Apologies from Afar in the Past, Brought to You from the Future, Currently in the Present.

So Conklederp and I were married 13 days ago and a honeymoon was followed shortly thereafter.  I also attempted my darndest to not fall behind on the schoolwork that I knew was due periodically throughout the last three weeks.  This is why there were intermittent posts the last couple of weeks as well as not having  the standard and MIDI Week Singles post for the last two weeks.  I promise that starting next week, everything will be back on track.

So in the spirit of our little Internet site and rather than subjugate everyone to pictures of the honeymoon, I will instead talk about games.  Specifically some game related gifts that Conklederp and I received because apparently publically declaring that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone means that people want to give you things; which is pretty awesome, by the way.

First off, coasters.  Yes coasters, but not just any coasters, these coasters.  I'm actually pretty good when it comes to using coasters, either at my own place or at the abode of another person who has them out and I hope that there will be at least a couple of people in the future who will, 1) Use coasters when we have them visibly put out, and 2) recognize that they're from Portal 2.  Part of me actually wants to see our friends fight over who gets their favorite coaster from the person who has never played/seen/experienced this masterpiece of a game.

If anyone else is interested, they can be acquired over at ThinkGeek.com.

Next we have a board game that until recently, neither Conklederp nor I had ever previously played.  Then we played with Chreekat and his mom, who told us that she played in a league with other people when she worked down in California with other fellow geeks.  I briefly talked about the experience back in July, but now Conklederp and I have no excuse to force our other friends to know the struggles of establishing a colony and society on an octogonal island with a finite amount of resources.

Even though the game says that it's designed for three to four players, I'm sure that there are rules somewhere that says how the game could be played with only two people.  Or Conklederp and I will have to break out of our proverbial gel capsules and play with other people, perhaps Salty Liver and her hubsband (yes, I intentionally spelled husband as "hubsband").

Next on the board game listing of greed is a game that I'm pretty sure I had seen played on Wil Wheaton's Table Top, but I might also be thinking of another game.  That game is Pandemic, a game that I have not played, but again, I love the concept.  Think of it like the film Contagion, but with less Matt Damon and Kate Winslet and more of your friend who only took that one biology class that one time, just because.  Although I will go on record to say that one of my friends, whom I'm sure I could convince to play, has a Ph.D. in immunology. On second thought, this might not be the best game to play with them as they might be tempted to talk about all the inaccuracies in the game.

Luckily, this game can be played with just two people so I think Conklederp and I could give this game a go before we unleash it upon our very suspecting, and potentially questioning friends.

Lastly is the newest expansion for Munchkin Apocalypse, the Sheep Impact collection of cards.  I was rather impressed when I read through some of the cards in this expansion and even more so with some of the Seal cards.  I won't say specifics, but there is one card that can eliminate all the cards in play.  Okay, I lied as that was very specific, but I won't say the name of that "singular" card as that would give some of the fun away.

Now all we have to do is convince our friends whom already play Munchkin that we need to play Munchkin Apocalypse even though the number of customization cards is limited to class as opposed to also including race.

In reality though, it's going to take a lot to go through all of these games and still go through Mansions of Madness, which I did have the pleasure of running a week-and-a-half ago with three other people.  Too many games and not enough time to play them all, but really, that's not a bad problem to have.

Oh, and I'll be factoring in my coursework somewhere in there as well.

Yes, we are those kinds of people with a lot of pretty awesome friends.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Would You Like To Buy A Carrot?

First Impressions: Munchkin Apocalypse

Most recently to enter the World of Muchkin's ranks is Munchkin Apocalypse, which is the thirteenth iteration of  the classic Muchkin game.  This game was released back in late fall 2012 so it's had about six months of life so far.  Munchkin Apocalypse though uses nearly every satirical apocalyptic event and creature as cards in this game, from a Zombie Plague, to an Earthquake and a level 14 Huge Hyperintelligent Shark.  The game comes packed with 168 cards (92 Door and 76 Treasure), 12 Seal cards (which I'll get to in a moment) and an orange and green Munchkin die.  Oh, and a rule sheet.

