Weekend Fun: Books and Games

Posted by Martin R on March 2, 2010
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Weatherwise, last weekend was thawing and misty and overcast, so I didn’t feel like doing much outdoors. I finished reading Daryl Gregory’s new novel (didn’t do much for me) and started Douglas Adams’s fifth Hitch-hiker book. When it appeared in 1992 I didn’t bother with it since it seemed too much like flogging an aging franchise, but 11-y-o Junior recently asked me to buy it for him and then he recommended it. So far it seems mildly entertaining.

Had friends over for games: Settlers of Catan and Qwirkle. I was lucky enough to trade my old 80s Junta game for that Settlers box last week. I don’t like to own stuff that I never use, and so the Junta game has been a source of bad conscience for years. It’s probably great fun if you’re six players who know the rules by heart, but I’ve never been able to pull that off. Junta’s unconventional combination of boardless negotiation and episodes of a very basic war game leave most neophytes confused and a little bored. Settlers is much better.

I also found some games. On Saturday I lugged a bag of cardboard waste and a bag of plastic waste through fine drizzle to the recycling station. There I came upon four games sitting on a snow drift. They hadn’t been there for long as they were barely damp. Two were TV show tie-ins, one was a music trivia game, and these I left alone. But the fourth was Twister, and I happily took it home to my kids.

And you, Dear Reader? Do you still remember the final weekend of February 2010? What did you do for fun?

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Comments

  1. #1 Hans Persson
    March 2, 2010

    I have had fun with Junta, but that was a long time ago. Settlers is definitely a superior game.

    As for me, I played (and lost) two games of Dominion and one game of San Juan, finished a book by Christine Falkenland and read some Sandman.

  2. #2 Johan A
    March 2, 2010

    Junta is a board game that you need to be an avid role-playing gamer to play. If you don’t act, speak and brag like a corrupt South American general during the game, you’re not going to have much fun. I haven’t actually played Settlers, but I can well imagine it’s superior.

  3. #3 cicely
    March 2, 2010

    You need to ask? :D

    I remember last weekend as clearly as if I’d taken notes to assist in taking this weekend’s game up right where we left off. So far we haven’t had the chance to put any dings in the new world, and collateral damage has been limited, though we have already established a precarious and untrusting relationship with local law enforcement. What more can you expect, in only 2 game sessions?

    I’ve got an enormous amount of RPG stuff I’ve never really use—GURPS, Talislanta, Call of Cthulhu, odds and ends of interesting other stuff. Some of it I’ve adapted for D&D campaigns, some of it was just too cool to pass up, and I am still nurturing a small, feeble spark of hope that one day I can get the guys to agree to play CoC. One day, there will be tentacles!!!

    (Okay…more tentacles.)

  4. #4 Melliferax
    March 3, 2010

    I hammered distancing nails into frames for the beehives, and sowed tomatoes. Very productive weekend indeed.

  5. #5 Martin R
    March 3, 2010

    Someone in my family once sowed tomatoes inadvertently. We fertilised the kitchen garden at the summer house with our composted latrine, whereupon spontaneous tomato plants grew there.