boardgames

Unwritten Rules: I Must See the Ending

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Our good friends recently bought us Qwirkle, a tile-based game that has the universal appeal of Rummikub. Qwirkle pits 2-4 players into matching colors and shapes for maximum points per turn.

Qwirkle comes with a cloth bag that serves two purposes:

  1. Serves as a place to store all of the tiles when done with the game.
  2. Acts as a draw pile/bag to pass around, as players must keep 6 tiles in their hands at all times.

For me, the bag of tiles also acts as a visual indicator to show me how much longer the game is going to take to play. One of my unwritten rules, with tabletop games, is that I have to be able to visually see/know that the game is going to end. Too many long games of Risk, Settlers of Catan, and Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot have burned me out on 2+ hour games.

Knowing that the game is going to end gives me hope; Hope that I won’t be treated as a tabletop hostage.

 

A few games that embrace this rule:

  • King Domino
  • Carcassonne
  • Chicken Foot (a Dominos-like variation)
  • Cranium Whoonu
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Congrats to Game Store Prophets for 5 Years!

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Wanted to take a moment and congratulate Mike Perna and the Game Store Prophets Crew for 5 years of podcasting excellence. I love the work that Mike does. Not just talking about the concept of a boardgame ministry but actually putting action behind those words. Congrats, Mike!

July 22, 2011 – the first episode of Game Store Prophets went live. We had no idea what we were starting. We were a couple of geeks who happened to have served in ministry positions who thought there’d be something in the idea of bringing those two sides of our lives together into one place. Five years after tackling the oliphant in the room, GSP is just part of the work that we do as part of the larger work of InnRoads Ministries. We’ve seen new hosts, had a number of wonderful guests, and connected with people across the world. – Read More Here

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Lazy Sunday

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Sunday afternoons always seem to drag on into infinity…

Lately, the weather has been rather warm for spring time in East Texas. The 80 degree days have started reminding me of our blazing hot/humid summers. All in all, it is far too early for weather like this.

Yesterday, in an attempt to stave off the cabin fever Sunday’s induce, my wife, son, and I piled into the family sedan and headed off to Target. Our mission: To spend some giftcards we had recently received.

Walking through the store, my wife and I looked at dinner plates, blenders, and solar powered lanterns–I love these things!–. Eventually we made our way to the boardgame aisle. It was then that my wife spotted this:

Now, I have found that boardgames can really be a huge hit or a miss. Usually, I won’t buy a new boardgame unless we have had a chance to test-drive it, per se. But, having giftcards to spend, we decided that perhaps it was time to Pass the Popcorn. Now, for those of you who haven’t played, Pass the Popcorn is a movie trivia game.

To play, one player reads out the top of the card (“1980 Comedy”), and then the other player asks a question depending on what tile they have selected (Tiles range from Quotes, Story, Cast, Characters, etc.). If you guess the movie title right, you win!

Long after the Target trip and soon after my son had been put to bed for the night, my wife and I tried the game out. We had a really good time!

Sometimes its nice to just turn off the TV and enjoy spending time with those around you.