The new variations to Munchkin Apocalypse are to the classes and there are no race cards, although there very well could be race cards such as "Mutant," "Human," "Zombie" or "Alien" in a future expansion.  Like any variation of Munchkin, there are curse-type cards which have been relabeled as "Disaster" cards, weapons and gear that everyone can equip and certain pieces that only the Scientist, Blogger, Militia or Kid class cards may be able to use.

What stands Munchkin Apocalypse apart from other base Munchkin sets is the inclusion of the Seal cards.  Yes, there is a drawing of a mammal seal that is part of the seal. . . seal.  Seal cards are similar to the Dungeon and Crypt cards in traditional Munchkin and Munchkin Cthulhu.  Whenever any card says to open a "Seal," you turn over one of the twelve cards and do what it says.  There's usually an effect that happens to the person who opens the Seal such as "The highest-Level player(s) go down a level."  Then there are continuing effects ("The highest-Level player(s) have a -3 penalty in combat.") as long as that one Seal is still on top of the Seal deck.  The continuing effects are only in effect as long as the card is on top of the Seal cards in play.

Seal cards can be "closed" which our group took to mean that they are placed back in the Seal deck.  The catch though with the Seal deck is that once the seventh Seal card is turned (by seventh, we took to mean, the seventh Seal opened and "in play," not counting the Seals that were closed), the game ends.  Then the person with the highest combat bonus with only the equipped cards they had in play, wins.  Levels do not count.  With the Seals though, hypothetically, a person at level one could win if they're equipped up the ass and just haven't turned over any monster cards, which happens at least once every game.

With all that in mind, the Seals added a new stratagem to how our usual Munchkin group (Conklederp, Coolman, Geroge I Am and one other person) played, which is usually let people progress without issue until about level seven or eight then people start backstabbing.  George I Am ended up winning after the seventh Seal was opened as she had a combat bonus of +21.  The game lasted just over an hour, which is pretty standard and we skipped a second game so that we could bottle some cider and maple wine.  Yes, we're those kinds of people.

In closing, I would recommend Munchkin Apocalypse to someone who's never played Munchkin before or for someone who is looking for another fun variation on the traditional Munchkin game.  You're not getting an entirely new and original game with all new rules, just a brand new repackaging of a fun and addicting game.  So yes, you should go out and buy it, or find someone else who already has.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Is 0 or 1 The Last Life?

First Impressions: Settlers of Cataan

Last night I had my first real session of Settlers of Cattan.  Stayed up until 1 am playing it.  Haven't done that in ages.  Best game since Munchkin.  Similar strategy, actually - as the game progresses you build toward getting 10 levels.  And alliances are broken and reformed, everyone trying to prevent the inevitable winner from winning.  But sometimes like 3 people look like the impending winner.

But the game isn't quite as aggressive as Munchkin.  Less events occur over the course of one turn.  A lot of the game is spent waiting, and hoping and building up resources.  Stupidly fun, I highly recommend it.  Expensive though.  Expect to pay $45 for a set.  If you'd like to test drive this game, just come over to my place with at least one other friend and an evening to spend, and we can play a couple of times.

I'd like to get into the details of how the game is played, but I think it would be easier for all parties if I just let Will Wheaton do it.  Tabletop is the best source for board game reviews that I've seen.  

I will say that the setup phase of the game, which comes at the very beginning, is essential to the overall strategy.  Most people will lament the poor decisions they make during the setup, which will further drive their desire to play another game, and get a chance to have a better setup.  It's a lot of fun; I want to play, just writing about it.  -D

The Final Chapter

This will be the final post in the adventure to purchase 6d10 dice from Epic Gaming, a gaming store I located through Yelp because I didn't want to travel 28 miles round trip.  There'll also be an epilogue about ordering pizza, although that's not really game related.  But anyway.

