's certainly not your normal Standard deck, but I think it'll be just as much fun for my opponents to discover what I'm playing and how I'd win as it will be for me to plan ahead, execute gambits, and come at victory from outside the box. How does the deck look to you? What suggestions would you make? Is there a particular deck or card you'd like me to discuss? I plan on laying out my thoughts on Limited next time - specifically, I'm going to tell you what it means to 'brew' up a good draft or sealed deck.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Board or Bored?

Board or Bored? — Blue Ink Alchemy

"I don't play board games," my lovely wife says. "They're boring." In the case of 'older' board games, the ones I and most kids grew up with, like Monopoly or Risk or Chutes'n'Ladders, I'd be inclined to agree. Chutes'n'Ladders is an extremely randomized game. Risk involves a great deal of downtime between turns, provided you're not in an opponent's direct path, and turns get progressively longer as the players with board advantage begin to dominate the others. Monopoly has both of these problems and the added issue of money being involved (even if it is fake money). However, if you've been following me for a while, and especially remember posts like this where I discuss games that aren't played with a joystick or gamepad, you're probably aware that board games outside the old and tired Parker Brothers standards exist. There are a few in particular that I've played which, in my opinion, really break away from the idea that board games are boring. SmallWorld springs immediately to mind. The game is one of territory control, with fantasy races endowed with special powers vying for position. There is very little die rolling, unlike Risk - players rely on numerical superiority and careful planning before their turns. Said turns are rather short, leading to little downtime, and even when it isn't your turn, it behooves you to watch the board, as positions can change very quickly based on who chooses which race/power combination. And don't worry about one position on the map being better than another. There's no 'Australia' portion that, when taken, guarantees victory. No matter how attached you might get to your Dragon Master Giants, sooner or later you're going to run out of troops, and must go into Decline to choose a new race. This keeps the game vital for all of its turns and never lets things settle into a 'status quo' situation. If you want a less direct means of competing with your friends, a 'worker placement' game might be more your speed, a great introductory example of which is Lords of Waterdeep. Set in one of the largest cities in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting of Forgotten Realms, the game casts its players as one of the eponymous Lords, who compete with one another for control of the city through agents and adventurers. Agents move through the city, gathering resources for their Lords, engaging the services of builders, and inviting adventurers to their Lord's tavern. From the tavern, adventurers are sent on quests, which garner more riches and renown for the Lord who sent them. With Intrigue actions, mandatory quests that can be played on other players, and the ways in which play order can change, this is another game where 'status quo' is not something that really exists. The pace of play is even faster than in SmallWorld, with each player taking one action in turn as they try to gather enough resources to score the most points. Between these aspects, the replayability inherent in the structure of quests and buildings, and the fantastic aesthetic and pieces, this is a game I feel I need to play more often. The only conflict between players exists in the Intrigue cards, and this can be modified for a group's liking if they'd rather not stab each other incessantly in the back, which in my experience is the only thing that can make Lords of Waterdeep not fun. Most of the Lords, after all, are humans or demihumans; none of them are trolls. But let's say you don't want to compete at all. You'd much rather work together with others towards a common goal; for example, saving the world from some global threat. Don't fret, Pandemic has you covered. I could also mention Arkham Asylum, and while that game is a ton of fun to play in a large group, it does take some time to play through and there can be some stretches of downtime involved for individual players. Pandemic, on the other hand, has the advantages of easy setup, fast pace, and encouraged cooperation. The players are members of an elite team of specialists working together to contain several epidemics of disease around the globe, trying to keep them from combining into a global pandemic. Each turn, players move around the world, treating disease and gathering data for cures. However, at the end of a player's turn, more cases of disease crop up, and if a city hits critical mass, there's an outbreak. The world can only take so many outbreaks and epidemics before the entire population begins coughing, puking, dropping over, and bleeding out. It's a tense game that sucks you in. There are many ways to lose in Pandemic, and as much as it sucks to not prevail in a game, it's still fun to play even when it feels like the game is out to get you (which, by the way, it is.) Those are three board games that, off the top of my head, absolutely destroy the notion that board games are the same old tired distraction trotted out at family gatherings to keep conversations from getting stale. I could go on to talk about some favorite card games - Chez Geek, Cards Against Humanity, Fluxx - or dice games - Elder Sign, Zombie Dice - but for now, I will leave you in the capable hands of Wil Wheaton. Watch him and his friends play SmallWorld here or Pandemic here. I'm still waiting on a Lords of Waterdeep episode... And of the games mentioned, my wife has played... none of them. Yet. This makes me sad.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Board or Bored?

