Hitch?

I can't believe I'm a week behind again.

Ok, here's a brief on the last Game Night. We played two rounds of Munchkin. Well, Munchkin and Munchkin Bites (which is Munchkin for vampires). The first round gave us three finalists (Sherry, Paul and Aaron). Aaron pwned us all though, and took the prize - his own personal copy of Munchkin to enjoy (and more importantly, use to stab his buddies in the back).

We also played another hand of Carcassonne.

The 411:

The Society of Parlor Games

There. It is done. Officially "we" shall be known as the Society of Parlor Games. I believe each group shall be known as a "Local". We will be local Number 1. The head of each local shall be referred to as "Commodore". Members of the society will actively seek to promote the friendly and gamesman like play of parlor style games. For the sake of definition, this will not include collectible games, war games, video games or activity games.

Next I'll need to spend some time drafting up a constitution. I believe I will actually borrow the old wargaming term and call our founding members "grognards".

The "David always wins." rule will be in force on every odd numbered Tuesday. Society meetings will be held every third Thursday. Convenient, I know.

The Crushinator

Larry is a money pit.

I'm just going to let that sink in.

Even more than a regular old tower (of which I have plenty of xp.s), the desktop replacement is a premium money magnet. And god forbid the universe decides to go to vista. There is no way this video card is going to push that. And unless Alienware deigns to offer an upgrade module, I'm done for.

Of all the things M$ could decide to not make fully backwards compatible, they had to choose the game API.

What I really need is a lean & mean OS that still runs all the apps I want from XP.

So now, in order to fuel my mad push to play Battlefield 2 online (and advance past the rank of 'Target'), I'm doubling my RAM from 1 giga byte to 2 giga bytes. 2 Gb. I've owned hard drives smaller than that. I could model all the transistors of my first computer in that1. Including the disk and tape storage. And probably every piece of software I owned for it, to boot.

And yet the greedy B2 is using 95% of my existing memory, forcing Windows to use a big chukka swap file. Which is degrading performance to say the least. I'm also thinking about getting a fat memory key (USB 2.0), and experimenting with putting the swap file on it.

It could cause stability issues.

(1 - I should point out that in this case by 'I could' I mean there is enough space, not that I personally could under take such a modeling project. Maths, who needs that right?)

Thursday - Game Nite 2

'The Return'

I'm thinking Munchkin tournament. If you haven't played the rules are available in PDF at Steve Jackson Games. I have standard, and Sherry has Vampire. If somebody has a third set that would be perfect, 'cause then we could play 3 tables.

So that's Thursday at my place this time. If you need directions get me your eMail and I'll shoot 'em out. Everybody's welcome, but space is limited, so RSVP.

Oi!

Two things:
I just had my profound thought of the day - the longer I'm in an information technology workspace the more sense Dilbert cartoons make. Yes, just a bit scared, really.

Watch Hell's Kitchen. This must be the hardest way to motivate people ever. But it works. Weird. It's like watching a train wreck. It's inevitable, it's destructive, and you just can't look away...

PBEM 2 - Input request

All right, I'm getting to it. But here's your chance to get in on the design action. I need descriptive word lists. I'm making dungeon generators, and I need location names for in the dungeons. Don't hold back - think of it as brain storming. No wrong answers. So send me a note. Include the 'name' of the type of dungeon, a list of 'room' names and a list of 'connector' names.

As an example:
Dungeon: Mausoleum
Rooms: Crypt vault, sarcophagus chamber, chapel, well, old chamber with pool of water, collapsed vault
Connectors: Stairs, trapdoor (up or down), stone work corridor, natural corridor, ramp

The more the merrier...

Hold the Line

Today is a w00t! day. Today I finally get my copy of Battlefield 2. No more will I be restricted to the demonstration map! No more will my only option be to play with disorganized rabble in pick up games.

That and gettin' serious air in an HMMWV seriously rocks.

ahhh...herm - Fetch the Holy Hand Grenade

Which Monty Python & the Holy Grail Character are you REALLY?


You are King Arthur of the Britons! You let no-one stand in your way, you are brave and strong! Keep searching, you'll find the grail yet!
Take this quiz!

Added Info

The three games we played last Thursday and their Board Game Geek entries, if you need to know more:

Give me the Brain


Carcassonne


Settlers of Catan

All three are super fab fun. Good for 3 or 4 players. For Settlers if you want to play more than 4, you need to buy a 5 and 6 player expansion. Carcassonne is recommended for 3 to 5 players. Give Me the Brain is probably good up to 8 (with the fatter, new set for sure).

If you're interested in any of these, send Jamie an eMail (swordinthestone at shaw dot ca), I'm sure he will be glad to fix you up.

Game Club

Which I admit is not the most creative name I've come up with. We'll work on that.

Thursday night saw the inaugural session of my new board game club. The goal is to get people together to enjoy board gaming. The only real rules (so far): no massive gamer games and no collectible games.

We played three great games. First we had a crack at the newer version of Gimme the Brain, which I have to say, although much nicer looking, is not as funny as the original. The new glossy cards are much easier to shuffle than the previous photocopied, pink card stock. We played a full hand, and although it was close, honors to Sword In the Stone proprietor, Jamie, on that one.

Second we played on of my new favorite games: Carcassonne. It's a tile laying game, where the tiles make up a renaissance city. Scott came out of nowhere and won that round. I think he's played the game before, and just won't admit it.

Third we played what must be one of the best table games made in the last 25 years, at least. Settlers of Catan - the game ran a bit long, but we blame Scott for never having played before. We also blame Scott for winning and shaming the rest of us.

Next night is June 22, time and location to be announced.