After driving somewhere around 4 miles from Dutch Bros. to Epic Gaming, I sat in my car briefly pondering if I should take in my half finished espresso boosted coffee drink so that I could have something in my hands to keep them busy in the off chance that they didn't have dice or more specifically, individual d10 dice.  Then the etiquette part of my brain said that I shouldn't bring in a drink to a store.

The store itself was pretty empty once I made my way in.  And by "empty," I mean empty in two ways.  The first being that there was a lot of space in the store and not a lot of it was taken up by actual gaming materials.  I later noticed that most/all of the gaming materials were up against the walls while the middle was left open for the activity of gaming itself.  The second "empty" was that there was only myself, one guy behind the counter and four others playing Magic at one of about six large collapsible tables in the middle of the room.

This brings up another thing that will get to me.  For some reason, people playing Magic intimidate me.  Always have.  If there's a group of people sitting at a table (or multiple tables) playing any iteration of Magic, I will avoid that area.  Most of it is because I never got into Magic and have no real idea what is going on.  I "understand" that each player has a deck with a certain number of cards and those cards do things or can undo things.  There's something called "tapping" in regards to cards being in/out of play.  And if you have enough money, you can build yourself a near unstoppable deck.  Is there even such a thing?  I don't know.  I've also heard (as in physically heard in person) shit-talking in regards to people's decks that to me just isn't cool for gaming.

Back to to the store.  I noticed the people playing Magic, and my brain immediately transitioned from "search mode" to "just buy the fucking dice already."  Once at the counter, I stumbled out the question about individual dice because in the display case, all that I could see were prepackaged Chessex dice.  It turned out, like another games store I frequented in Sacramento, the dice were behind the counter in a gumball-type plastic hand-grab container.  I quickly picked out 6d10 of different colors, but still colors that I thought people would actually want to use for Munchkin, made my purchase and then, was able to calm down.  

I then walked over to where it looked like there were some miniatures and as it turned out, some of the expansion decks for Munchkin.  By this point I had already used the $5 I had in cash for the dice (they were  75¢ each) and didn't want to break out my credit card having already made my purchase.  I had also read on Yelp that Epic Gaming also sold video games, which I would have liked to check out, but again, being the odd person that I am, felt that I needed to leave the store having already made my only intended purchase.  Again, I know it's odd behavior/line of reasoning, but that's just how my brain functions.

Then I left the store and drove back home.  That's the whole story.  Yes, I lead a very exciting life.

Epilogue

I don't know how long this has been around, but Pizza Hut allows you to place orders online.  Without having to talk to anyone!  I'm able to pick out what type of pizza(s) I want, toppings, side orders and such.  Then pay with a credit card and have my pizza delivered.  The only talking is upon greeting the delivery person, and that's only to tip the driver and sign the receipt.  I love not having to talk to a person on the phone and explain what I want, turn down hearing about specials or be put on hold for a couple of minutes.  In a similar vain, it's like going into Little Caesar's Pizza, ordering two large pepperoni pizzas and walking out  with them less than two minutes later using only a minimum of the known English language.  Yes, it's all fast food pizza, but it's perfect for what it is, cheap semi-tasty pizza.  Except that Little Caesar's Pizza is actually really good.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Everything Remains As It Never Was

Never Stopped Feeling Like a 12 Year Old Geek.

Last Thursday, Conklederp and I were having Coolman over for a game of Munchkin and I had previously thought that a d10 die would be perfect to keep track of your level, which apparently Steve Jackson and Company had previously thought of, but are no longer producing.  Now between the two of us, Conklederp and I have three full sets of D&D dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 & d100) and I didn't want to take the d10's out of each little box and possibly lose them.  I wanted dedicated dice for the sole purpose of being used in Munchkin.

The obvious solution was to go to a pseudo close by gaming store, except the closeness of said gaming store meant driving through a downtown area of a smallish yuppie-ville, over an apparently crumbling bridge and then all the way back.  So a 16.6 mile round trip for 6d10 worth of dice.  Enter Yelp to see if I could locate a closer gaming, or even a comic store that might sell d10 dice.  As it turned out, there is a gaming store less than five miles away.  I'll go there, and pick up some Dutch Bros. coffee on my way back, because I have a horrible love affair with caffeine.