Board or Bored? — Blue Ink Alchemy

"I don't play board games," my lovely wife says. "They're boring." In the case of 'older' board games, the ones I and most kids grew up with, like Monopoly or Risk or Chutes'n'Ladders, I'd be inclined to agree. Chutes'n'Ladders is an extremely randomized game. Risk involves a great deal of downtime between turns, provided you're not in an opponent's direct path, and turns get progressively longer as the players with board advantage begin to dominate the others. Monopoly has both of these problems and the added issue of money being involved (even if it is fake money). However, if you've been following me for a while, and especially remember posts like this where I discuss games that aren't played with a joystick or gamepad, you're probably aware that board games outside the old and tired Parker Brothers standards exist. There are a few in particular that I've played which, in my opinion, really break away from the idea that board games are boring. SmallWorld springs immediately to mind. The game is one of territory control, with fantasy races endowed with special powers vying for position. There is very little die rolling, unlike Risk - players rely on numerical superiority and careful planning before their turns. Said turns are rather short, leading to little downtime, and even when it isn't your turn, it behooves you to watch the board, as positions can change very quickly based on who chooses which race/power combination. And don't worry about one position on the map being better than another. There's no 'Australia' portion that, when taken, guarantees victory. No matter how attached you might get to your Dragon Master Giants, sooner or later you're going to run out of troops, and must go into Decline to choose a new race. This keeps the game vital for all of its turns and never lets things settle into a 'status quo' situation. If you want a less direct means of competing with your friends, a 'worker placement' game might be more your speed, a great introductory example of which is Lords of Waterdeep. Set in one of the largest cities in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting of Forgotten Realms, the game casts its players as one of the eponymous Lords, who compete with one another for control of the city through agents and adventurers. Agents move through the city, gathering resources for their Lords, engaging the services of builders, and inviting adventurers to their Lord's tavern. From the tavern, adventurers are sent on quests, which garner more riches and renown for the Lord who sent them. With Intrigue actions, mandatory quests that can be played on other players, and the ways in which play order can change, this is another game where 'status quo' is not something that really exists. The pace of play is even faster than in SmallWorld, with each player taking one action in turn as they try to gather enough resources to score the most points. Between these aspects, the replayability inherent in the structure of quests and buildings, and the fantastic aesthetic and pieces, this is a game I feel I need to play more often. The only conflict between players exists in the Intrigue cards, and this can be modified for a group's liking if they'd rather not stab each other incessantly in the back, which in my experience is the only thing that can make Lords of Waterdeep not fun. Most of the Lords, after all, are humans or demihumans; none of them are trolls. But let's say you don't want to compete at all. You'd much rather work together with others towards a common goal; for example, saving the world from some global threat. Don't fret, Pandemic has you covered. I could also mention Arkham Asylum, and while that game is a ton of fun to play in a large group, it does take some time to play through and there can be some stretches of downtime involved for individual players. Pandemic, on the other hand, has the advantages of easy setup, fast pace, and encouraged cooperation. The players are members of an elite team of specialists working together to contain several epidemics of disease around the globe, trying to keep them from combining into a global pandemic. Each turn, players move around the world, treating disease and gathering data for cures. However, at the end of a player's turn, more cases of disease crop up, and if a city hits critical mass, there's an outbreak. The world can only take so many outbreaks and epidemics before the entire population begins coughing, puking, dropping over, and bleeding out. It's a tense game that sucks you in. There are many ways to lose in Pandemic, and as much as it sucks to not prevail in a game, it's still fun to play even when it feels like the game is out to get you (which, by the way, it is.) Those are three board games that, off the top of my head, absolutely destroy the notion that board games are the same old tired distraction trotted out at family gatherings to keep conversations from getting stale. I could go on to talk about some favorite card games - Chez Geek, Cards Against Humanity, Fluxx - or dice games - Elder Sign, Zombie Dice - but for now, I will leave you in the capable hands of Wil Wheaton. Watch him and his friends play SmallWorld here or Pandemic here. I'm still waiting on a Lords of Waterdeep episode...

