Author: Drew

(put back together by Drew Davidson) A mid-week dump of the Fab Four blog posts of the last 7 days. Herewith are this past week’s Fab Four blog posts, ranked in order of choiceness… Post of the Week How Acquire Became Acquire, by Joe Huber Opinionated Gamers, May 29 Huber’s must-read is an in-depth look at the development of Sid Sackson’s masterpiece, Acquire. In olden days (around 30 B.E.—Before Euros), publishers would take a designed game in its raw state, then bring it in-house for development. 3M, just entering the board game market, handed Sackson’s baby over to Bill Caruson,…

It doesn’t really matter whether I like a game or not. What matters is whether you will like it. First, you have to learn the game. So, here’s my judgment-free exploration of Asmodée’s Lewis & Clark: The Expedition… (Explored by Drew Davidson) Lewis & Clark: The Expedition Asmodée Editions – asmodee.com Designer: Cédrick Chaboussit Players 1-5 Playing Time 120 min. Analysis Paralysis Factor: 8/10 Learning Curve: Hard Best Table Size: 3 chairs Weight: Heavy Footprint: Large Type: Historical Hybrid In 1803, President Jefferson called Meriwether Lewis & William Clark into the Oval Office and tasked them with exploring the breadth…

(Rooted out by Drew Davidson) On May 26, 1938, the House Un-American Activities Committee (Wikipedia) was established by Congress to root out from the teeming masses all Communists and other undesirables. This committee led the way during a three decade-long witch hunt. (It was quietly renamed the “Internal Security Committee” in 1969.) Rooting out the villain(s) from a horde of same-looking citizens is also the theme of the popular Party game, Werewolf. The parallels between that game and the Red Scare prompted one gamer to devise a variation inspired by the Cold War. In 2006, Board Game Geek user ithicks…

(Figured out by Drew Davidson) Giant-sized versions of board games are nothing new. Kids have the chance to move life-sized pieces on outdoor chess boards around the world. But a super-sized Jenga set? Now that’s hard to find! But you’ll find it – as well as similarly-sized games of Connect Four, Chess and ‘Draughts’ – at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum in Hampshire, England, through the month of June. The Fort Wayne (Indiana) News Sentinel this week published a curiously long newspaper article teaching Dads all about… board games. Yes, we’ve all covered this material quite a few life-turns ago.…

(Resurrected by Drew Davidson) With hundreds of board gaming blogs currently active, why shouldn’t we let defunct blogs Rest In Peace? Well, think about what George Santayana said: “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” We’ve all made plenty of mistakes at the gaming table, and we can use all the help we can get to avoid those same mistakes. Even voices from the Great Beyond – the Limbo that is the final resting place of dead blogs – can still touch our lives and enrich our strategies. This is the first in a series where I…

(Repurposed by Drew Davidson) You know, I like a good piece of repurposed junk as much as the next person. But when I see an old board game chopped up and hung on the wall for art, I grieve for the loss of a perfectly good & useable game. But it’s hard to quibble when a talented craftsman can reshape that old game into something that’s still useable, and even ornamental. JUNKMARKET (yes, all caps) is the brainchild of former stay-at-home mom Sue Whitney of Long Lake, Minnesota. She specializes in taking old, unwanted items – including vintage games –…

(sniffed out by Drew Davidson) Gamasutra is a heavyweight website in the gaming industry, but it’s focus is on everything electronic. But when Reiner Knizia talks everybody listens. The lengthy article chronicles Knizia’s forays into the world of digital board games. Here’s a quick video item (2:22) from Britain’s ITV about the International Board Game Conference being held in Suffolk, England. And, finally, our feel-good story of the night. A young lad from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was so inspired by his father’s research into local history, he shaped that history into a game with local flavor, reflecting the…

(Augmented by Drew Davidson) Geek Pride Day, Westchester County, NY – May 25. Augmented World Expo, Santa Clara, CA – May 27-29. Lots of alternative gaming this week, if you happen to be bi-coastal. Saturday, May 25th, will see hundreds of Geeks from the Northeast gather for Geek Pride Day in Croton Point Park, Westchester County, New York. It’s a typical celebration of Cosplay, Cthulu and Cube Races (as in Rubrik’s). But among the festivities is an intriguing food event called “Settlers of Tacan,” described as “Settlers of Catan transformed into a game where you get to eat your resources…

When people find out I’m on a podcast, one of the first things they ask me is what I’ve been playing lately. Usually, the answer is pretty simple – whatever we reviewed on the podcast. But every month there are games that for some reason keep finding their way back to my table, whether we reviewed them recently or not. To showcase some of those recent and recurring favorites, I’m going to start publishing monthly playlists – a sort of snapshot of all the games I can’t get enough of. (For the new ones we’re lusting after, check out acquisition disorder corner). DC…