We'll now jump ahead to the part when I'm at Dutch Bros., after I was convinced that I had been on the wrong road for Epic Games and made a U-turn, only to discover 3/4 of the way to Dutch Bros., that I was, in fact, on the correct street.  So I pull up to the ordering window, order my iced ER911 and sit back.  Then the  guy at the window turns to me and says, "So, what are you doing today?"  It's a simple/normal enough question.  I just wasn't expecting to be talked to after the initial ordering.  I also took a moment to answer.  My first thought was, "Well, I'm going to a gaming store to buy some d10's for a game of Munchkin that I'm going to be playing with friends later tonight."

For some reason, I felt mildly shamed at possibly replying with that sentence.  And that bothered me.  The fact that I'm 32 years old, and I felt even the slightest bit like I'm being judged in that I was out to do something incredibly geeky as buy dice  Not to mention that it wasn't a six sided die either, but one with ten sides!!  So I ended up just saying that I was going to a store to buy dice, not bothering to mention the Munchkin part of it in fear that I would have to talk to this person further and try to explain what Munchkin was.  Don't get me wrong though, he didn't seem like a bad/intimidating person, I just get uncomfortable talking to people, mainly when they're people in public.  Or people on the phone, but that will come up later in Friday's post.  So naturally (??), the guy said "You're buying dice?  What're they for?"  Now, I get that he's just trying to be nice and trying to make conversation, but in my head I was thinking "God damn, please stop talking to me."  I instead say, "They're dice, for um, like Dungeons & Dragons."  He then said something about needing coffee for that, I said something like "Yup."  I then received my coffee, I thanked him, then drove off blaring Russian folk metal, because that's what I was listening to before I drove up to the window.

As I drove away, I thought, "Holy shit, that was similar to part of Ken Levine's keynote from PAX 2008." 

The entire keynote can be watched here.

 Granted in Ken Levine's story, he actually was being laughed at and I felt like I could've been laughed at.  

The point is, I shouldn't have to feel like that.  Ever.  And I shouldn't let myself feel that way just because the purpose of my leaving our apartment was to buy coffee and buy 6d10.  I guess it's something that I'll still have to learn to get over.  And in the meantime, I'll listen to this song again:

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Part III of Munchkin Will Be Published On Friday.

Confession Time:  I was actually working backstage in the main theatre at PAX when Ken Levine was giving his keynote address.  At that time, I hadn't played Bioshock and didn't even know who Ken Levine was.  And it wasn't until I got the PAX08 DVD's after working PAX09, that I watched his keynote that I finally saw what all the visual jokes were.  I'm pretty slow on some fronts.

Munchmadnesskin

In my last post, I mentioned that I was able to play Munchkin for the first time.  I was intimidated at first.  Partly because I'd heard of the game, but knew nothing about it and was playing with people who were familiar with the game and its mechanics.  How familiar?  I didn't ask, but they seemed to know a lot more than me, which during a card game, can be quite a lot, especially when there is more than a single rule.

It's like going to play Killer Instinct or Street Fighter IV with someone and you've never played that game before.  All of a sudden, you're up against someone who knows a handful of specific moves or how to properly execute a Combo Breaker.  It was a little frustrating in that, like in any card game, I didn't want to reveal what cards I had in my hand, but at the same time, understand when I could play a card.  Specifically a monster card.  Not a "Wandering Monster" card, just a regular monster card.  A monster card that happened to be a Level 16 Undead King Tut.

Don't get me wrong, the rules were explained and understood as best they could, considering we were all a smidgen tired, having driven 101 miles to just outside of Astoria, then an additional 15 miles (which took about an hour) to get to a Safeway and back for all the camping things we forgot to bring; like firewood for one.  And we had been drinking steadily for just over an hour and I had broken out a bottle of Fireball to share/introduce.  So really, the non-comprehension was mostly all on me, so I'll take the blame on that one.

