Hello all--

Thanks to everyone who showed up Saturday night. Present were me (Ron Hale-Evans), Marty Hale-Evans, Mark Purtill, David Adams, and Paul Unwin.

Dave was a little late, so to start things off, Paul, Mark, and I played a quick game of Fluxx. Well... it was supposed to be quick, but it lasted almost half an hour with no end in sight, so we quit when Dave arrived. (Fluxx is a fun little "metagame" in which the "object" is to change the rules. You can learn more about Fluxx and other metagames at the Center for Ludic Synergy Game Links page.

When Dave arrived, we folded our Fluxx game and set up Cosmic Encounter. We played with two powers and reverse hexes; some people remarked it almost made for a three-power game. And Paul got the Binary reverse hex, so he had four actual powers (two for each sun on the hex), and of course the Binary hex itself. Need I mention that Paul won?

Actually, it was a close game. Toward the end of the game, there was a three-power Axis composed of Paul, Dave, and Marty, each of whom had four foreign bases. The Axis powers openly discussed sharing a joint win against the poor, beleaguered Allies, viz. me and Mark, who had three and two foreign bases respectively IIRC. But the Axis couldn't agree on a joint win, so just about everyone allied with me against Paul as he tried to invade one of my planets for his fifth foreign base. It was to no avail, since as the Binary player, Paul didn't have to state which of his pairs of powers he was using until he actually used one, and we all forgot he had the Spiff power -- which meant that even when he lost a challenge, one of his tokens could "crash-land" and get a base. Paul lost, therefore he won. (He lost the challenge, crash-landed to get his fifth base, and won the game.)

Another highlight, at least for me, was when Dave, who played the Silencer and had only four tokens left on home planets, committed one of his tokens to an alliance and silenced the opposing main player (Paul, I think). That meant he couldn't silence me, so, as Crystal, I ordered him to commit all four of his tokens to the alliance, leaving him with no home bases, and no alien powers. The Silencer was silenced for the rest of the game!

For Paul's valiant crash-landing win, he received an Archie McPhee incredible growing human brain sponge -- just drop it in water, and foosh! it grows from the size of a walnut to the size of Ronald Reagan's brain (TWICE the size of a walnut, and full of holes). It also came with "fun brain facts" printed on the back, some of which were not very factual at all -- such as the claim that when you learn a second language, your first language moves to the other hemisphere of your brain. Well, heck, it's Archie McPhee, not a neurophysiology textbook...

After Cosmic, we played a game of Zarcana (there's a link to the rules for this game at the URL I gave above). This is a game played using Icehouse pieces on an extensible board made of Tarot cards, each of which has its own power. The consensus seemed to be that Zarcana was quite fun. I had only played two-player games before; it was nice to play with four people. Mark won our Zarcana game. I forgot to give him his prize before he left, but will rectify that the next time I see him.

Local Gamers Club:

Has anyone been to the Metro Seattle Gamers club? I know Dave has. I almost went myself Sunday, but slept in and worked on my Web pages instead. Next week, maybe. Looks pretty cool.

New Powers:

Dave was so annoying as the Silencer this week that the group devised two similar powers:

• The DEAFENER, rather than making it impossible for you to speak during a challenge, makes it impossible for you to *hear* during a challenge -- if anyone says anything game-related to you, you can only point at your ears and mime confusion. You cannot act on anything anyone asks or tells you, such as someone asking you to become an ally, questions from the Seeker, etc.. (I'm guessing this would preclude the Silencer's order of "Silence!" as well, heh heh.) It occurrs to me this power might be called the Yammerer instead, since presumably they would deafen you by shouting "Cheese and crackers! Cheese and crackers!" or "Hummina hummina hummina!" or something.
• The CRIPPLER would work in a similar way, but would prevent you from using your hands during a challenge. (Someone suggested "Stumpy" as an alternate name for this power, but the alien isn't stumpy -- only their victim is. Perhaps "Stumpifier" then?) This power seems a wee bit less workable (read: it's all-powerful) without some adjustments.

Does anyone have further suggestions for these two powers? Once we get some power text written up, I can print up a PostScript power card and Marty can illustrate it, and we can maybe test it at our next game, then submit it to the Warp or someplace.

Ron

NEXT MEETING:

Saturday, 11 March 2000, 8:00 PM at Ron and Marty's in Kent. See you then!

Remember, game nights at Ron and Marty's are every Saturday at 8:00 PM. Come play for fun and FABULOUS PRIZES!

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