Once again this year's Gathering of Friends offered a terrific weekend of entertainment. For the uninitiated, the Gathering is Alan Moon's annual invitation-only assemblage of about 100 gamers from around the country for 5 days of friendly, non-stop play at a hotel ballroom in Connecticut. If you passed on the event this year, you'll find it harder to get an invitation next time around— to prevent the event from growing out of hand, Alan intends to only allow newcomers if past attendees decline their invitations. I like the idea of preserving the character of the event, which would become difficult if it got much larger. I hope Alan doesn't wind up having to turn many people down, though, as the Gathering is such a wonderful environment that I'd hate to deprive people of participation.
I've met a bunch of great people there, many of whom I only see at the Gathering, and as always it was great seeing them again. A welcome change from previous years, and one which I hope is a trend rather than a fluke, was the surprisingly strong turnout of women. I'm not sure how many came for themselves and how many were "just" accompanying their significant others, but the effect was, I think, a somewhat more social atmosphere. Perhaps not, but it's certainly a welcome development. I don't know if it's indicative of a shift in the hobby as a whole or just a skewed sampling. Gaming has always been a mostly-male hobby, and it would be delightful to see more women get involved.
Last year's Gathering was dominated by the new games from Nuremberg (most notably Siedler). This year, while the new games like Entdecker, Ab Die Post, and Members Only got a fair bit of play, older games put in much better showings. Interestingly, outside of the enormous tournament, I didn't see much Siedling going on. Nor did I see Sternen Himmel or Bakschisch, although I did see some Linie 1 and Galopp Royale.
One of the biggest disappointments— aside from the treasure hunt being cancelled because someone didn't get everything together in time— was Totem from Queen. The game has some great components, including well-designed plastic trays which not only hold your pieces when the game is stored away but serve as tile racks during gameplay. Unfortunately, I don't think my copy will get used much in that latter capacity. Players try to guide their primitive tribe to prosperity, entitling them to extend their totem pole and hopefully be the first to build one six stories high and win. The mechanics involve distributing men and women of four generations among your village's huts, breeding, hunting, and flinging the odd magic spell or two to help your tribe or hinder your opponents'. But the game suffers from two critical problems.
The first is that the higher your totem, the more spells you get to cast. This creates a rich-get-richer scenario which is very hard to break out of unless the other players gang up on the leader, and somehow that never seems to happen. Second, and far more puzzling, is that the game's math seems to be wrong. Each tribe starts the game with some birds, used to feed people and cast extra spells. Problem is, each bird feeds the same number of people it takes to hunt one, so once your initial surplus is gone it's almost impossible to get extra birds for spells— contributing to the rich-get-richer problem.
Combine that with a game mechanic where every turn runs through the same procedure with very little change between rounds, and you understand why I won't be giving Ray carte blanche to pick up new games for me at the next Essen. Anyone who seeks a copy need look no further— and you won't even have to spend a few hours gluing the totem heads together.
Yucata from Hans Im Gluck is a nice little game— if its price were slashed by half or more. It's got a nice card-playing system and a Dorada-like mechanic discouraging players from moving too far, too fast. But just as this 10-20 minute game starts to get interesting, it's all over. With a longer board and a lower price, it might be more exciting. As its current price, Yucata can't help but disappoint.
I confess to being completely baffled by Ab Die Post, a silly kid's game which somehow bamboozled the Spiel Des Jahres committee and a fair share of Gathering attendees. This race game with a fiddly card system and a cute little randomizer (a plastic storm cloud from which you shake a colored ball indicating how far you can move), might be fine for children but I can't see what appeal its gameplay holds for adults. Perhaps my experience was marred by a spotty rules translation which left more questions than answers, but I doubt it.
I had a rollicking good time over Saludos Amigos!, on the other hand. This negotiation game will remind many of last year's Kohl, Kies, & Knete, with perhaps a dash of Koalition. Each turn a tile representing part of a housing improvement project is drawn, and players try to form a coalition with enough political influence to force that improvement through. A player's initial strength is determined by a die roll each turn, but can be augmented by playing cards. The winning coalition earns victory points, while losers draw cards. As the game progresses the value of each improvement increases. I liked Saludos Amigos' mechanism better than KK&K's scheme, but some might find them too similar to justify buying both.
I've got mixed feelings about Reiner Knizia's latest, Members Only. The game involves placing bets based on very limited information, and I'm not yet sure whether there's enough room for skillful play or if it's all really a crap shoot. The scoring system seems to make fillibuster tactics possible, as one group found out when their game stretched to over three hours. Watch for a more detailed review after Ray's next shipment comes in and I've had a chance to play this one some more.