In the end though, I really like the game that Steve Jackson has created.  So much so that only after 1 1/2 times playing Munchkin, I have bought the basic deck and three expansion decks.  Specifically, these ones:

I also plan on purchasing this expansion deck once it becomes available.  Another nice thing about the expansion decks, is that each card, from each expansion has their own tiny logo on the front of the card that tells you it's from an expansion deck.  In case you want to play with the standard deck and not The Guild or Monster Enhancers deck, you can easily find them within the massive stack.  It's a great, simple little idea.  Oh, oh, oh!  And the expansion decks are all relatively inexpensive at only ~$5, or there abouts, depending on the deck.

One of the things that drew me to this game (or really, buying the game), was that upon further examination, all of the decks are the same.  You could go out and buy five copies of the Munchkinomicon and all 15 cards in the pack are all the same 15 cards.  There are no "rare" cards.  Sure, you can buy the Boxes of Holding which come with two additional cards that you can't acquire on their own, but they're not going to be the rare cards like in Magic: The Gathering that are "so rare" that they'll fetch hundreds of dollars.  Sorry, correction, thousands of dollars.  You can also purchase blank cards to come up with your own rules of sorts that will blend in with the rest of your deck.  And everyone plays with the agreed upon deck.  If you introduce a card that no ones seen before, it goes in the deck with all the other cards.

Something that I find interesting, is that I went into this post intending to talk about my most recent trip to a new gaming store to buy some d10 dice for some rounds of Munchkin that Conklederp, Coolman and I played last night, but that somehow turned into this conker of a post.  On Monday I'll go into my gaming store non-adventure.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Brain Has It's Own Plans

NES Adventure Series: Ole's Assault IX by X-Dog

So here's the story behind the reason why there was no blog post on Monday September 17th.  

Dr. Potts, Conklederp, and others (Vorlynx, Siddmesh, Coolman and one other of whom I don't know/have a handle for) went to outside Astoria for an adventure run.  Video games were not involved in anyway but like the logo on the NES box says, it was an "Adventure."  We didn't though have to use a rope swing over any bodies of water.  For those, we either just waded or were forced to jump over.

So this was my first "adventure run" and from what I heard that weekend, it was a much smaller group than some of the larger adventure/obstacle course runs; a la Tough Mudder, Spartan Race and Warrior Dash.  There were only ~300 participants and we all started at the same time, something different than other races apparently where groups of 250 start every 30 minutes for a couple of hours.  It was a nice group; both our group and the entire group of people running, as well as the organizers.

So the course.  The course started out with a mile and-a-half run up a road, then a logging road that went "up" a hill.  We then turned off the road and into the woods/forest/wild.  The majority of the obstacles were naturally occurring, as in climbing over/under felled logs/trees, jumping over streams/creeks, climbing up hillsides and wading through mud pools.  There were some man made obstacles such as a cargo net, log walls, a barbed wire net and a log tunnel.  I was half expecting something to do with fire, but by the end, I wouldn't've been able to jump over a matchbox wall.  I should also mention that I was also wearing a Nalgene pack with close to three liters of homemade Gatorade, a couple of Cliff Bars, a package of FRS energy chews and a mini Leatherman.  The total distance for the run came out to a little over seven miles, which is three and-a-half miles farther than Conklederp and I have run in the past or any reason.

Anyway, I'll sum up the whole experience by saying that it was quite amazing and something that I would very much like to do again.  Our team (The Night's Watch) didn't come in last (partly because two teams got lost/turned around), but I think we had the most fun out of all the groups there.

On an actual gaming side for this post, I was introduced to the card game Munchkin.  It was a little confusing at first, which was partly due to the fact that I was becoming more-and-more intoxicated as the game progressed.  We did manage to get through an entire game though after returning back to the Portland area.

So in the end, why was I unable to put up a post on Monday the 17th?  Because I was tired/sore had a shit-ton of laundry/cleaning to do with all the mud that we adopted the previous day.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Apparently You Don't Need to Sign Any Forms.

Any Photoshopping Skills are Due to the Fact that I Don't Own Photoshop.