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Board or Bored?

Board or Bored? — Blue Ink Alchemy

"I don't play board games," my lovely wife says. "They're boring." In the case of 'older' board games, the ones I and most kids grew up with, like Monopoly or Risk or Chutes'n'Ladders, I'd be inclined to agree. Chutes'n'Ladders is an extremely randomized game. Risk involves a great deal of downtime between turns, provided you're not in an opponent's direct path, and turns get progressively longer as the players with board advantage begin to dominate the others. Monopoly has both of these problems and the added issue of money being involved (even if it is fake money). However, if you've been following me for a while, and especially remember posts like this where I discuss games that aren't played with a joystick or gamepad, you're probably aware that board games outside the old and tired Parker Brothers standards exist. There are a few in particular that I've played which, in my opinion, really break away from the idea that board games are boring. SmallWorld springs immediately to mind. The game is one of territory control, with fantasy races endowed with special powers vying for position. There is very little die rolling, unlike Risk - players rely on numerical superiority and careful planning before their turns. Said turns are rather short, leading to little downtime, and even when it isn't your turn, it behooves you to watch the board, as positions can change very quickly based on who chooses which race/power combination. And don't worry about one position on the map being better than another. There's no 'Australia' portion that, when taken, guarantees victory. No matter how attached you might get to your Dragon Master Giants, sooner or later you're going to run out of troops, and must go into Decline to choose a new race. This keeps the game vital for all of its turns and never lets things settle into a 'status quo' situation. If you want a less direct means of competing with your friends, a 'worker placement' game might be more your speed, a great introductory example of which is Lords of Waterdeep. Set in one of the largest cities in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting of Forgotten Realms, the game casts its players as one of the eponymous Lords, who compete with one another for control of the city through agents and adventurers. Agents move through the city, gathering resources for their Lords, engaging the services of builders, and inviting adventurers to their Lord's tavern. From the tavern, adventurers are sent on quests, which garner more riches and renown for the Lord who sent them. With Intrigue actions, mandatory quests that can be played on other players, and the ways in which play order can change, this is another game where 'status quo' is not something that really exists. The pace of play is even faster than in SmallWorld, with each player taking one action in turn as they try to gather enough resources to score the most points. Between these aspects, the replayability inherent in the structure of quests and buildings, and the fantastic aesthetic and pieces, this is a game I feel I need to play more often. The only conflict between players exists in the Intrigue cards, and this can be modified for a group's liking if they'd rather not stab each other incessantly in the back, which in my experience is the only thing that can make Lords of Waterdeep not fun. Most of the Lords, after all, are humans or demihumans; none of them are trolls. But let's say you don't want to compete at all. You'd much rather work together with others towards a common goal; for example, saving the world from some global threat. Don't fret, Pandemic has you covered. I could also mention Arkham Asylum, and while that game is a ton of fun to play in a large group, it does take some time to play through and there can be some stretches of downtime involved for individual players. Pandemic, on the other hand, has the advantages of easy setup, fast pace, and encouraged cooperation. The players are members of an elite team of specialists working together to contain several epidemics of disease around the globe, trying to keep them from combining into a global pandemic. Each turn, players move around the world, treating disease and gathering data for cures. However, at the end of a player's turn, more cases of disease crop up, and if a city hits critical mass, there's an outbreak. The world can only take so many outbreaks and epidemics before the entire population begins coughing, puking, dropping over, and bleeding out. It's a tense game that sucks you in. There are many ways to lose in Pandemic, and as much as it sucks to not prevail in a game, it's still fun to play even when it feels like the game is out to get you (which, by the way, it is.) Those are three board games that, off the top of my head, absolutely destroy the notion that board games are the same old tired distraction trotted out at family gatherings to keep conversations from getting stale. I could go on to talk about some favorite card games - Chez Geek, Cards Against Humanity, Fluxx - or dice games - Elder Sign, Zombie Dice - but for now, I will leave you in the capable hands of Wil Wheaton. Watch him and his friends play SmallWorld here or Pandemic here. I'm still waiting on a Lords of Waterdeep episode...

