A Few Quick Items

Yesterday I went over to Leisure Time Pet & Hobbies. A fellow RPGnetter had informed me that they had in stock a copy of the Castles & Crusades Player's Handbook. After a brief flip through I finally bought the damn thing. Don was right about one thing: this ain't no stripped-down d20 Fantasy Lite. There's too much old school silliness put back in for C&C to work for that. But he was wrong about my reaction to C&C. I think I can run this game. I think it might be the game I wanted back when I investigated HackMaster. I can take it in multiple different directions. This looks so good the idea of running an ongoing campaign bubbled to the surface of my thoughts. That's how bad I got it right now. I gotta run a testdrive of this game, and soon.

I got an email from one of the editors of chessvariants.org regarding prizes for the 44 Squares Contest. Prizes! They're sending me a copy of Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, a nigh-unobtainable tome of unparalleled value to the chess variant enthusiast. This was the book that my local library could only obtain for me via an interlibrary loan from friggin' Arizona. It's the only chess variant book that's been on my Amazon wishlist for years.

Last night the Monday group played Traders of Genoa. This was my second time playing Genoa, and I'm kinda starting to get the hang of it. I'm hoping to get the guys to play it again next week. One more go may be enough for me to achieve basic competency. This puppy is a "gamer's game" as my brother-in-law Jim likes to put it. On any given turn their are multiple equally valid things you can do and multiple equally valid ways of achieving your goals. Puerto Rico is another good example of this type of game.

I've given it some long and hard thought, and I've decided I'm going to have to give Dave a pass on this new Wednesday night game. I don't mean any offense. It's a tough decision. It comes down to the simple fact that I am having a good time every Monday with Bruce, Jim, Al, and Carl. I just can't give it up lightly. I'm having way too much fun with these guys and I don't see most of them in any other venue other than Winter War.