I got the chance to play DTM (aka That Tube Racing Game) thanks to Tim "Will Race For Food" Trant, and I think I prefer it to Formula De, mainly because it moves much more quickly. The trick here is that when you roll your 3 dice for movement, you've got 20 seconds to finish your turn. Take longer than that, and you get a white flag. Three of those forces you into the pit to get rid of them. The dice must be placed, in order of use, in three boxes on the playing mat. You may choose to flip any die over to the opposite side, turning a high roll to a low one or vice-versa. This makes for just enough decision-making to keep turns interesting. The speed crunch makes mistakes happen, which of course makes the race exciting. Having one player act as marshall and timekeeper definitely helps keep the game running smoothly and quickly. I understand that if purchased without the spiffy die-cast cars, the game is actually somewhat affordable. I may just ask someone to pick up a copy for me from Essen this year.
I organized a Big Boggle tournament this year. Although it was a rout, I think people enjoyed it and I hope to run it again (although perhaps not participate) next year. Actually, what I'd really like to do is run a sort of word game pentathalon, where everyone plays five different (quick) word games and the best overall finish takes the crown. Possible games include Big Boggle, Palabra, Perquackey, Pick Two, and Anagrams. In a similar vein, a tourament like the European Intergame event, where teams compete in multiple games with the win going to the best overall finishers, has a lot of appeal. Would anyone be interested in such a thing? And if so, what games would you suggest?
For those of you following my Santa Fe saga, I'm sorry to report that I blew it this year. Kiri Naiman, who beat me in the finals for two years running, arrived too late for the tournament this year— leaving me with a golden opportunity. An opportunity I squandered, getting knocked out by just a couple of points in the semi-finals. I guess I figured that if I couldn't grind Kiri beneath my boot, what's the point?
Personally, the high point of the Gathering was Brandon Brylawski's Philosopher's Stone game (not to be confused with the Quest for the Philosopher's Stone board game). Following up his space trading game from last year's event, Brandon once again tweaked Sid Sackson's Haggle game into a unique multi-player gaming experience. This time, players become alchemists racing to be the first to discover the fabled Philosopher's Stone. Each player began with 3-4 tidbits of information. Some bits were duplicated (meaning that other players might have the same information), others might not have been. Armed with these and an unlimited supply of the basic elements of the universe— earth, air, fire, water, and spirit— players conducted "experiments".
Brandon played the role of the Heavens, informing players of the results of their experiments. Some reactions were failures, but others produced a physical result or byproduct in the form of a little card which was handed to the alchemist. These cards, along with a player's initial information and knowledged gained from painful experience, were tradable commodities. Players were encouraged from the outset not only to experiment, but to trade with other players.
The game began with a flurry of trading as players sought to make some sense from the often-cryptic tidbits they'd been allocated. Slowly, understanding dawned as the mysteries of the universe began to unfold. If a breakthough proved elusive, you could (for a price) seek guidance from the Heavens— a fickle but often useful source of helpful hints.
Ultimately, the game was won by someone acquiring information under somewhat false (but entirely legal) pretenses— information which enabled him to create the Philosopher's Stone. Despite the fact that I would have won the game had he not done so (Brandon kept the discovery quiet so that others— many of whom were close to that final breakthrough themselves— could have the satisfaction of discovery), I found the game very satisfying. This was due in no small measure to Brandon's superb verbal accounts of experiments in progress and written descriptions of their products. These were accomplished with flair and a style consistent with the medieval alchemical milieu, enhancing the overall experience.
The game was also quite well-designed. As it turned out, there was more than one way to discover the Stone, making some information of little value to some but priceless to others. If I had a complaint with the game, it was that only one person could win. There is an overwhelming tendency to pool interests in such games, but ultimately someone has to break ranks to win. This leaves many with a bad taste in their mouths. It would be nice if an entire team could share the win. Unofficially, I suppose they could— but only one player was to be recognized officially. Personally, I found that much of the fun of the game was in sharing discoveries with my teammates and hashing out possibilities with them. Brandon plans to run another evolution of Haggle next year, and I hope he designs it with team play in mind. Incidentally, if you're interested in running the game for your friends, Brandon said he'd be happy to send a copy to anyone who ponies up about eight bucks to cover copying and mailing costs. Contact me for his address.