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Board or Bored?

Board or Bored? — Blue Ink Alchemy

"I don't play board games," my lovely wife says. "They're boring." In the case of 'older' board games, the ones I and most kids grew up with, like Monopoly or Risk or Chutes'n'Ladders, I'd be inclined to agree. Chutes'n'Ladders is an extremely randomized game. Risk involves a great deal of downtime between turns, provided you're not in an opponent's direct path, and turns get progressively longer as the players with board advantage begin to dominate the others. Monopoly has both of these problems and the added issue of money being involved (even if it is fake money). However, if you've been following me for a while, and especially remember posts like this where I discuss games that aren't played with a joystick or gamepad, you're probably aware that board games outside the old and tired Parker Brothers standards exist. There are a few in particular that I've played which, in my opinion, really break away from the idea that board games are boring. SmallWorld springs immediately to mind. The game is one of territory control, with fantasy races endowed with special powers vying for position. There is very little die rolling, unlike Risk - players rely on numerical superiority and careful planning before their turns. Said turns are rather short, leading to little downtime, and even when it isn't your turn, it behooves you to watch the board, as positions can change very quickly based on who chooses which race/power combination. And don't worry about one position on the map being better than another. There's no 'Australia' portion that, when taken, guarantees victory. No matter how attached you might get to your Dragon Master Giants, sooner or later you're going to run out of troops, and must go into Decline to choose a new race. This keeps the game vital for all of its turns and never lets things settle into a 'status quo' situation. If you want a less direct means of competing with your friends, a 'worker placement' game might be more your speed, a great introductory example of which is Lords of Waterdeep. Set in one of the largest cities in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting of Forgotten Realms, the game casts its players as one of the eponymous Lords, who compete with one another for control of the city through agents and adventurers. Agents move through the city, gathering resources for their Lords, engaging the services of builders, and inviting adventurers to their Lord's tavern. From the tavern, adventurers are sent on quests, which garner more riches and renown for the Lord who sent them. With Intrigue actions, mandatory quests that can be played on other players, and the ways in which play order can change, this is another game where 'status quo' is not something that really exists. The pace of play is even faster than in SmallWorld, with each player taking one action in turn as they try to gather enough resources to score the most points. Between these aspects, the replayability inherent in the structure of quests and buildings, and the fantastic aesthetic and pieces, this is a game I feel I need to play more often. The only conflict between players exists in the Intrigue cards, and this can be modified for a group's liking if they'd rather not stab each other incessantly in the back, which in my experience is the only thing that can make Lords of Waterdeep not fun. Most of the Lords, after all, are humans or demihumans; none of them are trolls. But let's say you don't want to compete at all. You'd much rather work together with others towards a common goal; for example, saving the world from some global threat. Don't fret, Pandemic has you covered. I could also mention Arkham Asylum, and while that game is a ton of fun to play in a large group, it does take some time to play through and there can be some stretches of downtime involved for individual players. Pandemic, on the other hand, has the advantages of easy setup, fast pace, and encouraged cooperation. The players are members of an elite team of specialists working together to contain several epidemics of disease around the globe, trying to keep them from combining into a global pandemic. Each turn, players move around the world, treating disease and gathering data for cures. However, at the end of a player's turn, more cases of disease crop up, and if a city hits critical mass, there's an outbreak. The world can only take so many outbreaks and epidemics before the entire population begins coughing, puking, dropping over, and bleeding out. It's a tense game that sucks you in. There are many ways to lose in Pandemic, and as much as it sucks to not prevail in a game, it's still fun to play even when it feels like the game is out to get you (which, by the way, it is.) Those are three board games that, off the top of my head, absolutely destroy the notion that board games are the same old tired distraction trotted out at family gatherings to keep conversations from getting stale. I could go on to talk about some favorite card games - Chez Geek, Cards Against Humanity, Fluxx - or dice games - Elder Sign, Zombie Dice - but for now, I will leave you in the capable hands of Wil Wheaton. Watch him and his friends play SmallWorld here or Pandemic here. I'm still waiting on a Lords of Waterdeep episode...

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Blue Ink Alchemy